Utah gravel is no joke, and the Wasatch All-Road sufferfest was no exception. After a placating 9-mile neutral roll out on flat, smooth paved roads across the Heber Valley, we hit the Wasatch Wall, whose stats (11.5 miles long with 3,550 ft of elevation gain for an average of 5.8%, according to Strava) only tell half the story. Extended pitches of 15+ % over soft, loose, painfully rocky, and impossibly washboarded surfaces confined my pedal stroke to 70 RPMs or less, seated, because of the lack of traction, for almost the entire one hour and twenty minutes of the endless ascent. The next few climbs were somewhat smoother, but the damage was done, and I’d resigned myself to survival mode. Any hope of feeling like I was “racing” had gotten bounced into the wind on the sadistic slopes of the Wall. The difference between last week’s Midwestern gravel autobahns and these eastern Wasatch goat tracks embodies the “Spirit of Gravel” more wholesomely than any aerobar-free Unbound lead group could ever hope to. If there exists some arguably navigable byway, preferably with a few smallish loose rocks scattered about, then gravel we shall call it, and race it with drop bars we must. The backroads of your local county, no matter how steep, sandy, or trashed by OHVs, are ripe for the next round of gravel masochism. 📸 @justinpdiamond & @thewasatchallroad