Welcome back to Holy Spirit of Gravel: The Podcast, the only gravel podcast willing to say out loud what everyone else is whispering into their Wahoo head units: Did Lifetime just deal Gravel Earth a quiet, corporate deathblow… or are we finally watching two gravel series split into their true identities?
LTGP came out with a star studded female line up and a unknown-ish euro coded male line up (simon pellaud coded if you will). Will the most talented roster ever live up to its name?
People are dogging on Gravel Earth series right now but is it a bit too early to pile on?
Does any of it even matter because we are just two normies (out of many) who will watch anything presented to us anyway and find ways to talk about it while also bringing up Chase Wark regularly?
Lifetime rolls out the prize purse, the infrastructure, the media machine… and suddenly half the hitters are signing NDAs and smiling for drone shots. Meanwhile, Gravel Earth is posting artsy European B-roll and hoping the Americans remember how passports work.
We’ll break down:
Europeans invading Leadville like it’s a cultural exchange program with altitude sickness
Americans descending on Traka trying to cosplay as Girona locals
Gravel Worlds deciding it might actually be Unbound’s real rival… and not just the quirky cousin
BWR quietly sharpening knives
And unaffiliated races like Mid South whispering, “You know we were cooler before everyone started chasing series points, right?”
Plus:
Our totally not-actionable new bike pitches for Scott
The Dylan Johnson backlash, which is the gravel version of a bar fight in a Whole Foods parking lot
Privateers telling their fanbases to stand down in the comments like they’re running a militia
The Rift being spiritually annexed by Cuckoo Gravel, whether it likes it or not
And Holy Spirit of Gravel reminding everyone that she “DMs everyone,” but still refusing to say what those spicy insider messages actually contain. Classified. Sealed. Buried under the dangerous feed zone that everyone hates but actively contributes to its potentiality for disaster.
The end-of-season list highlights notable achievements within the sport, including, but not limited to, exceptional performances and landmark moments. This is a not an exhaustive list, and the omission of certain events or individuals does not imply a lack of significance, but rather reflects the necessarily selective nature of such a compilation and the mental duress of what it takes to produce a satire podcast for a niche sport.
Gravel is over for 2025 (unless you live in a hot place, now is our time to shine) . And privateers and normies alike have never been happier! Gravel racing is more fun to talk about than to actually DO anyway. And do we ever talk...it's a long one.
If anything mentioned in this pod offends you or we forgot about something....blame Holy's cohost who is desperately trying to get her cancelled.
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Welcome, normies, podcasters, privateers, Ben Delaney’s frenemies, and everyone who thinks they’re too cool for their local non-gravel group ride — this is the Holy Spirit of Gravel Awards 2025.
Tonight we honor the brave souls who attacked in the feed zone, denied it later on Instagram, and still somehow posted their power files publicly. Remember: gravel doesn’t believe in team tactics… unless your ‘non-team’ has matching kits, a nutrition sponsor, and a Team House with a full-time videographer and espresso machine.
In a sport where cancel culture means reporting your opponent for renting an Airbnb too close to the start line, we’re here to celebrate imperfection, chaos, and the beautiful delusion that this is still about fun.
We’ve got heroes, we’ve got villains, and by the end of tonight at least one of you will be crying like Chase Wark watching his own documentary. If you came here for structure, fairness, or clarity — you’ve taken a wrong turn somewhere around mile 47.
So clip in, unclip immediately because we’re on loose dirt, and let’s begin the only awards show that still refuses to define what gravel actually is.
Hannah Shell and Holy Spirit of Gravel meet up in the digital space after meeting in the real one to discuss all things Gravel Racing, International Travel, Sponsors, Why Gravel Mexico is so cool, What Happened at Unbound, The "Real" Gravel Worlds, Elevating The Women's Field, Road Being Stressful, Does The Feed Have Beef With HSOG?, Schedule Planning and much more. Hannah Shell has been around to see the gravel field transform in recent years and has thoughtful insights on what that means for the future.
Just when you thought the season was over and we could all go back to our normal lives not having to care about the most niche sport thats ever existed...GRAVEL BURN in South Africa debuts. It's extremely dialed and activated, probably because its put on by the same people who do Cape Epic (an MTB race I'm forced to care about because it is gravel-adjacent). Call it the Matt Beers effect!!! South Africa! Springboks! Toyota!
Anyway, young cyclist girls are all wanting DJ decks to compliment their on-the-bike skills. Call that the Alexis Skarda effect!
Before we get to any of that though we go through the On The Attack Life Time videos and some last bit of Big Sugar housekeeping til I remember something funny LDC and Deb said/did. I made some reels. Did you see them? I'll get back to making memes.
There was some interesting Midsouth news (I'll still find a way to fuck up their race).
Chris Froome was/is on that team.
DFL Culture - here to stay or downright offensive???
When editing the sound for this episode, I accidentally activated the software's AI singularity and it went ahead and summarized this episode and this is what it said:
The episode touches on the dynamic and sometimes chaotic state of content around races like 'Big Sugar' and Grazel Burn, delving into the complexities of race organization, team compositions, and the broader cultural aspects of the competitive and social sides of gravel racing. Speculations and commentary span from race logistics, fan engagement, marketing strategies, and potential industry changes. The hosts also ponder on the future of podium celebrations, cultural shifts in the sport, and the possible integration of new race formats.
It called the race GraZel Burn.
Big Sugar Gravel in Bentonville. Last stop in the Life Time Grand Prix. Your dad's favorite meme account (where he gets like half the jokes), Holy Spirit of Gravel, was there! And once again she didn't actually ride.
Instead of commentating on the race, this time she was embedded with a privateer - and a legacy privateer at that - LDC aka Lauren De Crescenzo and her partner-in-crime/mechanic/life coach/in house guru Deb to film and produce her version of *meaningful* and *powerful* Gravel Content. It was a blast (according to Holy herself).
Shout out to LDC and Deb because without them none of this would have been possible.
This episode covers Holy's adventures with the gals and also her own personal activations.
Topics include:
Two big Gravel races happened and neither were even Gravel races. (Does anyone still capitalize the world "Gravel" or is that just us?) Anywho, join the Holy Spirit of Gravel meme page admin ("Holy" for short) and her Gravel Dad best friend has they discuss Little Sugar MTB race and the UCI Gravel World Championships. Like I said neither was what we come to expect from your typical gravel race.
It all begs the question. Is the soul of elite Gravel MTB races? or is it euro-coded dusty road races? Does it matter at all? or is what really matters the pro athletes we ride along side and we connect with? We discuss it all in this episode of the pod.
Also! Big Sugar is coming up in a few days and the Holy Spirit of Gravel will be hosting a panel (i.e. activating at an activation) with the support of MAAP and some bike shop called The HUB Bike Lounge...sounds fancy! Come heckle her in person, film and tag the drama so she can show her mom. Thursday 10/16 at 5pm. We talk the the pro-normie relationship and where it fits into the future of Gravel Cycling. See you there! Also Holy skipped last weekends grassroots race so she should actually be fired and cancelled.
Topics include:
Lots going on in this episode but it's mostly Holy complaining about getting harassed (just kidding, she loves it) by Gravel Dads at a privateer curious local, grassroots gravel race.
First off, Tom Pidcock is doing UCI Gravel Worlds because he didn't get his Vuelta stage win. If he wins the rainbow jersey, he WILL line up at Unbound so he can fight with Keegan (also in marathon mountain bike rainbow) about the definition of Xtreme Gravel. The Gravel Earth series is over but we will endure and solder on. Doss Gravel made Holy like riding Gravel again.
Topics include:
Ranxo Gravel:
The Women's Top Three
The European Champion crashed
Holy Spirit of Gravel ruins an organic gravel moment by taking a selfie with the winners
Gravel Earth Series 2025: Did it WIN gravel 2025?
After the success of Sea Otter Girona, Launching Traka USA in Stillwater Oklahoma
Bicycle Station Interview Recap:
Riding the Midsouth Hungover 2026?
Video content coming soon?
Small business is endlessly fascinating
Reading the worst Google Reviews for the Bicycle Station, a small bike shop in Indiana
Doss Gravel:
AirBNB accommodations are the new tire width
Lauren Stephens interview
Hayden Christian, Justin McQuerry and Chase Collins
Chase Collins comedy culture critic deserves his own documentary
How to win the 30 mile race of a grassroots race
How to win tandem e-bike fat tire category at a grassroots race.
Holy podiumed but missed the podium
Someone wise once said recording a podcast between unhinged meme admin Holy Spirit of Gravel and youtube starlets The Bicycle Station would be like trying to herd cats...and we can proudly say they were not entirely wrong.
HSOG needs a new bike and she thought who better to ask than the team that has tried just about every bike under the sun and lived to tell the tale.
Jesse, Chase and Trey are content creators, small business owners and race organizers favorites of Gravel enthusiasts from across the normie and hitter spectrum.
Topics include
We don't know much.. but we know slightly more than you (unless you were there, because we werent). Some big races happened this weekend, Sea Otter Girona, USA Gravel Nationals and the European Gravel Championships.
And sometimes its not what actually happens during race, (because how are supposed to know without some coverage and lengthy captions) but about how we, the normie, perceive the action and then catalogue them into our memory stores. We make connections and references and build on the narrative of our own design. On a physical AND metaphysical level Gravel Cycling and Gravel Racing is truly what you make of it.
Riffs include:
we had the 2025 Life Time Chequamegon MTB Festival finish line livestream on while we were recording and it ruined this episode and we will probably never pod again because of it
topics include
Maybe you've heard of the one of the best and most elite privateers on the planet by the name of Rosa Kloser?
Well if you haven't then where the hell were you while the Rift/Corn Cup/German Nattys were going on?
Holy Spirit gets ACTIVATED with the other half of Team RK to talk all things GRAVEL vs Road, HipHop, Corn Sweat, Mud Sweat, Academia and who's the Juan Ayuso of the women's peloton.
Topics Include
Protests, Bike Thefts, Ultra-Distance, Movies ... its all here!
Holy Spirit of Gravel wonders: Are you my best friend? Listen to one of the most unhinged gravel cycling riff pods ever recorded. Listen to us write the script for Gravel Privateer: The Movie in real time. Is this a prestige gravel hiatus? It must be, because listen to us go.
Riffs Include:
From the heavens to the corn fields…this episode is somtimes casual, sometimes erratic Lauf Gravel Worlds riffin. You were all either there or watching the livestream anyway. Or commenting "cross is coming" on a stray piece of mud-coded media.
-presented by MGrills or MLGrills, we arent sure
Holy Spirit has her first in-race media gig from core4 in Iowa. She recaps the vibes of the race, the course conditions, and what it takes to elevate a race into the gravel discourse for a weekend. Maybe every race doesn't need a 6 hours livestream to capture the hearts of gravel fans? All-in-all a great weekend for gravel and core4.
Topics include:
We weren't there and don't know a whole lot about Mountain Bikes but that doesn't stop us from talking about the most gravel-coded MTB race in the world. Or maybe its just X-Treme Gravel?
Holy Spirit and the Gravel Dad cohost ate at a really activated pizza spot featured on Barstool Sports and then just decided to pod before she went back home because even tho the vibes were off, the pizza was really good! Also Holy Spirit briefly mixed up Heathland Gravel and Latvia's Gravel Weekend, she should resign from the Core4 media team. Also Holy Spirit wants to commit fraud and use the funds to start a team of privateers. Also thanks for listening, please rate/review and tell your friends.
Topics include:
Alternate title for the podcast episode is
“Did Axelle Dubau Prevot’s INSANE Leadville Block inspire her sister to win TdFF???”
Your favorite unhinged Gravel podcast breaks down the paved race called Tour de France Femmes avec Whoop Cycling and DESTROYS the critiques of “women don’t know how to ride bikes”. Also Megre Gravel was happening during the queen’s stage and apparently pro cycling stats has a hidden tab for gravel races.
Topics include:
The Holy Spirit of Gravel digs in on two weeks of gravel and whatever Leadville stage race is because we were getting sick of the Tour (we love it but). Gravel Earth Series seems to be winning the aesthetics war with their women’s rift coverage… I think the men’s was in there somewhere. Foco Fondo had a dialed, grassroots-coded livestream where we could see some normie style aid station usage. Leadville stage race was stacked but does Holy Spirit even care about MTB? Will Daxton Mock/Lance Haidet’s family break the Gravel Database Project servers because they checked their profiles too many times? (We are too cheap to have a good server). Are vibes-based race calendars the new high carb movement? Why does Holy Spirit wear the same shirt in every video she’s soft doxxed herself in? What actually happened in the Lithuanian forest all those years ago? Do Lithuanian gravel races have 10k prize purses is that just middle of nowhere North Dakota?
These questions and many more get answered on today’s pod.
Oh yeah? Should we continue to do political pundit impressions on the pod?
Here’s that awesome Kate Courtney video I was talking about: https://youtu.be/xFJsR8bG6es?si=fg2nWUOq0BpkCm19
Holy Spirit of Gravel DESTROYS NBC Sports' coverage of the Tour De France. As much as we enjoy this time of year, why does the Peacock coverage in America feel disconnected from the things that we love about cycling in America? Are we too gravel-pilled, or is the broadcast disengaged from the best parts of cycling in America?
-guys in suits
-Bradley Wiggins and George Hincapie working out
-track cycling to UCI British Olympic pipeline
-ketones and veteran owned podcast products
-the fallacy of having an American be the best
-improperly using Sepp Kuss, Quinn Simmons, Matteo Jorgenson,
-Quinn Simmons to Miami Blazers pipeline
-Broke Knights
-Has Lance Armstrong been memory-holed with Zoomers and Gen Alpha?
-we do NOT talk about Tadej vs Jonas
Presented by The Feed presented by Nathan’s hot dogs presented by San Luis Potosí tourism board presented by Campaign for Nick Blouin for Utah Presented by Crusher in the Tusher presented by
Today marks our first ever interview on the Holy Sprit of Gravel podcast. We are calling this series the Beyond Privateer Chronicles (until I think of something better).
We're joined by German pro elite hitter Paul Sandmann. You might know him for his 38th place result in Unbound 2025. He pulls back the curtain on life as a lesser-known gravel hitter, if the privateer model is worth it, and the differences between Euro gravel and American prestige gravel. Oh and he's Rosa Kloser's boyfriend.
We here at HSOG productions make an effort to highlight the lesser known hitters whose stories deserve to be told.
We get to hear unfiltered views from inside the men’s elite field, such as:
-Tim DeClerq policing the Unbound breakaway
-The future of steel/metal/magnesium bikes
-The best tire to rollover a water bottle in a rut
-What can sponsors truly add to a privateer
-Who gets to debrief first: Paul or Rosa?
-politics of Unbound Drafting
-is Chase Wark shadow banned in Europe?
-are Hambini and Peak Torque accurate from an engineer-privateer point of view?
-what it’s like being a member of Team RK (team Rosa Kloser)
-how to travel with your bike like a pro
And much more…
We hope you enjoy the first in what will be a continuing series in highlighting the best of our deranged sport.