[NMCycling] Gravel bike @ Bosque MTB?

[Hawke Morgan]

To the dirt interested:

So, can I ride my gravel bike for the Bosque MTB race?  Definitely.  This is the Bosque, which is not a normal NM MTB race.  I would say that for Stage 1 (Crit) a gravel bike or MTB are about equally competitive, maybe with a gravel bike a little better, for stage 2 (Rio Bravo) it is pretty close to even, a MTB might be a 2-3% faster but a gravel bike is still very competitive, and on Stage 3 (Arricso) there will be a few more technical sections, maybe making a MTB maybe 3-5% better.  A lot of this will depend on the rider and which bike they are more used to.  If I had a problem with my MTB I would not hesitate to do the race myself on my gravel bike with my normal 50mm front and 45mm rear tires. Really, modern gravel bikes are better mountain bikes than the mountain bikes we were racing on in the 1980s.  So if you have a gravel bike and no MTB, I would encourage you to just come out and race on whatever you have.  You can also just do some of the stages if you want.  The prizes we have are just for the overall results.  It is possible to do well overall not doing all the stages, you can earn points for whatever stages you do.  To be eligible for the overall GC points, you have to race all stages on the same bike, so if you switch bikes between stages, you are not eligible for overall points.  (If you legit break your bike we will work with you. If you start on a MTB and then have to go to a gravel bike on the later stage, it would not really be an advantage, the only scenario that might benefit a rider is if they races and did well on the first stage, then overnight broke your gravel bike and had to switch to a MTB, which is not very likely)  

Hawke Morgan
Morgan Roundabouts LLC
(505) 259-6885
yourstruly at fastmail.com