There’s a line of cones pushing the corner out forcing me to take it wide before hitting singletrack. At first, I was confused by the cones, I know where I’m going, but as soon as I take that corner, I realize what they are for. I’m going way too fast and am now on the brakes trying to make the corner while suddenly being met with loose rocks. I drift a little to the right dropping from the hoods to the drops just as I pass the apex, I hit the power and begin cranking on the pedals.
This is where things start to get rowdy. The course takes us into some rocky singletrack. Typical for So’Tah, the dirt that once existed has been removed leaving the bedrock. The bedrock does not flow with the trail so that the rocks feel like they are trying to knock you off your game. There’s nothing too big, but maintaining momentum up the short climb is a chore. Just when I think I’ve got some motion rolling, I have to pull up over a rock slowing me and when it’s followed by another rock, almost brings me to a stop.
Years of singlespeeding has taught me how to deal with this, stand up and crank.
The trail continues to climb and continues with its rocky ways. There’s a short false flat before one more up and then things get interesting.
What is Gravel?
Specifically, what is gravel riding?
The most painfully obvious and uncreative answer is riding drop bar bikes on roads that are not paved.
Seeing that So’Tah is typically a few decades behind any trends, it’s surprising that for once, we were ahead of the curve. You may have heard of a race just north of here called the Crusher. I don’t know when it started, their website is void of an about page, but it was back before gravel bikes were called gravel. The big conundrum of this race was what was the perfect bike. The steep, rocky descents typical for the area were certainly quicker, and for some racers, even mandated a mountain bike, but the course wasn’t just that. It also included plenty of steep, long paved sections where a full on road bike would be the obvious choice.
As I mentioned, when Crusher started, gravel was a road type not a genre of bicycles. At that time, if you wanted an offroad drop bar bike, you made one. Most would snag a cyclocross frame and jam the biggest tires possible in it. Seeing that cyclocross racing requires riders to pedal rubber smaller than 33mm, these frames tended to not allow for big tires. Not that it would have made much difference as big tires were not a thing. So you could choose to ride crusher on a XC race rig or opt for a much smaller, less capable CX bike.
Gravel riding evolved from the blurring of those dichotomies. As the cycling industry wised up to the idea of riding roads that weren’t paved, but also weren’t traditional mountain biking, drop bar bikes got wider tires, more stable geometry and marketing. The high bottom bracket of a typical CX race bike was slowly lowered till it made sense and someone slapped the word gravel on it. Boom, you’ve got a brand new thing that isn’t brand new at all.
There’s plenty of people deriding the name and trying to relabel this category as something more redescent of the 90s mountain bikes that these rigs tend to reflect. My favorite is ATB or All Terrain Bicycle. Before there was a MTB, there was ATB. And isn’t that what we are doing here, just riding wherever it is that our tires take us, wherever the wind blows us, wherever….
Welcome to So’Tah
While racing these gravel events has been around in this corner of ‘Tah for many years, the scene has been slow to catch on. Mostly because riding unpaved surfaces in So’Tah is not necessarily easy. And by not necessarily easy, I mean it’s mostly fucking hard.
We have dirt roads spanning in every direction. One can jump on an ATB and ride to almost any other point in the county via a gravel road. The only problem, what we call a gravel or dirt road around here can mean a wide variety of things. It could be groomed and smooth or it could be a rutted, boulder strewn mess that will rattle your fillings loose and may be enough to throw you right on your ass. Many of these so called roads are also bipolar. You can start out on a nice country road and within a few miles it has deteriorated into nothing more than a track across a lava field.
And then end on some freshly laid pavement.
Take what has become the classic gravel ride in Washington County, the Turkey Farm Loop or TFL. Much like the Crusher, this route has been used as a big ride long before the idea of gravel riding was a thing. We used to ride it exclusively on mountain bikes because that’s what we had. It starts with a 15ish mile climb up a washboardy (it used to be so much worse) grind of a road. This climb ends at what I like to call the hole. You lose a bunch of elevation down a rutted two track that can be a ripper of a descent when it’s good and will make you think you’re going to die when it’s bad.
Then more up that is followed by a long, washboardy descent into Silver Reef. The loop has devolved into using pavement at this point, but the OG jumped on some more dirt roads and used Prospector to get back into town. It is not uncommon to have lots of different road conditions on this loop at any given time. The climb out of STG gets used quite a bit now and the county has been maintaining it. This means it could be beautiful or it could be a washboardy hell depending on where you hit the cycle.
The point is that we do have beautiful gravel if you catch the road at the right time, but we also have endless gnar, gravel roads that stretch in every direction, you just need to be prepared to encounter anything.
Blurring the Dichotomy
I have found that there are usually two different types of gravel riders. There are those that come from a road background and those who come from a mountain bike background.
The roadie crowd is comfortable with big groups and big miles. They usually love bikes and going on long rides, but have gotten a bit too sick of car culture and are fleeing pavement and the machines that rule that space. Being what they know, they take the basic premise of road riding and transfer it to gravel. It’s basically the same thing when you look at it through that lens. Learn a few new skills, put some bigger tires on your bike and you have gravel. This tends to be the crowd that the bike industry thinks rides gravel.
The other crowd does things a bit differently. They are there because you can take a gravel bike and move quicker than a traditional mountain bike on certain roads. They want to go far and do big rides, but don’t mind throwing in some questionable riding conditions. Those are actually considered fun and help them break up the endless grind they aren’t used to. I tend to see these guys more alone. They aren’t as used to big group rides and will head out solo, point the bike and see where it takes them.
And obviously, these are now convergent groups muddying up the marketing, making a definition difficult to explain and creating the beauty of what gravel is. It’s ATB, grab your bike and ride.
Gravel racing, from my perspective, has mostly followed the first crowd, big miles, big groups, fast road conditions. There have been outliers pushing the boundaries of what this is, but they are the exception not the rule. These races hold little draw for me. Not that I am against them, they just don’t appeal to me (pretty much anything with a big crowd doesn’t appeal to me).
Then Howlin’ Wolfe had a pitch for me. He was as close to giddy as you can be without being full giddy. He was excited, but also apprehensive about how I would react. I stand as a bit of a gatekeeper in the realm he was trying to influence. If he could sell me, he knew it would probably happen.
“We should have a gravel category at ICup.”
“That’s a great idea, but what exactly do you mean by a gravel category?” I asked.
“Just that a category. Same course, same time, same laps, just on gravel bikes.”
This is Gravel
I crest the top of the hill. I know this descent well, I’ve ripped it way too many times. Strangely enough, this will be the first time on drop bars.
I transition from hoods to drops and slam the dropper. One push to get over the top of the hump and my momentum quickens. The singletrack is rocky. I gain plenty of speed and soon am bombing down the incline. There are two spots. Two. You can bunny hop them at full speed or maneuver around them. On the Chameleon, I just hop over them like they aren’t there. Riding a gravel bike changes the dynamics. The first one is an easy, straight forward hop, so I send it. The second ends with a turn that makes me question the traction of my smaller tires. Maneuver around it.
At this point in the race, the fast mountain bikers have already finished so there are few people passing me. I have started to catch the groups that started after us and am in the process of passing them. The techy singletrack keeps me focused. The line choices are altered to accommodate the bike I’m on. I climb back up the back side of Barrel Roll and then continue around the rolling ups and downs to the trailhead. A little bit of chunky gravel road leads me to the final stretch of singletrack.
The trail drops quick and steep with loose rocks strewn around the apex of every turn. It’s a poorly built trail and the erosion shows, but it’s fast and fun to rip down. Several switch backs bring me down to the crux of the course, a drop into a wash and then a steep, stair-stepped climb out the other side. I bobbled on the first lap, made it on the second, and am hoping to clean it on the third. I check my gears (something I’m not good at), and drop in over the rocky mess attempting to control my momentum and at the same time propel myself up the other side. The drop goes fine and then I’m on the stairs with all my momentum sucked out. I switch to singlespeed move. Crank, throw my body forward, crank.
I pop out at the top and hang a hard right. This used to be singletrack but now is basically a gravel road. It’s steep, but a few cranks and my momentum is rolling again. I shift gears and sit back down. The gravel takes me out of the wash and back to the road. I roll in under the start/finish line grasping my drop bars with a smile. That was actually fun.
This is gravel.
Embrace Chaos. Seek Discomfort.
