Ancestors

Written by Mark Chick on 2024-12-11 at 07:55

Great inventions of cycling: gravel.

Finally, a use for gravel! We can all be thankful to marketing departments of bicycle manufacturers.

Credit: Cycling Weekly magazine.

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[#]Cycling #Gravel #Mud #CycloCross #CX #Veldrijden #BikeTooter

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Written by Mark Chick on 2024-12-11 at 07:56

Text of magazine article

Great Inventions of Cycling 4.5 billion years ago: Gravel

Gravel is, along with "the excuse", the oldest thing in cycling. Gravel forms from the erosion of bedrock, with quartz as the most common mineral. The shards of rock produced are quite sharp, but the edges are normally rounded off as they're washed downstream in a river. It's important that not all the sharp bits are eliminated, because otherwise gravel wouldn't be nearly as useful for creating punctures.

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Written by Mark Chick on 2024-12-11 at 07:56

For its first few billion years gravel was essentially useless, since no one had invented the bicycle. Even when that finally happened, for the following 150 years if it was used at all it was for making surfaced roads, which was as misguided a use for it as you could possibly think of.

Worse than that, in races it was common to get marshals to go and look for gravel on the inside of sharp corners and then actually, unbelievably, use brooms to remove it.

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Written by Mark Chick on 2024-12-11 at 07:56

Happily, in recent years, all this has changed. Gravel has taken up its rightful place at the centre of every major bike manufacturer's marketing strategy.

It has become a valuable resource for stage race directors striving to randomly torpedo the hopes of GC contenders. And it's become a means by which the UCl can drum up more sponsor revenue by inventing a whole new World Championships.

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Toot

Written by Mark Chick on 2024-12-11 at 07:56

It's important not to confuse the rock fragments that make up gravel with the smaller particles that make up mud. Mud is only any use for cyclo-cross.

8 December, 2022 | Cycling Weekly

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Descendants