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| Gravel Worlds seeks to have at least 1000 women in '22 |
In an effort to balance out the participation of women in Gravel Worlds with the men, Gravel Worlds is offering a 1000 spots across its various distances exclusively for women ahead of the opening of regular registration next month.
An incentive for doing this is that Gravel Worlds will be donating a certain amount per registrant and they have a matching grant lined up to double the impact. From the press release:
"Gravel Worlds will be donating $5 per rider to the Nebraska Interscholastic Cycling League (Nebraska NICA Chapter) to their GRiT (Girls Riding Together) campaign for the first 1000 woman who sign up for the 300-mile, 150-mile, 75-mile, or 50k cycling distances. In addition, Gravel Worlds sponsor, HMH Logistics will be matching this donation for a potential total of $10,000 donated to GRiT."
Gravel Worlds also announced a gender nuetral category for their main event as well. More details can be seen at Gravel Worlds website.
I saw on social media where there is a site exclusively for women that curates routes on gravel. This is kind of Colorado/inter-mountain West-centric, but there are some rides from all across the US.
Interest in routes has always been high and this probably will be a popular resource for those out West. However; I could see where someone might try a nationwide data base of gravel routes with information and ratings like this site has.
It is interesting and I've been asked to drop routes I've come up with in the past, but there are a few issues with regard to providing 'curated routes' which you may not have thought of. For instance, let's say you draw up a route and give information on it with points of interest and places where you can resupply, or places you'll pass through to see and get things at. Well, let's say a bridge goes out, or a place closes that was the linchpin for resupply. Now let's say someone gets bitten by that who had planned a big vacation around 'your route' and deems their money spent and time taken off a waste due to 'your incompetent information'. You can say "Hey! I am only telling you this could be a good route to ride", but you'd be wasting your time and now you've got a ticked off person emailing you their negativity.
You can disclaim things till the cows come home, but that won't change the hassle and the energy drain of dealing with ignorant people. I'm not saying that these women shouldn't do what they are doing, but I am saying why I won't ever do that. I know others provide routes, and you might think it is "no big deal", but after putting a gravel calendar out, (which I quit doing for reasons like I have pointed out), I know what can happen.
A big merger in the bicycle industry happened this week when it was announced that Pon Holdings bought Dorel Sports for $810 million. This may sound like gibberish to you, so let me break it down into 'bike nerd' language.
Essentially what this means is that A bunch of Euro bike brands owned by Pon, including the US MTB brand Santa Cruz and the Euro racing brand Cervelo, are now joined together with Cannondale, GT Bikes, Schwinn, and Pacific Cycle.
The sale should be completed by Spring 2022, according to several reports. It is thought that this will form the world's largest specialty bicycle group, eclipsing the former top company, Giant.
Comments: Typical of Pon Holdings, I would expect them to make minimal changes to the brands they acquired in this sale. Santa Cruz, when it was purchased by Pon several years ago, basically continued on unchanged, as an example. What I would expect is an injection of capital with this acquisition allowing these companies to advance and grow further. It would be congruent with Pon's past historical bicycle business ventures.
With electrified bicycles being all the rage in Europe and now in the US, I would also expect a big change in how many models some of these brands Pon acquired carries in their ranges. Anything beyond that is a mystery to me at this point, but again, most folks probably won't see a difference now, or in the near future, with regard to this sale.
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| The 2022 Carbon Mukluk XT (Image courtesy of Salsa Cycles) |
Color Changes Highlight Salsa Fat Bike Line For '22:
Yesterday Salsa dropped the news on its 2022 line of fat bikes. It is pared down from previous years, probably due to supply chain issues. But whatever the reasons, you get basically two levels of Beargrease and Mukluk.
Comments: It is interesting to see Salsa stick with the skinwall fat tires on the Mukluk. I like the look as it hearkens back to the original Pugsley, but I am sure it is a polarizing spec choice. The other notable thing here is that both the Beargrease and the Mukluk in current versions are pretty long in the tooth. There really hasn't been any innovation for 5 years.
And what about the Blackborow longtail fat bike? There was nothing in the press release about that bike. I would assume it fell victim to the shortages and Salsa is only offering what it can make which sells the best for now. Clearly that is the Beargrease and Mukluk platforms.
Parting Shot: Is Trek planning on going to a D2C model soon? This article shows why that may be true.
That's a wrap for this week. Have a great weekend and get out and ride!
In addition to those acquisitions from PON, Mike's Bikes here in CA was purchased by them too. That's why Specialized dropped Mike's like a hot potato in September. I received an email saying Mike's is now a Giant dealer, which is interesting since this current acquisition.
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