Planning Your Season

Start next season NOW The best part about planning your season for next year is that we get to plan our epic adventure(s). Many of these adventures involve travel to faraway lands which ultimately means you’re committing significant time, energy and funds to create a life enriching experience for yourself. You would be in the…

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Zack Allison’s BWR North Carolina Race Recap

BWR North Carolina, for me, for my race day, actually started when we left Kansas after Unbound. It was a pretty crazy set of travel days with Whitney getting Giardia and massive lightning storms each night we stopped with the camper, causing a lack of recovery/body work going into North Carolina.   Thank goodness for…

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Tackling the Hell of the East (Coast)

Just six short weeks after the first Belgian Waffle Ride in San Diego, the second stop of the Quadrupel Crown of Gravel took place. This time the traveling gravel circus took roots in the East Coast, somewhere about 30 miles south of Asheville, North Carolina along the border of South Carolina. BWR North Carolina was…

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Preparing for the Hell of the North (Carolina)

It’s been about one month since Belgian Waffle Ride (BWR) California and now North Carolina is right around the corner. I thought I would have a solid window to prepare for what’s to come at the next BWR but honestly, I’ve been on a crit racing calendar, so the preparation is, well, being handled differently.…

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How to Avoid DNFing the BWR

Many begin an epic adventure like the one you’ve just embarked upon expecting moderate discomfort and glory to await us, but only the most prepared will triumph over the Belgian Waffle Ride. Although the numbers are not public, we know a high percentage of riders never cross the finish line and get their own ride…

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Tackling the Dubbel Header

For those of you uninitiated to the Dubbel Header, the concept is simple; race the Waffle ride on Saturday and turn around and race the Wafer on Sunday. Easy enough? Ha! The Waffle ride was 135+ miles long, sure to be my longest ride of the year and the Wafer was 75 miles, yet still…

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Epilogue and Epitaph of a Glorious BWR Finish

Epiligue an Epitaph of a Glorious BWR Finish Evolution doesn’t always occur incrementally. Sometimes change is sudden, surprising and painful. The Belgian Waffle Ride has always been different. Different is challenging; it’s new; it’s unique. Then, for 4 years the course did not change substantially. Yes, there were small tweaks but nothing that affected overall…

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The Best Tire for the Belgian Waffle Ride CA (San Diego)

The Best Tire for the Belgian Waffle Ride CA (San Diego) Monuments are generally considered to be the oldest, hardest and most prestigious one day races on the professional circuit and winning one can immortalize an athlete in the annals of history. As such, Monuments define spring racing success in the professional ranks, dictating future…

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BWR Kansas: An Insider’s Guide to Lawrence

Make the most of Lawrence, KS Source Endurance owner and coach Adam Mills spent many years living in Lawrence, Kansas, and is a Kansas native. Here are some of his favorites from one of his favorite places: You registered for BWR KS and if you’re like many people, you’ve probably never been to Lawrence unless…

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Power Analysis – Whitney Allison’s BWR Cedar City Win

Photo: JPov Photo Whitney Allison had a breakthrough ride at Belgian Waffle Ride Cedar City winning the climbing jersey, the sprint jersey and the women’s overall race. Here’s a power analysis of her race winning file. Setting the stage This edition of BWR Cedar City had a 10 minute separation between the men’s Waffle wave…

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Belgian Waffle Ride Cedar City: Course Musings

Photo: Jake Orness The folks at Monuments of Cycling wanted a weekend of proper reconnaissance and feedback on the finalized Belgian Waffle Ride Cedar City course.  A few of us made the trek with the mindset of learning what this course was all about and how it felt at speed.  What follows is my initial…

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Lori McCarty ups gravel skills at the BWR Survival Camp

From Lori: Incredible. Source Endurance knows how to do camp. My 1st time in California and I rode alongside my favorite cycling celebs, we even squished in vans together. The coaches were open, resourceful and encouraging. They looked out for us and offered advice and humor along the way. The different group options made it…

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5 ways to NOT DNF at the BWR

5 ways to not dnf at the bwr

The Belgian Waffle Ride has a 30-40% Did Not Finish (DNF) rate. That is roughly 1 in every 3 people who start BWR don’t finish and need to be picked up by support or get their own ride home. With proper preparation and following these tips you will make sure you are not one of…

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10 Fueling Tips for Belgian Waffle Ride and other long cycling events

Gravel ride fueling

Mass start, dust up the nose, endless climbs, stretches of captivating scenery, clock ticking. Long Classic-style races are sweeping the hearts of cyclists across the country for the opportunity to complete something epic, try something new, enjoy beautiful scenery, and challenge oneself. Do I want to be a finisher, or do I want to try…

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Cornering in gravel at BWR

Cornering in gravel is hard. It’s a traction issue. On a road bike, your tires grab, sliding is bad, and you can really lean the bike over. On gravel there’s not really any major bike leaning. When the speed is high enough that you can lean the bike over, if you’re on gravel you’d just…

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Utilizing winter sports for BWR training

I’m going to paint a picture and it may resemble your situation. Minnesota in February. You’re working during the day, watching the weather, and it does not look good for your weekend ride like it did in July. Looks like another evening on the trainer. You’ve found Zwift, you’ve tried TrainerRoad, your coach writes some…

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Should you incorporate strength training into your BWR preparation?

To lift or not to strength train, that’s NOT the question. In your run into BWR, you will be gaining fatigue. If 100% of your CTL (chronic training load) is from riding, you’re leaving some potential power behind. We’ve seen the BWR course. Besides some major tweaks that Michael Marckx may throw at us the…

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Casey Cohenmeyer: 2019 Canyon Belgian Waffle Ride BWR Done

TLDR Version: Thank you Michael Marckx, Andy Brightman, Phil Tinstman and all the countless others and volunteers who bring this insane event to our community. Thank you cycling community for being awesome. Thank you to Nick, Steve and Ned for putting up and being involved in this nonsense. Most of all, thank you Adam Mills at…

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Choosing a Tire for Your Next Gravel Adventure

“Hey… what’s the best tire for this event?” That’s something I’ve been hearing a lot over the last few months as more and more mixed surface and gravel events come on the calendar. I remember back to my full time cyclo-cross (CX) days riding with the KCCX team and all the conversations we had about…

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2019 Belgian Waffle Ride Survival Camp- Day 3

Day 3! We focused our efforts on Lemon Twist, plus some odds and ends, finishing Day 3 up Double Peak one last time, and lunch at The Lost Abbey. Day 3- Chamois Butt’r required! PR Lotion too. One final Source Endurance coaching lecture… 100% Cycling glasses for optimal coverage and visibility. (Nite Rider) Lights, camera,…

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2019 Belgian Waffle Ride Survival Camp- Day 2

Day 2 was the big one: 100 miles, 8400 ft of climbing, and a LOT of dirt….errrr mud. It rained a bunch the night before and when we started bright and early, it was still drizzling. Good morning, Day 2! All ready to go with a sleek Orucase saddle bag. Castelli came to the rescue…

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Rider Highlight: Blaize Baehrens comes from injury to Top 10 at BWR

Blaize Baehrens had lofty goals after an unexpected crash at Rock Cobbler leaving him with broken ribs and a collapsed lung…plus a series of winter colds leaving him off the bike for over a month. Nevertheless, he continued to move towards his goals, slowly and meticulously with the help of his coach Adam Mills. He…

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Neil Shirley Road to Unbound Gravel: Checking in at the Belgian Waffle Ride

Neil Shirley’s exploits as a professional road racer are well-documented in the annals of cycling.  You can do a quick Google search and find a library of articles with him mentioned as a protagonist at “name that race.”  Unfortunately, because of Neil’s career as a journalist, you can also find a good deal out there…

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Nutrition for the Canyon Belgian Waffle Ride

This years’ Canyon Belgium Waffle Ride is shaping up to be another great event. With a growing field of over 500 Riders in the Waffle Ride, and nearly the same amount in the Wafer Ride, the competition will be fierce. The sheer act of completing this event will be a feat, but how you finish…

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Help! BWR is only 4 weeks away!

Check out our Emergency BWR Training Plan It happens, life gets in the way of our goals. You can still make some big gains in four weeks you have and have a successful BWR! [maxbutton id=”2″ url=”https://www.trainingpeaks.com/training-plans/cycling/gran-fondo-century/tp-113681/4-weeks-to-belgian-waffle-ride-bwr-help-me-from-the-officially-licensed-bwr-coac” text=”Emergency Training Plan” ]

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Canyon Belgian Waffle Ride Survival Camp 3.0 coming January 2018!

The Belgian Waffle Ride is quickly becoming one of the most well-known and most-sought after gravel events in the country. The BWR offers this growing and special breed the type of experience that requires months, if not years, to train for adequately, while requiring technical bike handling skills and, more importantly, the right equipment and nutrition…

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SE Coach Zack Allison's 5 Take-Aways from BWR & Unbound Gravel

This year was SE Coach Zack Allison’s first time doing the Belgian Waffle Ride and DK200 (now Unbound Gravel), much less both in the same year. We asked him to share his top 5 takeaways from his own experience: Hydration – Yea we know, hydration is key, I’m not one to make vague articles. Know…

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SE Coach Zack Allison shares his first BWR & Unbound experience

SE coach Zack Allison recently competed in his first Belgian Waffle Ride and Unbound Gravel (previously DK200) He primarily races criteriums with Clif Bar Racing so competing in both these events in the middle of his season required some focused and tailored training. At Unbound Gravel he rode with the support of Niner Bikes, which called…

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Athlete Highlight: Casey Cohenmeyer takes the BWR Hardwoman Award

SE athlete Casey Cohenmeyer completed the 2017 Cervelo Belgian Waffle Ride despite suffering a separated shoulder just over a month before. This 132 mile (41 miles of dirt), 12k feet of climbing race is already a beast on it’s own. Casey showed a lot of grit and determination to stay focused on the prize and…

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Why Gravel?

At the tender age of 15, I ran my first and last marathon. Mostly on a dare, but also because I was a runner at the time, I lined up for the 1984 Macy’s Marathon in Kansas City and at the conclusion of the race (which took longer than I care to admit) I swore…

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BWR: Equipment Choices

Now that we’ve read about the Belgian Waffle Ride and what physiological challenges to expect, let’s talk about the equipment challenges of such an event. Unless you’re coming from a mountain bike background, the discussion of equipment challenges is a bit of a foreign topic. One of the biggest equipment considerations for a road racer…

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The Greatest Monument of Cycling in the US

Hello, my name is Michael Marckx and I love waffles and all things Belgian. I also love riding my bike a long way and drinking Belgian ales directly after. I’m Flemish; we’re just odd that way.   Being Flemish and growing up with an affinity for the culinary delights and ethnic characteristics of the Belgians,…

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BWR Survival Camp, What to Expect

The Belgian Waffle Ride is a classic adventure that challenges the young, old, strong and stronger in ways many veteran bike riders can’t begin to comprehend. We had a couple clients at the 2015 edition and based on their data, we expect the following output from the day.   7-9 hours of pedaling covering 140…

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Tis the Season, for Gravel. What does it take?

Tis’  the season, for gravel. But what does it take? The recent surge in popularity of gravel events over the past few years has my mind reeling. People are coming out of the woodwork ready to slay their own bodies over thousands of miles of gravel, in the dark, in the cold, and even when…

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