The Most Aggressive Life Time Grand Prix Race. Chequamegon Power Analysis and Bike Setup 

Hats off to Brian Matter who finished just behind you at the ripe age of 45. As a fellow mid 40s rider - thats impressive to be mixing it up with those young whipper snappers.

Your post race analysis videos continue to be fascinating. I don’t know any other elite athlete who is so generous and honest with sharing their strategy and their performance. Big fan, thanks for doing your thing 💪🏻

The name Chequamegon is derived from an Ojibway word meaning "place of shallow water," and refers to Lake Superior's Chequamegon Bay.

MOM! MOM! Dylan finally uploaded!!

Hey Dylan, You're old man cycling instructor from the YMCA. I was in the non-elite class ride this past year.. You guys are amazing. I'm glad all my cycling instruction did you well...lol. I knew as a 14-year-old sitting in my 5:00 a.m. spin class that you were going to be a good one. You proved me totally correct. Great job. I'll look for you this year.

BHD getting extra savage today.

5:54 love to see a pro rider using a cheap amazon deckas chainring haha. I have more of these rings than I'd like to admit but they are cheap as hell, come in every size, and never drop chains.

Really entertaining and humorous. Amazing stats. Well done.

This race looks like it was insanely fun from your perspective.

Thanks for taking a second to acknowledge how old this race is and that it’s a product of the time it was started. Almost feels like a lot of people have been forgetting that when they talk about how the course is. 🙂

I always enjoy your videos DJ! I especially appreciate new perspectives on a race I first did in 1989. Just so you know, the equipment argument has been on-going ever since Greg Lemond won twice in the early 90's. Of course, that was before suspension and MTB bars were about as narrow as road bars... Thanks!😁

Dylan is the kinda guy that publishes late, but it still rocks.

0:18 Yes, according to my dad who lives in the region, it's pronounced "Shwamegon". I believe the reason for the odd spelling is that it's a native term and it's spelled as the French (the first Europeans to the region) spelled it.

Love the video and the analysis of the race! Stoked to see one of my little clips getting used to help highlight this iconic event too. Pumped to see you on a drop bar too. I’ve been wanting to it on one myself for shits and kicks.

good point about the cyclocross bikes being normal

Babe wake up, Dylan Johnson uploaded

Chequamegon...the race that looks much easier on paper than it is on the course.

Shwamagun. Kudos on the rip in my neck of the woods. Crush the 'Sugar'.

It was a great race! I was maxed out from that very first climb!

Always nerdy! Always impressed!!

It would be interesting to hear your thoughts on the Gravel Worlds.

Yeah, 15th at a race that doesn't fit your style, that's huge. Love that triple comeback and love those drops.

Good title length. This is how it reads on mobile “The Most Aggressive Life Time Grand Prix Race. Chequamegon Power Anal...”

Great lesson on riding to your own plan that you know you can do as opposed to going beyond your abilities and hitting the wall.

Wow! What a drag race that was! Awesome job!

good lord this exhausted me just watching. holy smokes. congrats for fighting this hard.

Love your videos! Fun to watch and great to hear how these races play out. Keep it up!!

Great insight there,really enjoyed the race report!!!

Great... now I'm thinking about dropbars for next year's Skyway Epic 100.

Backwards Hat Dylan was killing it, 😂😂😂

When BHD is spot on. @1:27

1:17 lol, those drop bars sure do make that a horrendous looking mountain bike 😂

You know I think you are spot on. This looked like a Zwift gravel race, watt bombs away and not much skill required. Probably why mr wahoo won..:. Shots fired

Great finish in a stacked field!

Congratulations! Top 10 next year!

Youre video is great! More like this.

The main advantage i see of flat bars over drops is the brakes handling IMO at the "non-technical course", it's overlooked by manufacturers i think but speed handling should be considered a very "technical" aspect of technique, not only pure muscle, assuming at this level no one accelerates more than the handling situation allows.

The drop bars put you In a better Q factor

Mega. Nice work!

Great video, a little different this race. Maybe the guy was right about drop bars. The parts where the race was decided (and you were gapped), they didn't really help you. They only helped close the gap back again. Maybe it is similar to Grand Tour riders also favouring lightweight bikes vs aero, since the decisive moments are usually on steep climbs.

I love your content and followed you a long time. Total respect for you . Positioning seems to be a regular issue though. I think youve left a few better placings on the table. Your very strong at the finish.

Nice work!

Great recap as always, the in-race analysis is the best out of any that I watch on YT and I watch a few. Is your FTP still 370W? Some of the comments in this video seem surprising to me given your FTP - you must be very aerobic with low AWC as I would not expect 277/322W for 2 hours to stress someone with a 370W FTP. A few of those in-race, 3 minutes at 400W efforts would be a cruisy-ish VO2max interval for you yeah? All the best with the rest of the series.

Thanks, superb work Dylan

Evidence is stacking up against the idea you're bad at the shorter races

You just could have said grey area for the weather too at 4:57.🤣

Who´s that Vermeulen dude ? ;-)

Very nice video.

BHD nails the definition at 13:20

You're knocking on the door

Excellent job as always.

Born and raised in the area. You are pronouncing “Chequamegon” correctly.

Nice racing and good video. I love seeing the power numbers from races, it lets me know how much further I have to push myself to consider racing one day. For this race, the power numbers actually looks pretty achievable!

16/17psi seems low to me, but I think I've got another 50lbs on you.. I typically run 22/23 on my hardtail (2.25s). 18 is where it starts to feel extra sloppy to me. Awesome race recap video as always!

Great video, rode w backwards had dude couple weeks ago. $10k aero bike, no shirt, carbon 👞, had on bakwards that said "go fast, dont die". He tried to drop me, i finally sat up around 400 watts when he clipped his pedal in a corner going aroud 30 mph.😅😂 Apparently backward had guy is a real thing!

well done - tough race ... everyone in front of you including the winner had flat bars, guess there's a lesson in that. if you were able to stay on the front group the drafting gains would have been superior to the drop bar gains when solo. of course as you've said the power requirement wasn't there this time sure it will be next time.

A big plus of those ridiculous 80cm MTB handlebars is that no one is gonna pass you on narrow tracks.....

Admiring your combative spirit -- congratulations on an awesome result!!

the drop bar hard tail mtb looks sick tho

If Dylan was really about that frankenbike life, he'd run an aero bike with MTB bars. Guaranteed LTGP winning rig.

wowee, way to race!

Great job dylan. Why does a max hr of 183 seem low to me? Given your age I'm guessing you max out around 195-198. Any input here? Sincerely a club rider who hits 190 here and there on group rides haha.

At least you got to ride with Lachey.

I recall it being pronounced "She-mama-gone" back in early 90's, with a fair amount of "Wizz-gon-zin" nasal twang added. I thought it was all Birkie trail system then, don't recall the singletrack; maybe trail was less overgrown? Dry year when I was there, I rode my cross bike with 38mm Specialized Tricross? tires. It was bumpy enough that the internally routed brake cable was banging in the top tube like a cowbell much of the ride.

I thought the guy falling over in the thumbnail was BHD himself and that's the only reason I clicked on it!

More Backwards Hat Dylan please!

You Using a Deckas Chaingring huh 😁. Thats popular in my country.

I’m a 48 year old cat 1 xc racer and consistently hit 180 bpm multiple times during a race. Why is your max so low? Backwards hat Dylan said maybe you don’t want it bad enough?

The cropping of this title on iphone 14's youtube app is... definitely something... it's missing the "sis and Bike Setup" part :D

That's like a 90s mountain bike race.

First :) great job Dylan good video

haha some quality jokes in this one

When you finally release your bike check video for your Drop Bar MTB I really hope you cover how you decided to size the setup. Do you go with a proper MTB frame and shorten the stem to fit drops or a smaller frame to accommodate the extra drop reach?

so the thumbnail cameo in the video, does that mean we may see you at rampage one day? :D

Looking at the drop bar full sus at the end was like 🤮🤮🤮🤮

i really don't mind the hybrid frankenbike, but it begs the question "WWKD?" (what would keegan do?)

BHD is brutal

Sha-WHA-MA-gon. Apparently 😬

MATTER!!!

The French have a word for everything!

Have you done this race in the past with flat bars? Or was there someone near you during the race that we could compare power outputs to? I think this is the best opportunity for comparing flat bars to drop bars I've seen in a video yet.

Awesome fight throughout the race but isn’t it the same result even if you make the field sprint😂.

great video tho

What 40t did you find that fits the 104bcd quarq????

So….. a Niner MCR?!?!?

Are you going to go to The Netherlands this Winter to try out beach racing?

When he talks about saving 25 watts, does he mean his avg over course of the race,or 25 w on each pedal stroke, or is that the same thing?

Alexey also seems like a buzz kill lol

Gets chubbed up🤣

Not around then, that’s for reminding me that I’m old.

Want my three sense for you to improve, one add weight to your bike, like you are at the gym, and you can really trick your power output,,,so raced day, or even race week, or even race month you can take away the weight and be much lighter, two,,,really, really, really watch what you eat, and loose weight, like a f1 car, weight is everything, and three, rather then go for vo2 max, I train, like we are surfing, and hold my breath, like a whale, or under water sea diver, then if you need to, like when racing you will have room to breath more, great thing about training like this, its all about weight, breath and food, and volume,,,not so much about intensity,,,as for the drop bars, I dont know, I mean,,,looks like more mass, then a straight mountain bike bar, and you can turn your mountain bike bars upside down to drop more, I really like that look, even down hill bars up side down:) and lastly, you want to make front pack, learn to run, running and it could even be track work outs, sprinting, then,,,just like everything I shared, is much tougher then race day, therefore race day should be easy,,,keep following your dream:) mine is to win hawii ironman at age 55, pro division, dreams are meant to be big:)

Did it for 30 years, no one has ever won it on drop bars. My son was 3rd one year

Did BHD feed you the jab at Dizzle’s video?

Cyclocross is a bad example, because due to arcane UCI rules, they are not allowed to have drop bars. They also have a silly rule about maximum tire sizes, which I know you’d be a fan of. I though alexey’s take was interesting, as I’ve found average power on the mtb is generally higher, and with Payson and alexey saying something similar, I think it could be more than just a different power meter. Do other people have this as well?

“….that’s what Kerry Werner did….” And how did he finish?

This video is so meta

You don’t have a hair on your ass, if you don’t do a FS-XC rig with drop bars….. Tomac style!🤙🏻🤙🏻🤙🏻🤙🏻😜

Lol @7:00

Kerry Werner living in the year 3000

420!!!