Gravel Grinder News: Evidence Of Gravel Cycling's History

Courtesy of Warren Wiebe. Thanks!

Gravel riding has produced a niche, an offshoot of cycling, which had, up until this pandemic, been one of the bright spots in the cycling industry. That and HPC/electrified, motorized bikes. Anyway, this has engendered much speculation and thought in some circles as to 'who was first'.

I generally dislike such pursuits since they almost always end up in speculations, hurt feelings, and inconclusive evidence. I always just say that we know people were cycling off-pavement before us, and then there came Trans Iowa, the Dirty Kanza 200, the Good Life Gravel Adventure/Gravel Worlds, and the Almanzo 100. Events which essentially helped put gravel riding on the map. The 'Modern Era' of gravel riding, if you will, started in late 2004.

But be that as it may, we all know, and I have oft pointed out that, gravel riding was happening on an organized level for years before this. We know Richard "Deke" Gosen was putting on events on gravel around Decorah, Iowa in the 1980's, and we know that there was a "Colesburg 40" event in Northeast Iowa on gravel before Trans Iowa. We also know about something called the "Flinthills Death Ride".

John Hobbs had been putting this event on starting in 1988. It was mostly understood at that time to be a mountain biking ride, but it was always on the gravel roads of the Flint Hills in Kansas. I was recently reminded of this again by a good friend, Warren Wiebe, who is a native of Kansas and had done this event in the past. As he was cleaning out some things during these times of staying around home, he found an old "Flinthills Death Ride" newsletter. (Remember those? Times before e-mail!)

I posted an image here which is pretty high-res, so you should be able to 'embiggen' this enough to read it. If you do, you'll notice a few things that might remind you of events that came afterward. I never was influenced by John Hobbs, but it would seem that in some areas, we were on the same page.

Anyway, it is good to be reminded that all this hullabaloo about 'the world's premier gravel event', or this is 'the grandaddy of all gravel events' is kind of - well not kind of, it is ignorant of the past and basically self-important marketing chutzpah. There are pioneers of gravel grinding, and then there are the unknown, the forgotten promoters of the past that were doing just what we are today, but within the confines of the 'Analog Age' which kept them a secret from most of the cycling world.

Starting in the 2000's, we had the benefit of the 'Information Age', where ideas were shared at lightning speed and little revolutions like gravel riding and racing got a foothold and spread around. Now we have to remind people that this was the case, or they will remember what they want to remember, and invent stories where there are no memories to fit a narrative. History can make us aware and teach us if we let it, and I think this is a great thing. Thanks Warren, this was a good reminder of times past and gravel riding's history.