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With spring snowstorms roaring across the American West this month, early season gravel runners have gotten a little wet. On Friday, the True Grit Gravel epic in St. George, Utah lived up to its name. But for Shayna Powless of Team Twenty24, it was also a monumental day on the bike.

“It was probably my longest race in the craziest conditions,” said the 26-year-old. “With all of these elements, the weather, the distance, the time spent on the bike, it was an extreme challenge.”

Powless won the 84 mile race with a time of just over six hours, finishing 55 minutes past male winner Ryan Standish (Orange Seal / Kenda / Ventum). Former pro MTB’er Tinker Juarez DNF’ed.

Powless’s trip to Utah to run on gravel in horrific conditions may seem like madness to some, but to Twenty24 manager Nicola Cranmer it was exactly the kind of experience she seeks for her teams. pro and devo in 2021, and possibly beyond. As road racing opportunities in North America have continued to dwindle in recent years, Cranmer has turned to non-traditional methods to prepare young women to become pros – specifically, esports and gravel.

“Someone like Shayna who, even though she’s been racing with us for a few years – she’s still in kind of a development stage,” Cranmer said. VeloNews. “So this victory was actually a huge confidence generator for her. When she is part of a road team, she is domesticated. When you ride for someone like Chloe [Dygert] or Jen [Valente], you help. In a gravel race, this gives him the opportunity to ride.

Gravel makes everyone happy

So, Powless, who currently lives and trains in the Florida plains, was he as excited as Cranmer was to test his running legs on 9,000 feet of climbing on a dirt track in the Western Desert ? Cranmer says the 10-runner team embraced the gravel with aplomb.

“Being a relatively individual sport, this is a huge opportunity,” said Cranmer. “In the weird year of last year with everything canceled, that’s what they wanted to do. There are so many gravel events on the calendar, and it’s like, “Oh, I’ve never been in this state, let’s go do this one!” It’s not about getting UCI points or any politics or positioning. it’s like, ‘Oh, that’s really fun and awesome.’ “

Cranmer, whose own professional career began with mountain biking in the 1980s, says the vibe of gravel events reminds him of those races – “participation and inclusiveness”.

Does that mean Cranmer is preparing his riders for professional gravel careers instead of the peloton?

“We’ll be doing road races towards the end of the season, but we’re trying to do what feels right to us and what makes us happy – and what makes me happy after 17!” Cranmer said. “It was really fun once again.”

Additionally, Cranmer has found that the pivot is not a bad business decision either. As 2020 has shown, the pandemic was good for bike brands, and those brands learned that the athletes and the teams they sponsored were incredibly nimble when it came to finding ways to keep content going. continuous even when the race was canceled.

“Our sponsors don’t say, ‘Hey, why don’t you have a road calendar, why don’t you go somewhere else and find some road races? “Said Cranmer.” Typically when it comes to gravel it’s not necessarily about the podium, it’s about experience. I just feel like we’re all in the same boat Everyone has the feeling “let’s get back to something.” And her lifestyle aspect is interesting to people.

Skills off the bike

Twenty24’s focus on gravel also opens the doors to other unconventional ways of training well-balanced riders. Because many gravel events are both long and self-sufficient, Cranmer says the women on the team receive extensive training to take care of themselves and their bikes for extended periods of time.

On Friday, a handful of Twenty24 runners will set off for a ride on the ‘Dirty Mt. The Lemmon Road, which turns the famous cobbled climb to the top of Mt Tucson. Lemmon in a rougher 100 mile affair; women will climb Mt. Lemmon via the 4 × 4 Redington Road before descending the serpentine paved road back into town.

“They will come out without support and have their own equipment,” Cranmer said. “They learn to repair and replace chains, to connect tires, [and] be completely autonomous. If they don’t know how to do something, they’re not supposed to ask their teammate to do it.

Then, on Tuesday, the team will take to the Spirit World 100 course outside of Patagonia, AZ. It’s a chance to piece together the course ahead of the November race date, as well as more time on the ground to deal with potential punctures, broken derailleurs and the discomfort of rattling on washboard roads. for hours.

The team has tentatively signed up for a dozen gravel races this year, and Cranmer wants the women to be prepared. Most gravel races do not allow outside support, and most of them are long, over often unforgiving terrain. That is to say: the 200 mile Unbound Gravel course in early June will be an opportunity for Team Twenty24 to test themselves physically, mentally and mechanically.

But Cranmer says, for the most part, the team is up to the challenge. While Twenty24 has a few American road races like Tour of the Gila, Redlands and the Joe Martin Stage Race on their calendar, it’s the gravel that has everyone excited the most.

“Joe Martin is in conflict with Transrockies [Gravel Royale stage race], but we want to do Transrockies, ”she said. “One of the girls said, ‘Well, we’ve got registrations already, we want to go racing.’ It’s not like we’re trying to be ‘this teamBut it’s like Shayna has been mountain biking. It’s dirt. It’s going well, so that’s what we’re going to do this year.