It seems we are living in the hey day of gravel events. Lots of good people laying out good routes with some good scenery.
I was drawn to these gravel rides a few years ago because they seemed more relaxed than roadie events. However, as I've sort of transitioned from a slow wanna-be racer to a slow let's enjoy this rider (thanks in part to Grant's philosophy on cycling), I've found that I'm often alone out there plodding along on my Joe. It seems like as more people have gotten into gravel, they've brought some of the fast, lycra, no notice giving paceline stuff to the events that I've turned to in the past. This past weekend I had a great time at a 50 mile "race", rolling along enjoying the course, hoping off my bike to traverse sandy backroads and two tracks when necessary. By the time I got done, most of the finishers had celebrated and moved on. The race promoters were there to give high fives, but the whole thing left me feeling kind of lonely. I was super happy to have finished, and just finishing is usually my goal at these things.I was comfy as heck on my Joe and really enjoyed the ride, but I drove away wondering if the community of gravel riders is more and more pushing these events to be races for racers. So what's a enjoy the ride kinda person supposed to do to connect with others and find fun routes/events to do? I really do like being able to have a calendar of pay to play rides to look forward to, but I'm kinda getting sick of rude racers flying by without saying a word and everyone being more worried about Strava times and KOMs than pedaling along and enjoying the road. I really want to do a couple 100 mile rides next year before I turn 40, but I'm starting to feel like the father I can ride, the more the events with those distances are geared toward the hard core riders who want to fly through them. Am I just getting old and cranky? Anyone else notice this? Any remedies? -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "RBW Owners Bunch" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to rbw-owners-bunch+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/rbw-owners-bunch/3c3c6fa4-1754-4949-aa7c-7b15087161f7%40googlegroups.com.
