Gravel Grinder News: Spotted Horse, Iowa Gravel Classic Changes

 Plus News On Guitar Ted's Gravel Cycling Hall of Fame Vote and A Debut Bike From Salsa Cycles.

News broke on Facebook, January 23rd, that revealed future changes in the Iowa gravel racing calendar. Relentless Events LLC announced that it was turning over the Spotted Horse Gravel Ultra and the Iowa Gravel Classic to Cole and Kelsi Ledbetter, effective immediately. 

Relentless Events LLC stated in the Facebook posting that "Relentless Events LLC will continue to exist, but Iowa Wind and Rock will be the only event we will be promoting at this time."

Relentless Events LLC also had been running the Tour of Central Iowa, formerly known as the 24hrs of Cumming. An announcement was made on that event's Facebook page as well stating,"After much discussion, we have decided that Tour of Central Iowa will cease operations in 2024." 

Furthermore; Sarah Cooper, of Relentless Events LLC, announced on the same day that she is stepping away from event promoting saying, "I have had almost a year exactly to wrap my head around stepping away from race directing." Adding that, "I will be at Iowa Wind & Rock in a different capacity this year and for as many years as I am needed and am able."

The Ledbetters also have held their own gravel event, the Redfield Rock & Roll, for several years. That event is scheduled for September 7th, 2024, according to that event's Facebook page. The addition of the Spotted Horse Gravel Ultra and the Iowa Gravel Classic would bring the amount of events under their auspices to three, along with the weekly gravel group rides that Cole Ledbetter promotes. 

Nebraska News: As an aside, it was also announced this past week that the Bohemian StoMil was ending its run of events effective immediately as well. 

Comments: This change is interesting in that we may be seeing the end of an era. The people behind Relentless Events LLC, Sarah Cooper, Dori Jansma, and Steve Fuller are all from the original school of gravel which insists on navigation by cue sheets, self-reliance/support, and smaller, more individually focused event experiences. The Facebook post indicated that "You can expect changes as Cole and Kelsi work to make these events their own." 

What exactly those changes will be are yet to be revealed, but the way the events were run is harder to do and especially with the yearly course changes at the Spotted Horse, it is a daunting task to run an event that way. The event's locations, again, especially with regard to the Spotted Horse, being in South-Central Iowa, make event production a bit tougher from the standpoint of where the Ledbetters live just North of the Des Moines metro. 

In my opinion, I would expect some changes to come for these two events. The loss of the Tour of Central Iowa maybe isn't so sharply felt since we have several more Iowa based gravel events than were around when the 24hrs of Cumming started. And it should be noted that the new events from the Iowa Gravel series, CORE4, and other regional gravel events have been taking away dates, and therefore people from being able to go to some of the older events on the calendar. 

It is also noteworthy that the Relentless team is focusing solely on Iowa Wind and Rock for now. Potentially this event could end up being a kind of "unicorn" in the gravel scene as its format and distance continues to make it very different from anything else out there, with the possible exception of the Spotted Horse, which is shorter in distance, but was a similarly run event. But now the Spotted Horse may be changing up, so IWAR may end as a lone example of the early school of gravel. How Sarah Cooper's stepping back from leading IWAR as a main co-promoter will affect IWAR going forward is something yet to be seen. 

As with anything, there is a beginning and an ending. I'm not saying anything is "ending" per se' here, obviously - these are all "just changes". But that said, if you ever thought you wanted to ride in one of these events, don't waste time wondering if this year or next is a good time. Sooner rather than later there won't be a choice because these events will go away eventually. And as with the Tour of Central Iowa and the Bohemian StoMil, that chance is gone now. 

Class of 2024 Vote Cast:

Well, I got it done! The votes have been cast and we will see what happens soon enough. The next class for the Gravel Cycling Hall of Fame is going to be inducted at the end of May in Emporia, Kansas and it looks like I will be there as well.

If you've been reading these pages of late you already have read about the nomination process and how that is under review and probably will see some changes going forward. 'nuff said there....

I only will add that I found it difficult to weight my votes one through five and that after the difficulty of narrowing it down to just five individuals. In my estimation, there were nine that are on the list now that truly deserve recognition. the rest are specious choices, very niche, or really barely notable from a "hall of fame" perspective, in my opinion. 

Then there are names not even on the list. Like Rick Plite who used to be the promoter of Barry Roubaix, one of the largest (in terms of rider numbers) and longest running gravel events in the nation. That's a name that should be on the list! there are others as well. 

But it is an imperfect hall, just like any of them are. The point is, there is a GCHoF and hopefully those stories and history will get preserved for future generations of riders to learn from.

Image courtesy of Salsa Cycles' social media.

Salsa Cycles Teases New (or maybe just updated) Bicycle:

Last week Salsa Cycles began promoting a release of a bicycle at Mid-South. This will happen March 14th, before the race happens that weekend.

It won't be the first time Salsa Cycles has done something like this in partnership with the Mid-south event. The most recent time this has happened would be the 2020 event where Salsa unveiled the single speed Stormchaser model. 

It's hard to imagine that Salsa would release a new bike, especially in the gravel segment. But there are some possibilities which are feasible for refreshes or complete redesigns. For instance, it has been a minute since the Warbird was updated, and seeing how Salsa hasn't been pushing real hard on Warbird models of late, one could maybe see that a refresh is on the way here. 

Another possibility for a redesign/refresh is for the Cutthroat, which has remained essentially unchanged since it was released several years ago. We can count out the Fargo as Salsa already let the cat out of the bag there with a new color for the Fargo Apex 1 recently. We can also probably discount any news on the Stormchaser since that model has seen a couple of tweaks to spec and color over the past few years. 

My money is on a new Cutthroat here. What do you think? Let me know in the comments.