“Gravel cycling” does not mean you have to cycle on small stones. In it’s infancy, it was embraced by a fundamental sect, that all together wanted to be different, pushed away by elitism in road cycling or technical descents in MTB. Beards and tatooes flourished. I have both and love it. It wasn’t born in 2019, only defined. Courageous men and women have been using bicycles to roam and explore since the chain was attached. Before tarmac, all cycling was gravel.
As a segment of our sport it has been embraced so much by the marketing folks – it does in fact present a fresh opportunity for new bike sales and thus furiously adapted by the board room of the cycling industry. The cover images of the bike catalogues have no longer a rider climbing some distant Col, but a rider with 70 bags, looking heavily lost on some adventure.
The ideal may sell the bike, but the attainable adventure makes it worth buying one. The possibility of exploration even if it’s to a corner of an urban park you haven’t been to before is great saddle time. It is not 650b vs 700c or 12 speed vs 13.
Gravel is simply big enough tyres that give you the confidence that you won’t puncture when you have a bit of wonder at what is over there.
