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| Certain details- Important ones- are lost on "The Media". I won't let them forget. |
However; since gravel grinding has become "THE" thing these days, a lot more twisting of stories, false claims, and downright ignorant "knowledge filling" comments are being noted by myself and my long time friends. Sometimes I consider the source and let it go. I cannot enlighten everybody to what really went down. That said, every so often I notice how the chains get yanked by marketers, podcasters, and especially media wonks. I see total fabrications, lack of depth of research, and "spinning" on stories and when enough pile up, I have to let off some steam. Today is one of those days.
First, the "twisting" of story lines. I will address this again on "Friday News And Views", so I won't get too far on this today. However; when you read in many online and print media publications about "the gravel scene", and then read several lines about how "Pro/roadie" things are possibly going to "ruin gravel", what they really are talking about is the Dirty Kanza 200. How do I know this? Because it is pretty much one of a half a dozen gravel races annually that attract legit Pro riders and is the most well known of any of those races by a country mile.
So, when you see "doom and gloom" stories about how "grassroots gravel" is possibly on life support, just remember that there are over 500 other events across the USA that are not the Dirty Kanza 200 and don't have any Pro/roadie issues. So, if you want to say that these types of twisting the story line articles are click bait, yeah........I'd go along with that. At best, it isn't truthful journalism. Not when it comes to gravel events. Basically, stories like these aren't even stories worth printing.
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| I'm not the only one who thinks this...... (From Twitter) |
First off, I'd point these foolish individuals to the following historical reference- "The State of the Gravel Scene" Secondly, anytime you read or hear folks refer to any one event, or even three, or four, as being "gravel events" back in the day that, by implication, were the precursors to today's scene, your "B.S. Meter" should be pegged. They weren't influential to today's scene. They just were events. Plain and simple. They did not spur the modern (within the last 15 years) grassroots movement everyone recognizes today as "gravel grinding".
Finally, you will hear and read about the mythical "Godfather of Gravel". I've heard at least four or five different people being referred to in this manner recently. Okay, this is simple. The "Godfather of Gravel" is about as real as Santa Claus. Period.
I get it. Everyone wants a source. A beginning. Some way to codify and box up things and tie that all up with a neat little bow. The fact of the matter is that there are a lot of individuals who were responsible for what you and I know today as "gravel". The DK200, Barry-Roubaix, the Almanzo, Gravel Worlds, the former Trans Iowa, and many others all have individuals and groups of people, male and female, that forged what you know as "gravel" today. There were people involved in the scene before there was a "scene" to be in. I try to be careful to give credit where credit is due. There is no "singular" individual responsible for this scene. There just isn't and any attempt at saying that there was is just people being goofy.
As with most things in life, any subject is generally more complex than many make it out to be, and always requires thought and research to understand it correctly. Ultimately you can choose to consume the "fast food" stories parading as knowledge or you can dig deeper and find out what is truth and what is fiction. I am not in charge of that. That is true. But I'm not going away either.........
5 comments:
Haven't been reading in depth on the "Pros affecting Gravel" articles. But my take would be that the pro concept could run gravel racing. In other words, team tactics would ruin gravel racing (for the front 20%). Rumors of that happening locally last Feb with a team working for a leader against solo riders (I haven't dug deeper on that either). Gravel racing was always about the solo effort. Sure, some people would work together and share the load, but they were still racing against each other. If the team tactics and group dynamics of road racing come over to gravel, then the scene will lose a bunch of people that are riding gravel to escape that culture.
@Iowagriz- You said," If the team tactics and group dynamics of road racing come over to gravel, then the scene will lose a bunch of people that are riding gravel to escape that culture."
I say, "Or they could be riding at one of over 500 events where team tactics won't be happening."
The point being is that there are TONS of events you can choose from and there is definitely something for everyone. Just take a look and discover for yourself.
I can only think back to 1976 when my friend Steve and I would spend countless hours riding countless miles of gravel roads on our 27x1 1/4" Peugeot 10 speeds. Who'd a thunk we were on the verge of a "thing"? But then again, there were guys riding those gravel roads long before we ever got around to doing it. Godfather? To us, that was that cool movie where they put a horses head in the guy's bed.
Pros aren't going to ruin events any more than amateurs are going to ruin a grand tour. We're not competing against each other.
The pros will have to learn to work on their own bikes. Thst could be interesting!
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