How I Almost Finished Top 10 at Mid South Gravel 2024

Dylan might say.... it's his tires?

Thanks Drew!! Absolutely loved your content!! It brings an amazing sense of perspective from us who will never seen this kind of racing! Happens when one is old and fat!!! Keep up the great work!!!

I'm not a racer, never raced a race in my life, but I've often wondered about the whole "You need to pull" stuff. You're the only person I've seen say, that you don't have to. It seems a lot of people take not taking turns pulling, personal. I've often heard them say, "You won't make very many friends, if you don't take turns pulling". Seems to me, it would depend on the person's goal. Are they there to compete, or make friends? Must be that "Spirit of Gravel" thing again. Makes me think, that guys like that are trying to force guys to pull, so they wear themselves out.

This has so much good info and strategy!! Kudos man and appreciate the knowledge

Not a cut, experience and tactics....

Great recap, you have stepped up the production with this one.

Stop steeling our logo! DFW Series Racing established 2013. When you, Dylan and the rest come down for Gravel Locos come hit us up for a weeknight MtB race in DFW.

Maybe if you peed off the bike you would have gotten that top 10

Cutting the corners is lack of sportsmanship, it is what it is but I don’t agree with it

Your voice is so off but great race and video. TY

Every road race has that guy trying to get others to do more work. It’s just race tactics, so ride your ride 100%. Nice video and cool to see you and Dylan share footage.

Nice ride! Noticed in the end you beat him by two spots. I can't imagine putting our that much power for a race that long!

Great video, thanks for taking us into the race! I watched Payson’s video prior to this, and I didn’t get the sense that he was being disrespectful of your tactics- which you seem to admit involved not pulling a to- just highlighting different tactics of the group members. Anyways, hopefully there’s not too much resentment between you two

Was my first midsouth and I am so happy I took the chance and rode the 58 miler. Was best experience with all the happenings before during and after the event. This one is now on my list to do every year.

Great job on the video, well put together, very informative.

Calling it like it is - dig it, thanks for adding to the scene

Dylan with racekings, aero chainring cover, aero disc rotor, hump backpack. Course cutting should be DQ.

Long time fan of your videos and glad to see your steady improvement off the road and in front of the camera but I’d like it more if you’d focus totally on your race and perspective not point out other peoples flaws or whatever someone said in his video.
Your coverage is excellent and makes me really understand the race from your point but those comments just distract from that imo ❤

Saw you video the first

Not sure I understand the obsession with normalised power, it’s important to my brother as a time trialist, but for example after the first river crossing you said you had a normalised power for 20 minutes - this is meaningless, normalised power is the power whilst you are peddling so if you peddled are 320watts for 3 seconds and freewheeled for 19 mins 57 seconds your normalised power would be 320 watts, your average power would be much lower (320/1200 or less than 1 watt) , this is why Dylan and you have similar normalised power but different speeds, your normalised power and all other factors could be identical but the time spent pedalling at normalised power is completely different,, this is why your average power is so much lower than your normalised and why you are slower than him), you need to compare both average and normalised power

All these big gravel races they have Number plate. They use timing chips what’s the purpose of a big piece of fiberboard in the front. Seems like roadie numbers on jersey would be better.

It's fine to not pull. What's not cool though is when someone who doesn't plan to pull allows himself to get to second wheel and then slows down a group that is trying to work together when the lead rider pulls off. Not pulling is one thing - disrupting pace for no reason (having a teammate up the road would be a legitimate reason) is another thing.

Nice race! That last second errant turn sucks but at least you know that was an 8th effort.

RIP Spirit of Gravel

It isn’t race brain if you did it last year too 😂

@Drew, show us your bike. We'd like it. Your sponsor would like it. :)

Awsome!! Great vid!! We need details of the bike too!!🔥💪🏽

Come on man, tactics and using your brain isn't the spirit of gravel! lol. Of course, if you're the strongest guy you want to win based on the raw horsepower and don't want people to race smart, conserve energy, and make tactical decisions and actually be competitive with you. How long did it take to recover from 4+hrs at 0.88 IF? Videos like this make me want to get a gravel bike and try racing but maybe not at the front. All y'all be crazy hitting those ruts at warp speed.

not making any friends with this one! keep it up!!! we like to candid talk.

The rider that went wheels up at 12 miles was from Michigan. Connor Kamm or Connor Grant. Can’t keep them straight.

Wasn’t Dillon running wider tires? That could be the difference…..

Go easy on the guys that get there early… those guys subscribe to the channel too… or at least they did… to each his own buddy it’s America 🇺🇸

Calling the guy who holds the FKT on the Kokopelli trail and a previous holder of the White Rim Road FKT a 'Non-technical rider' is just plain silly. Pete Stetina may have come up from road cycling, but I wouldn't doubt his technical abilities :)

Hell of a great race man! It's awesome to see you contending against pros who do this full-time with big sponsor support.

Isn't telling your competitors to 'pull harder' and getting them to do so a tactic as well? You're all playing the same game Drew.

That was a lame thing for Payson to say.. “if you want to be in the Lifetime..” Might hold more weight if he’d ever finished the series in the top 10.

Great recap and it was great that you managed to throw a few tips in.

11th overall on a State Bicycle? WOW!

MTB shoes my dude!! Go for it!!

Hate the music. Kill the music.

Ride your ride! Hopefully this isn't a start of a GRAVEL BEEF. Smily face!

Ugh mass start events.....

Payson is such a tool. "You have to be strong to get into the Grand Prix" OR you have to have a podcast and take LifeTime money to become their paid mouthpiece. So glad you beat him to the finish line even with him corner cutting.

This is a step above your other commentaries, man - looking forward to following your season

Dylan was running big lightweight MTB tires, which have less rolling resistance….probably accounted to his faster times…
I’ve gone from 35c to 38c, to 42, and now running 44,45, and 55c tires regularly and found more grip, more comfort, and no real change in watts but feel quicker on rough stuff.

Great video on how to approach muddy crossing, jumping off the bike often just causes chaos and often better just shift way down and power thru it.

Am I misunderstanding here? You’re saying how annoyed you are at people like Payson calling you out for hanging out at the back and not pulling (which he actually referred to as being smart) tactics… which is exactly what you’re telling us that you ARE doing?! 🤯😂

Great edit

This was nice to watch. Music very soothing.

I totally agree with you about taking pulls in a race. During a race I was in some dude rolls up next to me and tells me I need to go front and start pulling. I looked over at him and said no. Than he said something that can’t I remember but it really pissed me off. I said you 1st, you get up there start pulling and I’ll go pull for with you. Of course he didn’t so the whole race I road next him yelling at him to go pull and I’ll go with.

How I almost made a snarky comment on a Yo

Why don’t you grab a musette in the feed?