I arrived at my in-laws’ with bloodshot eyes. That morning’s solo ride hadn’t gone well. Enough sweat had dumped down my face to blind, and I had to ditch my sunglasses just to see the road in front of me. The extra air helped, but the wind burned, and the dust bit. Add some heat … More What Are You, Exactly?
A professional mentor of mine said every article he ever wrote started with the same sentence: I just learned the damnedest thing. The late Brian Doyle never published that sentence. I don’t figure he even bothered to write it out most times he started a story. But for him, just thinking it, just stepping his … More Solstice 2020: The Damnedest Thing
Of course it would be 2020—gravel racing’s lost year—that the Lincoln Abes would find a racer like Clark Jackson. “You gotta meet him,” Mike told me. “He’s young—only started riding this year. But he’s all in. And he’s good.” Mike put his friend on a trainer and watched him tap out watts normal cyclists spend … More A Race of Mistaken Identity
As kids, we’re taught to trust that little voice in our heads that runs the brakes. That voice that says, “Maybe this isn’t such a good idea.” That voice keeps us from getting hurt and doing wrong. But as endurance athletes, we learn there are plenty of times we need to tell that voice to … More A Fitter Norm
Most of us learned on Fathers’ Day of Jim Cummins’ firing from the race he fathered. Cummins helped establish the Dirty Kanza back in 2006, and he fostered the race’s explosive growth in the years that followed. In the process, he helped make Emporia, Kan., one of the gravel family’s cultural hometowns. Cummins can take … More A Divorce in the Gravel Family
For my own well-being, I try not to make a habit of listening to former World Tour pros. I just don’t think there’s much perspective to be gained from a bunch of 130-pound man-children with 470-watt FTPs. But quarantine stir-craziness led me to bend my own rule long enough to watch ESPN’s “30 for 30” … More The Pros and Cons of Professional Cycling
Gravel’s coming back, dirtheads. Here and there, a few races are willing to peek their heads out and make a run. Too soon? Not soon enough? My own feelings are a badly mixed drink of #pedaldamnit and #hunkerdown. Ask me whether racing’s return marks a victory for our community or a failure of it, and … More Racing through the Apocalypse
For the last six weeks, everything I’ve tried to write for this biking blog has gone straight to dirt. There’s so much to say … about what this pandemic has done to our lives and to our sport … but I just haven’t had the will to ride down those paths. OK. No problem, Wendt. … More Biking around the Writer’s Block
Holy crud, I don’t envy race directors right now. These are mostly folks with day jobs. And they’re facing super-tough choices about their events in light of a global pandemic. They put on races out of love for our sport and our community. So what does a community-loving race director do in light of all … More Mass Start Hysteria: What should race directors do about COVID-19?
Sickness kept me out of last summer’s Cornhusker State Games. And ever since, the course download has just sat there on my Garmin, mocking me. “You feeling better yet, Sunshine?” “Up yours, Gary,” I’ll say. (Gary is short for Garmin, if you didn’t know.) Last week, the conversation went like this. “My Sunday just opened … More Headwinds Howl in Spring Training
