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| Image courtesy of Twin Six |
This past week Twin Six introduced another new color for its Standard Rando v2 frame set. This time it comes in a green they call "Grasshopper". Very appropriate as it is currently grasshopper season in the upper Mid-West!
I just posted about my "Saffron" colored Twin Six Standard Rando v2 yesterday. Love the bike! This was my dedicated single speed gravel bike until I got the Limited Edition GRX group and then had to build up the Honeman Flyer to replace it with. Now it is my geared classic looking gravel grinder.
I love this green color! The original Standard Rando was also green and I owned one until I sold it because the original had QR axles and everything was going to through axle standard. I was without a T-6 bike until the new v2 Rando emerged in 2020. I liked the original green T-6 Rando, but that was a darker hue than this one and I like this hue better. But I already have a yellow one, so....
The Standard Rando v2 will not win any lightweight awards nor does it have fancy internal cable routing or anything "aero". It is that stalwart, durable, reliable frame set that rides the way it should and can take anything you throw at it. (Within reason, of course) All that with a stellar price and classic good looks. Recommended. (I get nothing for saying that. It is how I feel about the bike. Take that for what it is worth to you.)
Guitar Ted Podcast Covers CORE4 & More:
The latest "Guitar Ted Podcast" is pretty good, if I do say so myself. I interviewed Morgan Osgood, who I interviewed last year when she was just dipping her toes into the gravel scene. (Learning From A Beginner) This time she shares her CORE4 experience and what she has learned since her last event. (LINK)
Then I tried to interview N.Y. Roll about his experience at CORE4, but it all went sideways. Hey! I tried! He and I ended up gabbing about how motivations for racing are vastly different between the Pro and everyone else doing gravel and how that informs events and whatnot.
Anyway, give it a listen if you dare! (You might get offended, just a warning!)
I'll try to get someone on to give us a look at gravel history from a first hand perspective on one of the next upcoming episodes, so stay tuned for that.
Storm Clouds Of Doping Gathering On The Horizon?
As professional gravel racing develops and becomes more lucrative, I am hearing more rumblings concerning doping in gravel racing.
It stands to reason that since most gravel events have no organization overseeing the enforcement of fair play in regards to doping the blood, or for detecting the use of illegal human performance drugs, that it might be happening out there now.
This started to become an issue several years ago, according to one Pro racer that gave me a heads up under the conditions of anonymity. Now I am hearing that people in the competitive end of gravel racing are suggesting that it might be happening as well.
Is there an unfair advantage, which some racers are enjoying, which is fueled by chemical enhancements that are forbidden? Is there blood doping going on, such as we have heard about in Pro road cycling? The undercurrent amongst many would suggest that - yes - it is happening.
And as for myself, I believe it. People are prone to cheating in events with zero financial gain and hardly any notoriety regionally or nationally. Several instances of age group category cheating have surfaced at road events and criteriums across the nation. So, why would gravel cycling, at least at the "pointy end", not be included in this form of cheating as well? Certainly there is monetary and career motivations for doing so. Other forms of gaining an unfair competitive advantage are most likely happening also, especially in the ultra-long distance events which most event organizers let run with little to no oversight because of the lack of resources to do so.
This is a sticky wicket, isn't it? No one wants to have shade thrown their way in regard to having people think they may have "cheated" in some way, especially if they know they haven't. Event directors may bristle at the thought of someone thinking they haven't covered all their bases with regard to cheating. However; it is highly probable that some gravel racers are not on the up-and-up when it comes to "racing clean" and taking advantage of "grey areas" in the rules, or cheating when oversight is not present from the event organizers.
What to do? I imagine USAC/UCI would love to step in and provide their turnkey solutions to cheating, but this would certainly come at a "cost", both in freedom to run events as seen fit and monetarily. So what then? I believe if the events in question offer thousands of dollars in prizing they might consider investing some of their monetary resources in enforcement of internationally recognized doping controls and in having better oversight in regard to how racers execute their race in the ultra-long distance events. Or....
Just let it all be the "Wild, Wild West" and see what happens. The current course is such and will lead to problems in the future. How each event wants to deal with this is certainly their business, and I'm "just a guy" out here "yelling at the clouds", perhaps. But knowing what I know about human behavior in competitive events, I would be very cautious about considering keeping things as they are now with regard to doping and cheating. That's just me.....
My friend in PA, Dave Pryor, is one of the principals running the unPAved gravel event out in Lewisburg, Pennsylvania. He wanted me to let you all know that registration is open now for the unPAved of the Susquehanna River Valley October 11th - 13th event.
Featuring a scenic course with multiple distance options and even an overnight bikepacking option, this event is a unique event in gravel. The "race" is a part of it, but instead of a full-course timed competition, unPAved has timed segments and the rest of the course can be done at your leisure. Want to stop and get a photo of that beautiful overlook? You can, or not. Only the timed sections are competitive, so you can tailor your experience to how you want the ride to go.
When you finish you can get a local treat to savor called a "Whoopie Pie". Now I always thought this was a commercial treat like a Hostess cake or something, or maybe one of those convenience store treats I've seen, but I was wrong. Thanks to a video Dave sent (HERE) I now understand that a Whoopie Pie is a traditional Pennsylvania Dutch treat which unPAved has handmade for their finish line prizing.
So, anyway, if I could, I would go to this event. You should consider it. Recommended by Guitar Ted Productions as a good time.
Thanks for reading Guitar Ted Productions! Have a great Labor Day Weekend (USA) and ride those bicycles!
7 comments:
Not sure if you are aware, but Lifetime already has a testing program for the Grand Prix series.
@A-A-Ron - Thanks for the comment, I was aware of that at one time but had forgotten about it until you commented here. That makes sense since I know that Life Time does that for their Triathlon series also. And.... Life Time has the resources to do that, so there would be no excuse not to bring testing to the Grand Prix.
So, there is a precedent set, which I think is a good thing for the top-end riders in gravel. Now to see if that extends to other series and events that pay out large prize purses and have Pro fields.
Testing is definitely something we’ll be talking about for future editions of Gravel Worlds, now that we’ve separated the pro and amateur fields.
@MG - I think that is great news and a smart move for Gravel Worlds.
Cheating of some kind is always going on. I remember seeing someone getting aid out on the course at an event, where it wasn't allowed. I noticed she got on the podium at the end. I didn't say anything, but I wasn't the only one who saw her. As far as I know, no one said anything either. I think no one wants to be that person who points out cheating. Plus, I thought that she's the one who has to live with cheating, though maybe it didn't bother her.
@Brett - Reporting cheaters is not the job of participants. If that's what promoters think they need to lower entry fees. But that said, I understand the difficulties involved in keeping tabs on what racers are up to, especially in longer events. I know, I used to put on such an event for 14 years. However; if cheating is happening, and promoters understand that it is, they are either going to turn a blind eye toward it or they should stop putting on longer events until they can figure out how to stop cheating on longer events.
One thing that would clear up a LOT of issues is to keep courses secret until race day. Then pre-planning hand-ups and caching supplies would be pretty difficult to plan out. Keeping tabs on vehicular traffic would be another way to keep cheating like that at bay. Those two ideas are but a couple of ways to combat this and keep people racing on equal footing.
Yeah, I didn't sort of feel like it was my place to bring it up to the race directors but on the other hand, perhaps someone was cheated out of a spot on the podium and that really bothered me. It's funny, I had heard for years that when DK was much smaller, people were cheating and there was no way to police that. When I did Unbound this year, the attendance was so huge and there was so much media out on the course, it seemed like cheating would have been difficult!
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