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...

[archive item dug out of a dusty laptop hard drive or something --- originally sent May 18, 2014] Gravel Compadres - Stellar effort all.  Everyone made it through with only a couple of mechanicals and nothing more frightening than the expected dark hours in middle of a great day. Short story from me is that I grabbed the wheels of the Batteries & Bulbs Racing Team and followed them to Preston.  We were on a tear --- Preston by 11:15a -- running about a 6hr pace.  Spotted Craig-o and frantically, maniacally, grabbed water and some calories from Craig-O as the team rolled past me.  I got back on the road feeling like I was cooked and wasn't going to catch the group.  About 5 miles up the road, I spotted them just getting back onto their rigs after a nature break.  I banged it out up the hill and caught them before they were back up to speed.  I was riding way outside of my range and I knew it --- but the draft was there and if I could stick w...

[archive item dug up from a bunch of emails --- this one was sent on May 15, 2016] Gravelleras & Gravelleros (& Dan Gold) [note: there's a link to photos at the bottom --- and given the high ramble factor, you may want to scroll down --- I'm not going to remember what mess of words I wrote, so I sure wouldn't expect you to.] The  Almanzo  never disappoints -- there's always some new frontier, some new batch of challenges that it drops at your feet and stares at you, daring you to pick it up (or to stay home).  This year, it was wind. Mid-week the weather forecasts for the backroads and country hills outside Rochester started to look the same every day, every hour that I was checking. AccuWeather, National Weather Service, you name it --- they were all saying pretty much the same thing --- it was going to be cool but not cold, sunny but some clouds, and it was going to be windy.  Not partly windy, not mildly or occasionally windy -- it was go...