There’s something to be said for finding cycling in your 40s, when your athletic debut and your physical decline come conjoined. It’s so common there’s a name for us—both masculine and emasculating. We’re Middle-aged Men in Lycra (MAMIL). And compared to the faster folks, we’re a different animal. An elite athlete’s arc might look something … More What If You’ve Already Peaked?
About a month ago, I read this piece about Colin Strickland in the New Yorker. And I got my shorts in a twist. The story unpacked Strickland’s indirect role in Moriah Wilson’s murder, then spent the bulk of 8,000 words tying his hostility, dishonesty and narcissism to professional gravel racing as a whole. I wrote … More The Big Grapple: The New Yorker and Bicycling duel over gravel’s true story
If you like to read about bikes because you don’t like to read about politics, this essay might not be the one for you. Because my second trip down Utah’s White Rim Trail in Canyonlands National Park has me rethinking our precarious political moment. And I need to talk about it. I struggled on my … More Notes from the Cliff’s Edge
I have a weird thing for opposites. Or maybe it’s the opposite of a weird thing. This happy little flickering chill that comes whenever something swings into its opposite—maybe that’s the most human thrill there is. We could just be hardwired to like opposites—to enjoy the jolt of a genius oxymoron. Cycling itself is full … More The Victory of Third Places
My memory of that Saturday evening last year is pretty sketchy. But within an hour or so of finishing Gravel Worlds’ inaugural Long Voyage 300, I’m pretty sure I promised my daughter we’d tackle the 50k Buccaneer together in 2022. Sydney liked that idea. So did my wife. And you bet your butt I accepted … More Gravel Worlds Grows a New Mindset
I try not to let my day job at Nebraska Wesleyan University cross streams with what I write for my blog job. (Well, I guess there was one time…) But a recent article I wrote about a tremendous athlete at NWU warrants an exception. Reagan Janzen is an All-American 800 runner, a conference champion, an … More Don’t Just Feel the Burn. Understand It.
Around mile 63 of this year’s Solstice 100, the temperature touched 97 degrees; the course turned north; and my well-being tipped south. Sam, Pete and I had ridden well together all morning. And our positivity, pacing and patronage of a particularly well-stocked oasis had all done me a world of good. Knowing my history with … More Hot Routes: Gravel’s greatest course designers shine at high heat
There are two things I’ll go to hell for in a bike race: A good friend, and a good story. At the 2022 Pine Island Gravel Odyssey, I got to go to hell for both. Marty and I drove to Spearfish, S.D., to climb Pine Island’s tallest tree: the 210-mile Lodgepole Voyage (formerly known as … More The Pointy End at Spearfish
I haven’t written in this blog for a long while. It’s been hard for the writer in me to think much about bikes as we watch our country ride this crazy line between the world’s oldest democracy and a frightening new authoritarianism. It has often felt to me as though we’re careening down a deeply … More The Road out
I used to have this happy little theory that time on a bicycle bestowed special powers. Like some radioactive spider bite, biking could magically flatten our tummies, deepen our lungs and beef our hearts and quads. And (most significantly) biking could sharpen our eyes. Riding gravel improved our perception, I believed, by making it cool … More Bike Focals: How do we correct cycling’s vision problem?
Dirt Tan Bike Club 