People Of 2024: Warren Weibe

 In my travels and life during the year, I have been blessed to be supported, befriended, and on occasion visited by some pretty awesome folks. Sometimes I visited them. (Hopefully they were equally blessed!) I wanted to take some extra space to recognize and celebrate these people at the end of the year. I hope you gain some insight and appreciation for what these people mean to me this year and beyond. 

Warren Weibe at the 2021 Gravel Worlds

Now here's a guy I have known from gravel riding for many years. Warren is one of the "OG's" of the modern gravel community. He participated in events that were "pre-gravel" that informed what modern day gravel became, namely the Flint Hills Death Ride. (And likely others I don't know about) Warren did many of the early gravel events, and was an eight time Trans Iowa participant with one finish in v12. 

So, I've seen him around all these years at different events. One of my chief remembrances of Warren is the time in 2017 at Gravel Worlds when it was so stupid-hot and humid that I was pedaling in a fever dream, barely moving, while Warren just pedaled along side of me, cranking away on his single speed. He did not say anything. He was just "there" for me. I felt that deeply, but at the time, I could not speak. 

I didn't need to, really.  

Image of the "Victory Riders" minus Rob Evans who took this image.

Warren has gone way out of his way to make me know that I am appreciated and he often reminds me of my place in the gravel history. Warren was the man who came up with the idea for this year's Victory Ride, with an aim to make it as easy and stress free for me as possible. His reasoning was that he knew how much I stressed out over the details while putting on Trans Iowa, and he felt like it was high time someone did something to respond to that. So, we did the Victory Ride, and it was really stress-free for myself. 

The Victory Ride was a highlight of 2024 for me. I consider it my "death ride" for the year as well, since the Victory Ride really had that same vibe to it that the old GTDRI's had. Also, it was the longest single ride I did all year! 

So,thanks Warren! You made a great ride come true, and I count it as a highlight of 2024, which would never have happened without you. Cheers!