There’s something about gravel.
Gravel has been taking the cycling world by storm, with more and more riders joining the hype and seeking new adventures on unpaved roads and trails.
In this blog post, we'll take a closer look at the essence of gravel cycling and we’ll explore the hype around this exciting and rapidly growing discipline, and find out what all the fuss is about!
The essence of gravel cycling…
…according to a famous chatbot:
“Gravel biking is a type of cycling that takes place on unpaved roads and trails, typically on gravel, dirt, or mixed surfaces. The essence of gravel biking is to provide a more challenging and adventurous ride compared to road cycling.
Gravel biking allows for more exploration of natural landscapes, remote areas, and scenic routes, and combines elements of road cycling and mountain biking.
The goal is to have fun, push physical and technical limits, and enjoy the experience of traveling through the great outdoors.”
Pretty good no? I honestly think that Mr. GPT is a gravel biker himself.
Those of you who aren’t into cycling, probably ask yourself…
Why has gravel biking become so popular?
Is it a hype? No, we don’t think so!
The increasing popularity is to due to several reasons:
Versatility: Gravel bikes can handle a wide range of terrains, making them suitable for many different types of rides and environments.
Adventure: Gravel biking allows riders to explore new places and go on scenic routes that they wouldn't be able to with road bikes.
Physical and technical challenge: Gravel biking can be more challenging than road cycling, both physically and technically, and offers the opportunity to push one's limits.
Social aspect: Gravel biking is a great way to get outside, exercise, and connect with friends and like-minded people.
(last but not least) Marketing: The marketing machine of the bicycle industry is always keen to promote a ‘new kind of bike’ and will help you fill your garage with the bike you don’t own yet.
In a nutshell: compared to road cycling, gravel is more about adventure, fun, camaraderie and traveling (and less about performance and training).
In the words of Bart Houben, main character of our first ‘Over Gravel’ episode:
“Gravel biking takes you to remote, unknown places”.
According to Bart, gravel biking is a thing for men in their midlife crisis. In that way, the gravel bike is the new motor bike. But for me, personally, there’s another reason why I particularly love that gravel thing.
My personal feeling about gravel
The gravel bike has given me a lost feeling back: the wonderful idea that I can start at my front door and go on a (mini) adventure. This is the same feeling I had when I first started mountain biking 20 years ago. But with time, when you become more and more fanatic on the mountainbike, the local trails around Leuven are often not challenging enough and I started to feel the lack of ‘real mountains’ and technical trails.
Enters the gravel bike.
With my gravel bike I can ride faster on the roads and trails that were a bit too dull (or too flat) with the mountain bike. Moreover the connections on the tarmac, between the off-road sections, are a lot more digestible on the gravel bike than on a mountain bike with tires designed for rocks and roots.
How it all began
As with a lot of things, it’s difficult to tell how and where gravel biking originated. Luckily we’ve found someone who could give us an insight in the history of gravel.
Olivier Sels, with his group Randonneurs Leuven, organized his first gravel event back in 2006 called ‘De 200 onverhard’. For the second episode of our ‘Over Gravel’ series, we went to his bike store Fietsen King to find out if he could tell us a bit more about the first gravel years and share some of his unbound knowledge of cycling.
Over Gravel episode 3
We are currently working on the next episode of this short video series and I hope to share it by the end of March.
In the meantime, hop on that gravel bike and enjoy the upcoming Spring.
