With race season fast approaching, we're excited to share some exclusive insights from multidisciplinary cyclist Tasman Nankervis, the reigning champion of the 2023 Seven Gravel Race in Western Australia, and a proud CamelBak athlete.
Tasman's gearing up for the return of the thrilling 125km race next week, and he's generously offering his top tips to help you prepare for the challenge ahead. From course strategies to essential gear recommendations, he’ll unveil his secrets to unlocking peak performance.
The most critical component of racing is fuelling, ensure that you've practiced using your energy products and know how much to consume. Also, plan how this will be achieved come race day - will you carry all your supplies or utilise the feed zones?
Access to your fuel on the bike is important, generally I consume most of my carbohydrates via liquid utilising both the CamelBak Podium bottles and Chase Hydration Vest. The Vest and hydration bladder is a great option for ease of access enabling you to drink much easier on the go particularly over rough terrain. The most common story you’ll hear after a gravel race is “I dropped my bottle” meaning it fell out of the bottle cage. On race day people often run bigger heavier bottles and the inevitable gravel road potholes mean dropping bottles is far more likely. Therefore, the hydration vest is a great option and certainly recommend it for reliability and ease of use.
The hottest topic in gravel is, “What tires are you running?”
For a gravel race, the Sevens course is almost as smooth as it gets, and I’ll be running the Pirelli Hard pack 40mm width tire. This is a semi slick tire with side knobs only and is certainly a race tire for those with a race focus. This is subject to change depending on the weather and conditions, but the main thing is knowing what you’re going to use and what options are available if things do change. Look for a tire you’ve used prior which gives you confidence to lean on in the descent and has the reliability to get you to the finish.
The Sevens course also has several steep climbs which are on repeat. Make sure you have sufficient low range gears which you can bail onto when the going gets tough. If you can’t ride at walking pace with your current gearing, you may want to look at changing to lower gears. Otherwise, some walking may be had!
You’ve got the whole course ahead of you and managing the early desire to go hard is extremely important. All the excitement and anticipation can get you overreaching early without even knowing it. If you have the technology, having a limit on heart rate to not go over or power limit can be a super useful tool.
Remember if you think you’ve gone out just right, you’ve probably still gone out too hard.
Downloading the route map onto your Wahoo/ GPS device is also a super handy pacing tool to help manage your energy. GPS devices are incredible now as to how much information about the course they can provide. I use the climb feature to workout where to push, recover or even attack. This can also be a motivating tool helping break down the race into bite size segments and knowing how many climbs you have left.
Follow Tasman on social for more race prep and inspiration.
