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
Like any good American, I’m a warrior-level worrier. Nothing stirs me up for a fight quite like my own misplaced anxieties. And I’ve been worrying for a couple years now—losing my head with a toddler’s precision and vigor—over the UCI and the future of American gravel racing. It got so bad back in January 2020 … More Invitation to a Beheading: What does the UCI’s arrival mean for gravel?
My oldest daughter let me know she wouldn’t be at the start of the Pirate Cycling League’s first Long Voyage 300. (She had cross country practice after school.) But she said she knew what she’d be missing. “That’s a lot of mental illness in one place,” she said. I refused to agree with her, but … More Long Voyage 300: At Least We’re Highly Functional
Gosh dang it, people. The week after Gravel Worlds, all I want to do is ice my knees, take a nap and gain like a dozen pounds in Heath Blizzards. But instead of sauntering into happy hibernation, here we are, tumbling headlong together into gravel racing’s next existential crisis. And unlike the great aerobar dust-up … More #Gravelbeef: Racing Served up Rare and a Little Unfair
As much as I wanted it to be, the Mid South just wasn’t part of my race plans this year. This top gravel event seems forever stuck on my radar—and off my race calendar. The distance from home and its cold and muddy spot on the calendar have kept me away. (How would that 400-mile … More Incredibly Distanced Oklahoma
A couple weeks ago, the UCI expressed its interest in producing a gravel world championship of its own. And many American gravel cyclists responded with lewd creativity. We saw the UCI as stepping on the toes of the Pirate Cycling League, which has hosted Gravel Worlds in Lincoln for more than a decade. Others worried … More UCI Rolls out Its First Rules for Gravel
Gravel cyclists have never had it so good. We’re swimming in new tech, and our most popular races brim in minutes with fields of homegrown, and even world-class talent. We’ve discovered, to our collective astonishment, that this pile of Great Plains gravel is dripping in diamonds. In Lincoln alone, there’s the gravel guy who set … More Will 2020 Be the Year Gravel Begins to Suck?
The big news in gravel racing this week is Bobby Wintle’s decision to rename one of the top three Great Plains gravel grinders. The Land Run 100 in Stillwater, Okla., is forevermore the Mid South 100. The simple reason why is a complicated history. The race’s original name was a reference to the 1889 opening … More Land Run 100 Makes (Itself) History
There were two neat dings in the tailgate, identically deep and perfectly horizontal, like some kind of metallic snakebite. Above the fang marks was the print of a blunter animal: a rutting bighorn, maybe. In those three dents—two pricks and a punch—you can learn a few things about Mike Marchand. For one: The 2009 Dirty … More Mike Marchand Wants You to Know He’s OK. I Want You to Know He’s Awesome.
There’s no room for anger in Ashton Lambie’s athletic life. But madness is different. With Lambie, a certain madness just scatters around. “In races,” he said, “we call that ‘going yard sale’—when there’s just shit everywhere.” You want examples? In his track cycling discipline, Ashton Lambie is the quickest athlete on Earth. The three fastest … More Like a Broken Record: Ashton Lambie sets (and resets, and sets again) his mad-world record
Dirt Tan Bike Club 