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Everybody loves to be hyperbolic about gravel, but we’re only being slightly dramatic when we ask: is gravel racing as we know it over?
Organizers of SBT GRVL, one of the largest and most important gravel events, have been hit with difficult new requirements from law enforcement that will force major changes to the event, including cutting the field size by 40 percent, and not letting it be a race with prize money — so long as it’s not on closed roads.
Betsy Welch broke the story earlier this week and is here on the podcast to break down all the ramifications of SBT GRVL’s problems and what this could mean for other gravel and cycling events around the country, whether negative or positive.
This could be a positive inflection point for gravel, giving it a new format for pros separate from everyone else, or it could sink many events just as this discipline is taking off.
Skip ahead to 16:18 for the discussion on SBT GRVL and the future of gravel racing.
Tech editor Alvin Holbrook, who has raced SBT multiple times, is on the episode as well, and gives us some updates on the latest tech and what he would do with $3,000 instead of buying the 20th anniversary edition CermaicSpeed pulley. Betsy also fills us in on Marathon MTB Worlds, and Will Tracy provides an udpate on road worlds.
