Gravel News Network (GNN)

  MINNEAPOLIS, United States (GNN, the Gravel News Network) -- Gerasimos G. "Everyone has a plan until they get punched in the mouth." The source of this quote is Mike Tyson, but he might have been quoting Socrates, or maybe the kid in our neighborhood who threatened a man in the paint store after he was asked why he like the Beatles instead of the Rolling Stones. Prologue... When you have a plan, especially a really detailed one, the proper thing to do when it goes wrong is to share it. This is critical for the betterment of our species, especially our subspecies of cylcus humanus. We must not continue to fool ourselves into planning for the unplannable. Therefore, consider what follows to be part recap, part confession.  The Day Across Minnesota... A word about  The DAMn ,  since not everyone reading will know. The Day Across Minnesota is a 240-mile gravel road race that starts at 12:00a at the first click of a Saturday in August in Gary, South Dakota and traverses...

MINNEAPOLIS, United States (GNN, the Gravel News Network) -- Gerasimos G. One of the greatest mysteries in the Minnesota gravel cycling scene is how a race called the "Filthy 50" has gone so long without really getting filthy.  I mean, it's a mid-October event in Minnesota where there have been blizzards on Halloween.  Sure, the race has been dusty, but all of my memories of the Filthy 50 are filled with images of sun and mild (or hot!) temps. I don't think I've worn a jacket. Ever. (link: http://the-filthy-50.com/history) The combination of the relatively shorter distance and the weather history (along with the fact that it is late in the season so riders are in good form) has made the Filthy 50 into the "gateway drug" for gravel cycling.  I don't count the names beyond my friends, but I know that the Filthy has been the first gravel event for probably a dozen of them. All that changed on Sunday.  If Trenton had, as legend has i...

MINNEAPOLIS, United States (GNN, the Gravel News Network) -- Gerasimos G. (longer ride, longer story) The news of the "DAMN" -- the "Day Across Minnesota" -- spread pretty quickly through the gravel riding world of the North.  For me, it was momentarily intriguing and then I recall feeling relieved at some later point that I had missed the registration cutoff and would not be doing this totally insane thing (which I just completed yesterday).  The setup was a 240-mile gravel ride across the entire state of Minnesota (west to east, from SD to WI) in 24hrs.  All one shot, start-to-finish, with each rider receiving four sets of cue sheets containing 60-miles of directions to the next checkpoint --- and if you don't arrive by the cutoff time (6hrs per section) you don't get the cue sheets and you can decide to find your own way to Wisconsin or you can bag it and have your support car drive you home (or wherever they were willing to take you).  But a day...