Final Nationals Preparation at Ned Gravel
Grinding Through the Fog in Nederland, Colorado
Another drive home, another race report. With race weekends stacking up, I’m officially in the thick of it now—exactly the kind of grind you fantasize about during those endless trainer hours in January. Now, it’s time to put the work to use.
This weekend’s event was Ned Gravel, a grassroots-style race just west of Boulder at around 2,500 meters elevation. Much like Breck last weekend, it was a C-priority race—another opportunity to sharpen the sword ahead of cross country nationals next week, which I've been targeting all season.
I’ve been based in Cripple Creek lately, which meant a solid three-hour drive to Nederland. To cut down the pain of an early start, I drove halfway and camped out—but even then, it was a 3 a.m. alarm. Up early to walk Echo, feed and water him, and get his nest set in the camper before I rolled out.
Good thing I left early. I ran into some of the thickest fog I’ve ever driven in—crawling along at 30 mph in a 50-zone for nearly the whole way.
I felt a lot better heading into this one compared to last weekend. I spaced out my feeding better, corrected mistakes from Breck, and had a much-improved warm-up—though it was a chilly 10°C at the start.
The first climb didn’t detonate the field like I expected. Like at the Lutsen99er, everyone was still fresh and any attacks were quickly covered. The first descent was chaos—riders dive-bombing corners, late braking, sliding out; all in a thick layer of fog. I let a few wheels go just to stay upright, which felt like the right call.
I got back to the front group on the next climb, where the real selections happened. I didn’t have the very top-end kick to go with the surges, so I settled into a sustainable pace, hoping to reel riders back in over time.
But the real blow came from lack of course knowledge. I hadn’t pre-ridden or studied it deeply (again, C race), and I was caught off guard by a snowmobile trail rock section. I had too much air in my tires and got bounced around like crazy—no rhythm, no traction. The lead group gained time while I struggled to keep traction.
After that descent, I linked up with another rider and we started working together, trying to keep the gap manageable. We had about 45 seconds to the front and 30 seconds to the next group behind.
Then I dropped a bottle—half my liquid carbs gone, and with no feed zone today that was not ideal, but a good practice in staying calm when things don’t go to plan.
We picked up another rider on the descent and formed a group of three heading into the next climb. It was called “The Singletrack,” and for good reason—10 minutes of rough, technical terrain on a steepish uphill. I was on road pedals, not expecting this kind of feature, but managed to clean everything.
The other two guys were locals. Absolutely smashing it. I was hanging on for dear life, not knowing whether the next corner would be a techy section or an acceleration zone.
After a long descent and some close calls with riders from shorter distances, I wasn’t feeling the best. But after that descent, I slammed a gel, finished off my bottle, and sat in for a few minutes.
Then it clicked and I started to come around. Took the front and ramped it up—holding ~280 watts for what was a long 60 plus minute grind. Around the 40-minute mark of that climb, I was flying. Decided to hold ~300W to the top and really test myself.
Some encouragement from riders in the shorter-distance categories—letting me know there were people from my group not too far up the road—gave me a real boost. I decided to push and see what I could do. Honestly, it felt like I had some of the best legs of the year during that final hour.
As I crested the top of the climb, rolled down the next paved descent, and hit the last 12-minute climb to the finish, I just buried myself—chasing that feeling of going deep late in a race. And I’m proud of how I responded.
I’m not totally sure on the results—think I was fifth (edit: 7th, but I think there were some timing issues based off of Strava)—but it doesn’t really matter. I’m happy with the effort, and I’m carrying a lot of confidence into next week. Time now to slam some carbs and protein, get the recovery process rolling, and settle into a nice little taper heading into what should be my best week of fitness this year.
KF