I’ve watched more road racing the past four weeks than I have in my entire life. For once, the men's and women’s Tour de France aligned with my training and race calendar, and I found myself looking forward to watching the replay of the stages and avoiding my phone every morning since early July.
The juxtaposition of training for and racing gravel races with watching the world's biggest road races has been the source of endless entertainment. When I see jerseys with only one or two gels. When a team car appears at a flick of a wrist to deliver a new wheel or an entire bike. When the bikes only have one cute little water bottle. When I realised tour stages are just five hours long at most. But then I see the terrifying, 80kph descents in a peloton in the rain, and remember us gravel racers don’t have it so bad. I’ll carry 100 ounces of water and thousands of grams of carbs and shut my mouth.
