MOST INSANE Gravel COURSE EVER?!? (Rock Cobbler Gravel Race Breakdown)

Is this the best gravel racing course ever made? I absolutely think so. And in this cycling video I breakdown my gravel race of the rock cobbler 2023. I show you from a POV view point the entire race course and my commentary on how it went down.

Gravel racing in America has exploded in popularity and so many new events are popping up every year. This is the 10th running of the rock cobbler in Bakersfield California. And in my opinion, this is hands-down, the absolute best event in California if not the entire country.

This course was so dynamic and had something for everyone. Regardless of your skill set, fitness, or bike choice, this course in Bakersfield had something for you.

#Cycling #MountainBiking #GravelRacing #BikeRacing #GravelBike

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0:00 Intro
1:12 Course
1:55 Bike
2:51 Fast Part
11:20 Mud Canyon
18:30 Cow Path of Death
20:55 HIIIKING
23:22 The FUN PART
25:58 OOOPSIE
30:33 Crash n rally

welcome to gravel racing [Applause] I don’t want to go this way don’t go off the cliff don’t go off the cliff okay dude [ __ ] good morning we are at the Rock cobbler 10.0 the 10th version of this uh I’ve learned so much from last year and so the bike that I’m running much different than a full-on road bike uh I also have a skin suit and Bella does now how stupid is mellow toes on a eight seven hour gravel ride I don’t know who cares I like the way they look look good ride hard hey so we’re gonna break down my version of the raw cobbler 10.0 we’re going to start with the course kind of go through the sections I saw it so we started with a really fast part this is everyone trying to separate themselves that moved into the mud Canyon which was totally crazy and caused a lot of issues for a lot of people then there was the cow path of death probably the most spectacular spot of the course uh then we had a insane 45 percent grade hike a bike section that moved on to the fun part the best part of the course absolutely amazing then I had a small little oopsie we will talk about this um and not the spoiler alert but my crash and rally and how I kept going after the hardest crash of my life real quick let’s break down the bike I’m running my Canyon Grizzle this thing is an absolute Beast now we threw on the SRAM xx1 derailleur mountain bike derailleur so we could run the 11 52 rotor setup with the ceramic rotor bottom bracket and I’m running a 40 6 oval in the front huge shout out to Justin from competitive cycles for getting this to me in time that dropper post unbelievable but the main part of this is the forks the 30 mils of travel completely changes the way this thing handles I threw on my ultimate integrated bars so awesome light and comfy my favorite saddle of all time but that dropper post 50 mils of travel wow now we’re running the IRC double cross 42s with orange seal I’ve never flattened those tires we’re running the KDX 35 AR hookless gravel specific Wheels this thing is a monster the absolute perfect bike to bring to The Cobbler we have started spicy it is spicy so we’re gonna break down the fast part here and it started with a thousand people 1 000 people that’s insane so there was four waves 250 in each wave right um so the the front of this got spicy fast now I’m doing 700 Watts on this bike path this part of the the course though this is the weakest part for my bike so last year I wrote a full-on road bike setup that was extremely fast on the road but I never really used it anytime we were on anything fast it was very limited and or we weren’t even going that fast like the lead out last year was was really slow it’s like the second we hit the gravel it was on so then I was like oh of course the time I bring the bike that’s not fast on the road everyone’s smashing on this road part but it was okay you know it got spicy for a minute but for the most part I’m feeling really really good right now my fitness is on point I have been riding the trainer for 90 days so you know like look I am ready to be outside and to give it the absolute berries huge group of people right everyone’s trying to fight uh to get to the front before we hit the single track my teammate Julian here he’s actually in a breakaway with Corey Williams at CBR um he ended up getting ninth overall in this race so fantastic job to him I want to talk way more about the race team and and what’s going on there later on in the year but look we hit this climb and it’s it’s spicy okay but not like outrageous no one’s giving a full-on attack and I came in with a plan to absolutely Pace myself I’m gonna Dylan Johnson myself I am going to pace for 80 miles I don’t care anyone around me this is a new tactic for me but it worked out for for Dylan Johnson I don’t care who’s around me I don’t care if anyone’s riding away from me I care nothing about me I’m the only one I care about so I’m going to set my power I’m going to focus on an 80 mile five hour race and that’s it that’s all I’m focusing on now I don’t plan on stopping at any rest stops I have two bottles on me with 800 calories and 200 grams of carbs and then in my hydro pack I have basically the same thing um I’ve got 70 grams of ketones on me that I will be taking in periodically throughout the ride so I I’m dialed with calories and carbs and ketones I’m good now are we going mach 10 into a hard right uh yes and I posted this on Instagram 1.6 million views it was a [ __ ] show dude a [ __ ] show oh wow dumb ways to die so after Top Gun freaking went moctan into the group I had actually lost a ton of space because I was like in my biggest gear and whatever so now I gotta catch up uh I’m probably what like 50th ish maybe but it’s time to let this bike eat and with that 46 52 I was able to climb everything outside of the hiker bike section which no one on the face of the planet could ever climb uh I I could pedal up every single thing so I was just like right now and then due to the right who looks like Chase Jackson actually that’s like the exact same bike that I was riding last year so I’m pacing myself dude in the blue Blows By Me that’s fine cool dude I am sticking to my plan and I am going to feel out my bike now I said this before uh I even got here I put it on Instagram I said I’m probably gonna leave in a hospital I’m gonna leave in a hospital I’m Gonna Leave in an ambulance to a hospital because the bike is so spunky and allows you this uh fake confidence that you’re on a full suspension mountain bike this bike that I’m on eats everything it it’s so wild and so I was like trying to take it a little bit easy um guy comes around me almost runs into a shopping cart why is there a shopping cart here because I mean there’s just trash everywhere out here in Bakersfield for some reason but I will say that Bakersfield in February is outstandingly beautiful the Rolling Green Hills it I I’m just insane dude get on the group yeah you got it probably one of the cooler spots on the course visually and look I talk a lot during the ride I I give commentary with the GoPro in my mouth uh but also to other people like I just give encouragement I’m Just a Good Guy Greg it is what it is so I’m sitting probably top 30 right now and I was being a little bit hesitant with the bike again like I said I felt like I am going to oh I’m going to ask too much of these tires and then I’m going to break my face so I was trying to sort of ease into it a little bit because there’s so many places here where you could go 50 miles an hour get cross-redded and then you’re in the ER um and I don’t want to do that so early on again pacing myself so remember the dude who flew by me uh at the top of that climb okay I’m catching him and I’m moving on so I’m very happy with my pacing I’m on top of my fueling like nobody’s business this is honestly the best I’ve ever ridden uh technically and and intelligently like the way that I paste it the way I fueled it my bike Choice usually I’m an idiot I was not an idiot here I mean maybe I become an idiot a little bit later but then we go through a guy’s house a thousand people go through this house [Music] let’s go that was so cool yeah so we are flying and look I use this dropper post I I almost ran the battery out I use the dropper post so much I used it while pedaling right all right top 30-ish feeling good we’re pacing we’re letting it burn [Music] [Music] [Music] laughs [Music] so after a rip and Road section we get into this insanely long climb now again I’m a genius I’m learning so much about how to race bikes uh and so you know after 12 years kind of I learned a thing or two but I have the map set up also I have the live segments set up and starred so that right here I can you can see my bike computer dude I I know what’s up I know what’s up I didn’t have to study the course like I have this thing telling me I’ve got about a 25 to 30 minute climb ahead of me so am I going to Pace yes I’m gonna pace so well now are these guys flying sure in times past would I have wanted to be right on their wheel yeah but not today not today Heather it’s a long climb no I had not expected mud whatsoever because it wasn’t raining why would why would there be mud with no rain uh and so as we kept going up this climb it kept getting muddier and muddier and muddier uh and but it’s beautiful and again I’ve got the live segment on my computer so I know about how far we’re going I’m feeling really good again pacing the carbs and ketones uh into my system fully liquid right I don’t I don’t eat solid food but the cows not today boys not today last year uh cows yielded people Bulls needed people not today um so like you can see this guy right here and it’s so hard to explain but his wheel is spinning so much faster than his legs if that makes any sense like he’s just spinning spinning spinning spinning and so stuck in the mud you can see everyone here kind of hitting the same like oh yeah we’re we could ride it you could ride it but you’d be doing 800 watts and going nowhere so way more efficient to walk the bike now I usually Walk The Bike by pushing the back seat um but the way that that and it’s so hard to show you but the ground is so bumpy it’s it’s uh so rough and so the front wheel kept getting stuck in the mud and it was very hard to walk also my shoes I have these bonds they are so stiff they are the stiffest things and there’s a sex joke in there somewhere um but you can’t really walk in them because there’s no flex in the soul and so I actually was like wow these shoes are terrible for walking in um but they’re great on the bike dude there’s no traction come on that’s so wild wow okay oh wow oh [ __ ] wow that is Marty okay holy smoke [Music] oh my God I don’t want to go this way sorry so after surviving mud Canyon and look this was so frustrating because my bike was the bike for this section this is where I was going to make up a ton of time we’re definitely not lose time right and so I go off in the grass hoping oh I it’s way more traction over here great idea my Chain’s off so right when I’m about to use a you know million IQ bicycle race move your boy’s got no chain so then I’m like okay well that’s normal you know what I mean it falls off from time to time but then it just spins right off and then it just spinned right off and it would just spin right off and it would spin right off and I’m like I don’t understand the mechanism of of why the chain is not staying on the sprocket because I’ve never had this problem before so I’m like oh it’s got to be my derailleur something’s wrong with my derailleur and then I’m like well I’ll just try to put the chain back on but upon closer inspection which I did not really see there’s so much mud in the chain that it won’t go on the freaking sprocket so it’s just derailing constantly but I don’t know that at this point I’m like frazzled I’m like dude I’m I was literally probably top 12 at this point like the best race I’ve ever had going for me and then now it’s derailing and I’m just like well I don’t understand it and I didn’t really give the time to fully diagnose the problem I just thought I’m gonna I just need to keep moving now look everyone has problems every that’s gravel racing everyone has problems it’s about mitigating those problems to where it’s not a deal breaker for your race okay uh and so the thing is that you can only fix problems that you’ve had in the past okay so there’s a lot of issues that will come up that I know exactly oh that’s the fix to this problem I got it you know or I’ve I’ve I know what I’m doing here I don’t know what I’m doing I don’t understand the problem my Chain’s not twisted my derailleur doesn’t seem broken but you can see it just is falling off over and over and over and over and over again and I’m now losing my cool some people in gravel races uh David sweet actually one of them who he got a flat right away and then he was just like fine about it bro I’m throwing a temper tantrum I’m not showing you the audio because you would think less of me because I am literally a two-year-old kid who has lost their juice box so I try to pull a Chris room and I am sprinting trying to get to the top because I’m super close to the downhill well maybe I can just run to the top of this um and then I can descend down uh without pedaling and try to get to an aid station to try to fix it or something and dude never let me work on your bike I don’t know what I’m doing I’m just yanking on stuff I’m pulling on stuff I am so very mad uh I’m I’m disappointed in my behavior but whatever I pop off okay I I don’t hold grudges whatsoever um so when bad things happen I just immediately go from zero to ten freak out you know think that the world is against me why me and then I forget about it right I don’t hold on to those feelings anyways so then I’m like trying to go down this Chain’s not on the bike I don’t understand what’s happening um I’ve lost so much time probably five six minutes something like that right so then I get to these little Hills and well I have no chains so I have to jump off I have to run over this little Hill and uh and hopefully something’s gonna happen right okay we fixed it there was just mud in the chain and it would not go on the sprockets though I’ve never seen anything like that before dude we lost so much time [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Applause] hi Mr diet Health yeah my my lower back is hurting what can I do while on the bike to help my lower back I’m gonna need some core engagement ideally a posterior tilt pelvis make sure you’re firing your glutes maybe you could stand and just squeeze those suckers put a goo between your cheeks so you can squeeze it out so now we come into the cow path of death and uh I’ve completely forgot about that my bike had problems I’m just now trying to make the best of the situation uh and top 20 was my goal and I’m still within that if I could just have a great rest of the race Brom top 20 for sure uh now I posted this on Instagram and a lot of people are like bro you should have a mountain bike Mountain Bikes you know when Roadies do mountain bike things bro everyone hears has mountain bikes the guy in front of me Derek he rides mountain bikes he rips don’t go off the cliff don’t go off the cliff so yeah for this very one specific section for a mile is a mountain bike a better choice for sure but Christopher Blevins the world champion short track mountain biker is on a gravel bike gravel bikes are faster the the drop bars are faster that’s the whole point to go fast if you want to just finish uh and then I fall right here because like someone else had gone off right and my front end just it’s all good dude it’s all good fine keep going it’s beautiful you know what I mean but we need to have a a mistake free rice from here on okay okay well this bike has clapped out it was like nothing is working all good [Music] foreign [Music] crap here close to hell [Applause] all right geez the hiker bike section was gnarly very uh so you kind of look do you ever practice hiking with your bike no And so there’s like a form to it there’s a way to do it um but I was trying to figure that out on the Fly I think it was 45 was the gradient and again remember about the stiff shoes the boner shoes I could it was so impossible to walk up because I would go tow in and then my heel was coming out of the shoe um so then I was trying to like go like Duck foot Like Pat like going sideways and that wasn’t working so I started crawling that was the best way that I could do it but the ground is really soft but it’s also super bumpy it was really challenging for sure and I actually lost Derek uh you know from dialed Health here on the hike bike section if you didn’t do this right you could lose you could lose two minutes three minutes so I mean it I I just love this course I love the rock cobbler event just in general but this was the funnest course I’ve ever ridden because it constantly had a new challenge a new thing and so you could you know if you pace yourself right if you were a good Rider my volatose all messed up but God it looked good you know if you want to ride hard you have to look good um there’s so much opportunity and that’s what I think makes a really good race course is opportunity if it’s just a flat Road well then who’s got the most power right who can get the most Arrow okay but what if you have more to offer what if you ride all the bikes what if you have other skill sets so this course had that and it was like every five miles there was a new thing you could do and then we went into the most fun part ever now I don’t want to hype this bike up too much but it was the greatest bike ever to be created ever it’s the best with this suspension Fork uh it’s only got 30 mils of travel okay and people be like bro just ride a mountain bike there’s so many other reasons why this bike is awesome but that suspension completely changes the way that this bike handles and behaves then I’ve got that dropper post now the dropper post only has 50 mils of travel there was an option for 75 I should have went with that it was a little bit heavier but because I’ve got Alpha genetics and I’m 6’2 the uh the 50 wasn’t quite enough but it was enough to get Cindy and I am flying through this now rest in peace can block but what was going through my head here is that little like audio that’s trending where he says if you’re not scared you’re not going fast enough so that I was very scared I was like bro I’m not scared I’m gonna keep going this was like the best I’ve ever ridden I mean this was I couldn’t believe how in control I felt and safe because usually I ride really really safe and now like yes do I crash later on sure but I have ridden something like 13 000 miles per incident which is like really love like that’s a crazy ratio right uh but right here I get a little too cocky and I almost crashed what the [ __ ] bro on a road bike with a rigid seatpost you are eating dirt right there but with this bike it just ate that up no problem now we need to regroup we need to catch up we need top 20. so let’s go [Music] [Music] [Music] dude this bike just eats those descents I lost a little time on that hike a bike but we’re gonna catch back up we got it dude we’ve paced so well I’m so on top of everything we got 35 miles left to go you so now I give the cows like a hey man not today buddies uh and I’ve got three people in front of me so right now I’m probably 20th 19th 18th something around there it’s phenomenal that’s unbelievable now like I’ve been on the trainer for 90 days outside of the snow trip that I did where I froze my wiener off and and legitimately got grade one frostbite on the tip of my weiner that’s a story I will tell you uh soon but other than that trip um I’ve been on the trainer just non-stop for 90 days and my power on the trainer has been unbelievable like the gains I’m making because of how amazing the trainer is for training train training trainer uh is I honestly thought like okay there’s probably a glitch something’s happening now this guy had an issue a lot of people are going to have issues I’m so happy that I my issue is not taking me out of the race so like positive panda I’m still riding but I always think sometimes man zwift power isn’t real power so yeah am I am I like doing these insane you know I wrote for 14 hours and average 205 Watts raw average okay but that’s not real so then I would I came into this thinking like well dude my power on zwift and my numbers is so amazing but but what if I can’t even apply that but look at this dude this is not a zwifter right I mean I’m flying right now I’m making up so much time on these little hits and to this point right now my normalized power is like 280 Watts my normalizes 280 watts and we’re like three and a half four hours in look at this yo this Grizzle the Cindy Grizzle makes up 15 seconds on this guy uh without power and that’s last year I would like it was all power like the only time I made up time on anyone was power I would just be power power power power power up a climb or wherever and then as soon as we hit like a technical section you they’re gone bro I I was getting cocky though and I was feeling so good I was in the Flow State now if you know what flow state is uh it’s it’s where you just feel one with everything so hippie but man I am on it I’m rolling like again probably 17th 18th right now and I know for sure because there’s another really big climb and I mean we have like 20 miles left to ride and I’m I’ve got so much gas left and so I feel like dude there’s a chance that I could maybe work my way close to top ten but right now all I got to do is not get past and I will have achieved my goal now this doesn’t maybe look like much okay the stabilization on the GoPro is impossibly good and I’ve got it in my mouth so you can kind of see a little bit of how the bars are jarring but man this is uh if you go off the line there’s hidden rocks everywhere in the grass and it’s extremely bumpy so it’s like and I’m doing 20 to 25 right here because it’s sort of a false flat and I am going between pedaling and not pedaling but you can see these huge Boulders dude you know how much that would eat you but I’m in the Flow State I’m viben I’m so good right now carbed up fueled up ketones rolling bikes great and then I see a guy up the road I’m like oh my goodness I’m gonna catch another guy oh my goodness I’m gonna catch another guy and then oops yeah dude so let’s break this down there’s a rock right here I pedal strike that rock and it yeets me into the ground my head bounces twice I actually my whole body bounces I’m tumbling look at my dumb face uh no idea that was not okay uh [ __ ] [Applause] oh dude I lost my glasses [ __ ] uh bro I’ve never crashed that’s the hardest I’ve ever crashed on a bicycle it honestly felt like a dream for a second I was like Am I Dreaming why am I tumbling bro that was I don’t even understand what happened so my left eye stopped working uh when I hit the ground uh and so I I was like it took me a minute to sort of like should I even continue writing should I pull out is my brain damaged but now I’m running a brand new custom fitted 3D printed made in America helmet from calf this is the second ride on it you can see this animation this is a real MRI of the helmet and so the 3D printing so I’m told allows for them to make this like internal hexagon that gives these like crumple zones and the ability to sort of mimic like a mips or a spin technology that disperses energy from Impact so that’s that’s the helmet the Cav helmet it fits amazing because it’s custom fitted to your head cool but did it do its job and it’s hard to say Obviously uh I’m gonna talk a little bit here like I keep going but I’m so worried that I’m gonna hit my head again you know you don’t want to hit your head twice one hit is good enough don’t don’t crash again so I’m sort of actually now that I’m watching the footage back like this is kind of crazy how fast I’m going after blowing my head up because like I said my left eye was crossed for five minutes I couldn’t get it to work it was kind of like paralyzed coming through awesome thank you but the helmet took all of the blunt like I didn’t break a collarbone or a shoulder or a hip or anything none of my body hurt so then that means that my entire big ass head took the entire force so the fact that I won didn’t get knocked out is actually crazy um my eye came back and I look I don’t want to like Flex but your boy used to do MMA I used to punch people in the face and get punched I also did a lot of Brazilian Jiu Jitsu and I’ve gotten hit in the head before and had my eye stop working in a very similar way so I actually wasn’t alarmed by that but then I got this huge second wind and so then I was just motoring so hard trying to catch people caught this guy on this mountain bike that we saw earlier in the video and the guy in the black just up the road I got to apologize to him because I thought he cut the course I actually took the long way around so he actually I I thought he cut the course and I was like dude you cut the course and then I couldn’t get on his wheel uh but it was my bad I took a wrong turn so sorry dude um I kind of like sort of talked a little bit of [ __ ] after the race my bad I apologize I’m a big man for it so anyways my bike isn’t fast in that section so he gapped me I was so bummed uh then I catch one more guy right at the Finish you know it’s like dude if if I hadn’t taken that wrong turn um potentially I could have gotten like four or five more people this guy almost crashes I go to the right I make a huge oopsie again hit this hole whatever that was 25th right there in front of me so even after all these issues I rolled in 26th which I’m actually really happy about because man one I could have got knocked out I could have broke a collarbone Tyler Williams broke a collarbone uh my bike could have broke so many things could have went wrong they didn’t and so then I went straight to our booth uh to slang t-shirts dude what a booth huh I mean immediately after riding 80 miles and getting 26th and crashing and all that uh the the response to our booth was unbelievable and so I didn’t even get out of my bibs do I stayed in my bibs till like eight o’clock at night um the love here was unbelievable I cannot recommend this event more all right so we got 26 which you know my goal was stock 20 and I don’t want to make vegan excuses but like without the two major issues I had definitely think I couldn’t roll in on top no it doesn’t matter uh I’m all in one piece that’s awesome um so the new 3D printed helmet uh we did get a little break in there um and you can actually see it’s kind of hard to see but it did its job it I mean I hit my head hard and the other crazy thing is that there’s science about ketones and concussion prevention and I was all ketoned up so I think that things could have could have went really really bad and it’s hard sometimes when you’re feeling good and everything’s going great to like not look at it that way like I just want to look at like all the negative things suck but man every bad thing that did happen was the problem it wasn’t a show stopper right the issue that I have with the chain and the mud guys broke their chains so anyways great race phenomenal course that is I would say probably the number one gravel course I’ve ever raced it was so much fun so technical it was like you had to have power but you had to have skill and you had to be sending I mean it was it was tremendous the booth space that we’ve got here has just been phenomenal Rex came up helping out with the booth guys killing it right I mean it’s been what do you think like this is sick right yeah that’s awesome man people are stoked and they like the product and they they recognize that we’re out here to have fun and ride bikes and yeah it’s good vibes if you’re on the fence about coming out to the cobbler I mean look if you just ride it I mean 80 miles right anyone can really get it done it’s just gonna take you wanting to get it done but it is so much fun uh I would say honestly it’s my number one event in California for sure and you can make it out here but I’ll definitely be here next year laughs [Music]