Because at scale, thousands of people spending enormous amounts of time and money to do events they’re pretending not to want to do well at while spending an equal amount of time trying to be clever online makes a shitty, unappealing, uninviting, toxic cycling culture.
Remember the average American I described? Wouldn’t the world be significantly better if even a fraction of those people improved their health, got outside, pushed themselves, and met like-minded people because of gravel cycling?
Yes, the world would be a better place.
But what if these new potential cyclists were researching gravel and they come across some bitter, edgelord shit like ‘The Death of Gravel Cycling,’ which informs them that this new, exciting, positive thing they might do with their lives is dying, inherently flawed, expensive, pointless, oh and by the way you’re slow, not really a competitor. You’re better off just riding from your house and getting shitfaced at the bar. What would their takeaway be?
Don’t try. Do something else.