A few weeks back, Val, Penn, and I fled the city on a Sunday
morning and took to the gravel of the Glory Hills west of Edmonton. We rolled our fat steeds along frozen back
roads under a brilliant, cold sky. We encountered five cars and three deer in
our 30 km. It was a glorious ride, indeed.
Now, we all know that gravel-road cycling is on the verge of
becoming a thing—all the big manufacturers are putting out gravel bikes and
gravel events are popping up like dust devils across the Midwest and elsewhere.
The benefits of gravel riding have been extolled by me and others for some time—namely
the lack of car traffic and the almost endless route possibilities. But winter gravel? Could it be a sub-thing
of that gravel thing?
I’ve learned that when it comes to winter cycling in these
parts, city roads, for the most part, are a no-go. Gunked up and narrowed down
by snow, ice, and snirt, they’re just not safe for bicycles. That means my
winter recreational riding is, generally, trail riding. And I can get behind
that—the pleasures of bombing around river valley trails on a fat bike have
been a revelation to me.
But somewintertimes, and especially
at this time of year, I get the itch to ride the open road, where we can see
beyond the trees, where we can ride long straight lines three abreast, where we
can get into an uninterrupted, steady rhythm, and where we can feel the wind
whipping across the white fields. And that’s where winter gravel riding comes
in.
Fat biking along frozen dirt roads may
be slower and colder than the summer gravel experience but it does offer a
reasonable facsimile of that experience. In fact, in some ways it might even be
better. Frozen gravel tends to be hard—pavement hard—and therefore much easier
to ride along than the soft, beachy conditions found on some summer backroads. Plus
there’s no dust.
And on more personal note, winter
gravel is a boon to my gravel glossary project. I identified a couple new seasonal
varieties of gravel on that ride, such as this specimen I’m calling Frozen
Latte.
If you’re getting tired of trails and thoughts of road
cycling start percolating through your winter brain, a frozen gravel ride may
be just the ticket. In fact, gravel glory may well be a dish best served cold.
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