Gravel Grinder News: Grinder Nationals, Gravel Worlds News & More – by Guitar Ted
The news keeps coming and first up we have event news from Grinder Nationals. Plus Gravel Worlds gets a title sponsor, doping controls make their debut in the gravel scene, and more. Let’s jump right in….
Grinder Nationals Moves Venue: The last five years has seen Grinder Nationals, the national championship race for gravel racers, held in Lawrence , Kansas. This year the US Endurance sanctioning body for the event has decided to move Grinder Nationals to the Mid-Atlantic region and hold the 2022 Grinder Nationals in Loudoun County Virginia on May 7th, 2022.
This year the course for those trying to capture the custom USE Gravel Grinder National Champion jerseys, given to each class winner, will be 100 miles. The event, held in conjunction with Dirty Kitten Productions, will also feature a 30 mile “Mini G” recreational ride on Loudoun County’s historic roads.
You can check out more details on this event at Grinder Nationals site and registration is open now on BikeReg.com here. Hear our interview of Grinder Nationals event organizer, Troy Farrar here.
Gravel Worlds Announces Garmin As Event Title Sponsor:
Gravel Worlds, held in Lincoln, Nebraska annually since 2010, has announced the new title sponsor of its event as Garmin. The event will now be known as “Garmin Gravel Worlds Presented by Lauf”. Gravel Worlds press release states the following:
“As a Midwest-based company, many of Garmin’s employees have attended Gravel Worlds for years. Garmin understands where we’ve come from and what we are trying to accomplish in the world of gravel and this understanding is incredibly valuable to our event. Garmin is dedicated to helping build on our goals rather than try to change us to fit a mold. Gravel Worlds will remain a grassroots event focused on the everyday rider while still celebrating the peak of human performance and Garmin is coming alongside us to help make that happen.“
For more on Gravel Worlds and to register, see their BikeReg site here.
Doping Controls To Be Conducted For Life Time Grand Prix Riders: The new Life Time Grand Prix series, a six event race series featuring three gravel events and three mountain bike events, has now been connected to news concerning doping controls. A Tweet by one of the 60 selected Pro and Semi-Pro athletes involved in the series revealed that random doping controls would be conducted. The mention of this was seen on rider Peter Stetina’s Twitter account on Wednesday, February 2nd.
Life Time Fitness has announced that the series will pay out $250,000 for the top athletes in the six event series. This has attracted athletes looking to make their living off racing within the gravel discipline.
Cycling has had an issues with doping in its highest levels of competition for decades. Gravel races, for the most part, weren’t affected by the specter of doping due to the nature of most events not having big money purses. This also had the effect of not attracting many Pro level contestants since the effort to compete in these earlier gravel events was not monetarily rewarding. That began to change with the prestige that the event formerly known as the Dirty Kanza 200 gained in the middle of the last decade.
Now it would appear that all is changing, as noted by Peter Stetina, but one would hope that it changes without the revealing of a doping case in a gravel event.
Easton Announces New EC90 AX Carbon Flared Drop Bar: Easton Cycling released news on a new, high end carbon fiber flared drop bar today. it sits in their EC90 range and features an ergonomic, flattened tops section which is tuned differently for each size the bar is offered in. Those sizes range from 40cm, 42cm, 44cm, and 46cm.
The drop section features Easton’s “Maximum Contact” design and the flare of those drops comes in at 16°. Weight for the EC90 AX Carbon Flared Drop Bar is 208 grams for the 42cm width. The handle bar also is compatible with Di2 routing. Price for this new handle bar is set at $299.99USD. You can see more details and information on this handle bar by going to the EC90 AX webpage here: https://eastoncycling.com/products/ec90-ax-bar
That is a wrap on the Gravel Grinder News for today.
Note: Images and information for this post were provided by Grinder Nationals, Easton Cycling, and Gravel Adventures LLC. Riding Gravel is not responsible for any incorrect information provided to us by these entities.
“the event formerly known as the Dirty Kanza 200”
Perhaps it might help to use the current name, Unbound Gravel, and minimise the ethnic slur that was the original name.
@David Dye – I appreciate your sentiment. I would submit that we learn from our history. (The event was formerly known by that name.) Saying it the way it is written in this post invites questions, and a chance to learn why many feel that the old name is racially insensitive. If we, however, choose to erase any mention of that previous mistake, how then do we learn from it? Also, I would submit that it is not good from a historically accurate viewpoint to simply whitewash what is deemed evil from our stories.
That it prompted your comment, I think, is a good example of why it is written this way. Had it not, then one more chance to bring things to light is darkened.
Thank you for you concerns.