Gravel week

[Sticky Bottle]

Anyone else feel like the site is suffocating with the amount of gravel content. Overkill?
Otherwise keep up the good work

 

[ChalfontStGiles]

Anyone else feel like the site is suffocating with the amount of gravel content. Overkill?
Otherwise keep up the good work

Yes, definitely.

 

[BlueRoads]

I guess the interest is there in some countries, otherwise they wouldn't do it, but for me it's definitely too much as well at the moment. Between advertisement, gravel reports and tech talk there's hardly room left for pro road cycling.

 

[King Boonen]

Why aren’t you just clicking the road section link if that’s what you want to see?

 

[BlueRoads]

Why aren’t you just clicking the road section link if that’s what you want to see?

Because until just now when I looked for it I hadn't seen there was an option to sort.

 

[pmcg76]

Why aren’t you just clicking the road section link if that’s what you want to see?

In general, I click on the frontpage as I follow different areas of the sport and honestly you would think that gravel race was the biggest event currently happening in cycling, yet there is not even a thread(that I can see) on said event so there is clearly a big disconnect somewhere.

 

[Sciatic]

In general, I click on the frontpage as I follow different areas of the sport and honestly you would think that gravel race was the biggest event currently happening in cycling, yet there is not even a thread(that I can see) on said event so there is clearly a big disconnect somewhere.

Didn’t you know—it’s now the 4th GT? Or at least one would be led to think so by the amount of coverage given Kansas here and on Steephill. Marketing $$ much?

 

[King Boonen]

In general, I click on the frontpage as I follow different areas of the sport and honestly you would think that gravel race was the biggest event currently happening in cycling, yet there is not even a thread(that I can see) on said event so there is clearly a big disconnect somewhere.

I'm assuming by thread you mean in the forum? That's not really surprising.

 

[King Boonen]

Because until just now when I looked for it I hadn't seen there was an option to sort.

Hahaha, fair enough. I use it all the time to filter through different kinds of racing.

 

[pmcg76]

I'm assuming by thread you mean in the forum? That's not really surprising.

So that loops back to the question of why it has got so much coverage, when clearly the average cycling fan has little interest in it. Even today, new articles are popping up. Is this the future of cyclingnews coverage? companies clearly paying for coverage of an event that fans have little interest in or to push an agenda?

 

[King Boonen]

So that loops back to the question of why it has got so much coverage, when clearly the average cycling fan has little interest in it. Even today, new articles are popping up. Is this the future of cyclingnews coverage? companies clearly paying for coverage of an event that fans have little interest in or to push an agenda?

To be honest I don't think the forum is a good representation of the "average" cycling fan. My sample size is fairly small, but I know people in cycling groups around the world and the interest in gravel riding is huge pretty much everywhere. The CN forums attract a very specific type of cycling fan, those interested in professional road racing and interested enough to want to discuss it. Compare the discussion of MTB here with the discussion on Pinkbike articles about MTB racing and you'll see a huge difference, most people here only care about the names they're likely to see on the road.

 

[BlueRoads]

Gravel riding is great, but honestly I don't accept that as a real pro sport. People love to do it probably because it gives them a feeling of "adventure". Usually roads are not closed for us normal people like for the pros and if you aren't living in the Alps good roads that you can ride on are hard to find. Also gravel racing doesn't require the same kind of positioning and the speeds are not as high as on the road.
So for amateurs it makes a lot of sense. But the riders starting and winning big gravel races are often guys who weren't that successful on the road. Now you could say it's just different, but when for instance I see Paul Voß (who I love, by the way) five years after he gave up road cycling because he didn't get a contract anymore, wanting to do gravel races like unbound in the future...

Anyway, you are right, I don't have to read those articles and now that I know I can choose road, I'm content.

 

[King Boonen]

You seem to be arguing that a new, amateur fuelled discipline, doesn't have the same level of competition as one of the longest established pro sports in the world. I don't think anyone is going to disagree with that, but I'm not sure of the point?

 

[BlueRoads]

You seem to be arguing that a new, amateur fuelled discipline, doesn't have the same level of competition as one of the longest established pro sports in the world. I don't think anyone is going to disagree with that, but I'm not sure of the point?

It's just my personal taste, I don't enjoy following these races. But well, people enjoy different things.

 

[pmcg76]

To be honest I don't think the forum is a good representation of the "average" cycling fan. My sample size is fairly small, but I know people in cycling groups around the world and the interest in gravel riding is huge pretty much everywhere. The CN forums attract a very specific type of cycling fan, those interested in professional road racing and interested enough to want to discuss it. Compare the discussion of MTB here with the discussion on Pinkbike articles about MTB racing and you'll see a huge difference, most people here only care about the names they're likely to see on the road.

I would say the forum is a reflection of the website, in that it has always been a majority road racing focused website. At least in the 20+ years I have been reading which is very scary when I write that down. Yes, it gives attention to other disciplines, but road racing has been the staple on CN. As you say, people probably have other sites they prefer for MTB/Off-road news. Yet, I have never seen any non-road discipline receive the level of coverage this gravel event has had on CN. Even Women's cycling which has received a lot more attention in recent years pales in comparison to this level of coverage.

As sciatic said, it's all about the marketing $$$, gravel bikes are the latest fad to be pushed on those who can never have enough bikes so naturally there is a push on this type of racing, even if it is not that relevant in the Cycling World. Got to try and sell more bikes and whilst I get that is kinda the point of cycling, it is still irritating to see CN give this level of coverage to what amounts to a Mickley mouse event.

 

[Sciatic]

I would say the forum is a reflection of the website, in that it has always been a majority road racing focused website. At least in the 20+ years I have been reading which is very scary when I write that down. Yes, it gives attention to other disciplines, but road racing has been the staple on CN. As you say, people probably have other sites they prefer for MTB/Off-road news. Yet, I have never seen any non-road discipline receive the level of coverage this gravel event has had on CN. Even Women's cycling which has received a lot more attention in recent years pales in comparison to this level of coverage.

As sciatic said, it's all about the marketing $$$, gravel bikes are the latest fad to be pushed on those who can never have enough bikes so naturally there is a push on this type of racing, even if it is not that relevant in the Cycling World. Got to try and sell more bikes and whilst I get that is kinda the point of cycling, it is still irritating to see CN give this level of coverage to what amounts to a Mickley mouse event.

It’s also strange that the opportunity to do get a decent amount of gravel isn’t available everywhere in the country. Sure, when I went to grad school in Idaho farm country, every single residential street turned into a gravel road and there were far more gravel roads than paved. But it was just the opposite when I was growing up in Connecticut, where even the old colonial roads are now paved. And where I’ve lived the last many decades in the Pac NW, yeah there are forest roads that are graveled but we call them logging roads ‘cause they have logging trucks on them as well as speeding hunters and hikers. So road cyclists can find roads anywhere to ride on, cyclocross and mtn bikers can find trails even in urban parks, but finding gravel requires a special trip if you live where I do.

 

[King Boonen]

I would say the forum is a reflection of the website, in that it has always been a majority road racing focused website. At least in the 20+ years I have been reading which is very scary when I write that down. Yes, it gives attention to other disciplines, but road racing has been the staple on CN. As you say, people probably have other sites they prefer for MTB/Off-road news. Yet, I have never seen any non-road discipline receive the level of coverage this gravel event has had on CN. Even Women's cycling which has received a lot more attention in recent years pales in comparison to this level of coverage.

As sciatic said, it's all about the marketing $$$, gravel bikes are the latest fad to be pushed on those who can never have enough bikes so naturally there is a push on this type of racing, even if it is not that relevant in the Cycling World. Got to try and sell more bikes and whilst I get that is kinda the point of cycling, it is still irritating to see CN give this level of coverage to what amounts to a Mickley mouse event.

Track.

I don't really disagree with much of what you're saying, but I'd also argue there's a bit of self-fulfilment in there. The forum has always been mainly about road, and mens road, cycling, so that's what people come here to discuss. There may be interest in "gravel" cycling (I even dislike the term gravel in the way it is used to be honest) from the forum members, but as there isn't really a space or even thread to discuss it, they don't. If it grows as a discipline then interest will increase, similar to Enduro racing and ultra-distance events. It used to be that people thought you were insane following the RAAM or TCR, now these races are popping up everywhere with pretty solid fan bases.

I do agree that money drives it. I'm constantly frustrated by people in my clubs thinking they need a special bike to ride a few fire roads. It's even go to the point now where people are running 2+ inch tyres on these bikes, they need telling that it's ok to buy a mountain bike.