Newsflash: 2020 Schedule!

B72I5880-2 (1).jpg — You often need to look back, in order to look forward.

Just call me Barbara Walters — welcome to 2020.

So here in this new decade, gravel has turned into a thing. More than a thing, actually. The industry is behind it and there’s a groundswell of support where people are riding it from all walks of life. I think that’s the most compelling point to absorb: whereas traditional road cycling is more than a tad standoffish and losing ridership, this new genre of gravel appeals to the masses. Looking at the former, the prospect of dipping your toe into road cycling by screaming around tight corners of an industrial parking lot criterium, at the risk of losing square footage of skin among a peloton of jittery cat 5s is not all that appealing.

But just as nearly anyone can go run a weekend 5k, nearly anyone can hop aboard a bike and ride a gravel event. Sure, I’m not naive to the limitations of geography, socioeconomic restrictions, and a variety of other factors that make the barrier to entry tough, but it all starts somewhere. Gravel events aren’t all 200 mile rides; there are entry level 25 milers, there are casual rides, no-drop rides, young group rides, old group rides, fun group rides, women group rides, and seemingly everything in between to help more people get on bikes. The way I see it, this is just the early swing of momentum needed to make cycling commonplace. Heck, not just a sport, but make cycling a way of life. The United States is not designed with the infrastructure conducive to riding bikes. Get buzzed off the road on the 4” of paved shoulder to the right of the white line or to ride 18 miles to the nearest grocery store or to be screamed at when you’re riding two-abreast in a legal two-abreast zone are all evidence enough that cycling isn’t yet an American way of life. However, once upon a time, bikes were a way of life, cycling used to be massive in America before the internal combustion engine came along and the Model T decimated the industry.

Fast-forward to the present and cycling is on the rise again and that much is awesome. Anything we can do to promote cycling is a benefit to everyone, and I do mean everything, and it’s exciting to be part of this movement.

Photo: Kim Carroll. 2020 Healdsburg Adventure Ride at the Mill District.

As much as this post is a heartfelt Rah Rah cheer for cycling, it’s also a sheepish announcement of my race calendar. I find announcing one’s gravel race calendar a bit odd, because as much as I’m competing at many of these events, I truly just loving being amid the cycling community. Racing gravel is one facet of what I do. Meanwhile, I am an ambassador for some of the best companies in the business, I co-own UnTapped, I co-founded and help run Rooted Vermont with my amazing wife Laura, I helped start the King Challenge charity bike ride now zooming into its tenth year(!), I host both the King of the Ride podcast and video series, I do a bit of coaching, and I’m probably forgetting another few things I do. The point being, all of these things are about the promotion of more people on bikes. Getting people excited to ride, getting people interested to ride, and getting people informed on how to ride are all what lights a fire under me every day from the moment I wake up. (Okay, with a child in our near future, there might be some other thoughts when I’m first being roused out of bed in the morning, but we’ll cross that bridge when little baby King is screaming at 3:12am and maybe bike riding isn’t atop my mind…)

So ladies and gentlemen, announcing a race calendar is now a thing, as much as gravel is a thing, so without further ado, here is mine:

*as a spectator and supporter of my super wife Laura

Peace.

Photo: Stephen Lam. 2019 The Coast Ride with inGamba