Over the past ten years I\u2019ve developed a love\/hate relationship with bicycle road racing. I love the camaraderie, the thrill and the on the edge of your physical limit intensity of the sport, but what I hate is the built-in duplicity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
There\u2019s a saying in bicycle racing \u201cdon\u2019t work harder, work smarter.\u201d In other words, let someone else do the work and then screw \u2018em at the finish line. Certain personalities thrive in that environment; me I could never really get on board.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I come from a mountaineering background and the ethos of me and my climbing buddies was we all work together, and we make it to the summit together. This ethic of teamwork has carried over into my cycling.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
My recent experience on the Bremerton Gravel Grinder highlighted the difference between the gravel and the road experience. My buddies and I started as a team, rode as a team and finished as a team. I\u2019m sure that some of my teammates could have ridden the course faster, but they didn\u2019t go it alone, instead we all stuck together and, in my opinion, had a richer experience. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
I worry that gravel racing will dilute gravel riding. I fear that the ethos of every man for himself will rise to the top. I typically train alone, and I understand the simplicity and peace of going solo, but when it comes to big goals and adventure I prefer to venture out as a team. I think I\u2019ll keep my bicycle and gravel riding lives separate. For me gravel riding is the search of adventure and challenge with friends; it isn\u2019t chasing a spot on some podium.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
On the BGG the weather was good, the route was great, but the highlight of my day was kicking back on the return ferry with my friends knowing that we\u2019d done something cool and that we\u2019d done it together.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Over the past ten years I\u2019ve developed a love\/hate relationship with bicycle road racing. I love the camaraderie, the thrill and the on the edge of your physical limit intensity of the sport, but what I hate is the built-in duplicity. There\u2019s a saying in bicycle racing \u201cdon\u2019t work harder, work smarter.\u201d In other words, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":390,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-387","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-gravel"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/adventurescript.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/387","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/adventurescript.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/adventurescript.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/adventurescript.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/adventurescript.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=387"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/adventurescript.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/387\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":389,"href":"http:\/\/adventurescript.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/387\/revisions\/389"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/adventurescript.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/390"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/adventurescript.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=387"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/adventurescript.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=387"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/adventurescript.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=387"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}