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Reflections on the Inaugural Arkansas Graveler: This Is Personal

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Reflections on the Inaugural Arkansas Graveler: This Is Personal

A local Arkansan who grew up in Bentonville, Hilary Lex left home after high school, swearing never to return. Fate brought her back and she rewrote the narrative of her relationship with The Natural State because of one unexpected thing: The Inaugural Arkansas Graveler. The Arkansas Graveler is a mixed-surface, 6-day ride across the state of Arkansas that takes cyclists from the rolling hills and hollers of the Ozarks down into the Arkansas Delta river bottoms. Read on below for Hilary’s personal recap…

The Bells of DOOM & Seth Wood’s Rodeo Labs Flaanimal Singlespeed

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The Bells of DOOM & Seth Wood’s Rodeo Labs Flaanimal Singlespeed

I knew nothing of the lore of gremlin bells when I signed on for Ozark Gravel DOOM, at the urging of a friend after a coveted spot opened in the sold-out 2023 event. The race had been on my radar for some time, though I was intimidated by its 390-mile, mostly dirt, route that starts and finishes at the iconic Oark General Store, in a small town by the same name, and traces the boundary of Arkansas’ Ozark St. Francis National Forest. Anything billed as a throwdown by one of the hardest riders around – route designer and event organizer, Andrew Onermaa – was sure to test my limits.

An Exercise in Agency: Hailey Moore Reflects After Her Ozark Gravel Doom Route ITT

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An Exercise in Agency: Hailey Moore Reflects After Her Ozark Gravel Doom Route ITT

My mom worries about me when I’m out riding my bike, for multiple days at a time, alone. By the way, I turned 30 in March. She says it’s not that she doesn’t trust me, it’s other people she’s worried about. And while she’s never outlined this explicitly, I’m sure the fact that I’m an only daughter—not an only son—also plays a role. But, to her credit, she’s getting more comfortable (or, better at hiding her discomfort) with the idea of me pursuing solo endeavors. This time around, when I called her from the car to let her know I was en route to the Ozarks to attempt an Individual Time Trial on the 380-mile Ozark Gravel Doom route, instead of a flat-lined, “…what?” I heard her pause, then—on the tail-end of an exhale—say, “Okay.”

Vos is Boss-Pidcock of the Walk at the 2022 Cyclocross World Championships

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Vos is Boss-Pidcock of the Walk at the 2022 Cyclocross World Championships

A strange sensation grips the mind when a long drive begins in the darkness of predawn. The city remains still, holding onto its final few hours of sleep, and the highway remains virtually empty. There is a promise in the loneliness of the opening hours of long highway travel. Exits flutter by in the darkness; distant lights of tractor-trailers and roadside oasis’ are the only possible signs of life beyond the confines of my car. The falling snow has narrowed my concentration to the reflecting lines on the asphalt as I navigate south and west on my way to Fayetteville, Arkansas, for this year’s Cyclocross World Championships.

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Wake and Shred

On the Arkansas/Missouri border lies Tablerock Lake, one of the most expansive lakes west of the Mississippi River. The area is also home to an expansive MTB network, Eureka Springs. A group of riders took to the wake and shredded the trails in the same day.

A Father Son Tour Divide Duo

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A Father Son Tour Divide Duo

Happy Father’s Day!

On our road trip up to Bozeman for the Swift Campout, we mosied up through Abiquiu to visit some friends who own a nice little tract of land in the hills. At a favorite lunch stop of ours, we bumped into a father and son bikepacking duo from Arkansas. They are riding the Tour Divide from south to north, beginning in New Mexico. They were 14 days into their trip when we bumped into them. They looked cooked!