My beef with Stetina is that he complains about it becoming too pro while competing in the pro gravel series.
Feel free to drop your sponsors, drop your mechanic, sell your van, back out of the Lifetime Series and enjoy the “spirit” with the rest of us.
Stetina seems fine with the spirit of gravel when he’s winning and not so fine with it when he’s getting beat. To really say, I don’t respect the mountain bikers because they skip the aid stations because they are wearing camelbak’s is ludicrous in my mind. If you don’t want to get beat at the aid stations, wear a camelbak! Seems like lesson learned to me, do better next time.
In the last few miles of Unbound someone was giving out Busch Lights at the end of their driveway. I hope Pete stopped there.
Also it’s been interesting to see Payson go from the spirit of gravel rules to running the pack and such. Like a light finally went off that these are races with a lot of $ on the line. Glad Keegan talked some sense into him haha
Now that’s the spirit of gravel. Neve turn down a busch light camo can edition
I’m absolutely loving the series and I hope they expand on the concept for 2023. Ditto in wishing they’d cover both the Men and Women at each event and I think there is a huge opportunity to dive deeper into all the storylines. And say what you will about Sophia but you have to admire her fire.
It was the John Deere can.
Maybe Pete has a deal with New Holland though so it could have been a sponsor thing if he didn’t stop.
At a gravel event I do annually (coincidentally the same day as Unbound), the last aid station has coolers packed full of PBR and mountains of bacon.
Exactly. The spirit of gravel is still out there but if you’re racing for $250,000 you may miss it.
It’s literally Michael Jordan saying, " the glove" and then laughing in the last dance. People love cutthroat male athletes.
Or attack the guys wearing them on early climbs since they’re making a strategic choice to carry the extra weight. It’s a tactical decision with advantages and disadvantages, it’s not cheating.
The first (and only) aid station at the Frostbite 50 back in Feb 20 had coolers of Hamm’s.
I love me some Hamm’s. 
Exactly…I was trying to be diplomatic. 
it is not far off from Strickland in 2021 when he was trying to gatekeep…the reality was that he was getting beat.
Now Stetina is a FAR better rider than Strickland ever was and has the ability to still compete with the best guys, IMO…his 2022 season was somehwat derailed with all the challenges around his kids’ birth. Props to him for being able to perform at the level he did in the second half of the year with all he had going on.
Wasn’t Stetinas tag line “Pete ruined gravel” or something like that in his first couple years? And now he’s complaining it’s ruined??
It’s just a marketing tag line. Nothing more. No need to start looking at stats. I think everyone understands marketing does not equal facts.
100% agree. definitely want to stand up for sophia again. if a dude talks like that theyre a bad ass. but females are all just supposed to be sweet and nice. hell no.
i have no defense for stetina though.
The thing I thought was a little off was how it seemed they went a bit out of their way to portray all the other women as sweet, nice or virtuous, but then sophia’s sound bytes were all discordant notes relative to the group. sarah was fun-loving, hannah was hard-working, haley was seeking something bigger than winning, rose was capping off a decorated career. Sofia was the one harsh note they played and it seemed like it was done intentionally through the use of very short sound bytes.
I think they kind of did something similar with Keegan, but he didn’t say enough or was just too chill to really make it add up. But even Stetina, Payson, Russell, Alexey, Cole all were kind of heart-warming or sympathetic stories, even Stetina.
Seems very odd if they tried to make both Sophia and Keegan out like they were the “win at all costs” villians of the series.
Stetina is definitely getting labeled as a whiner. He got called out for sending the aerobar email and then the whole aid station fiasco with SBGRVL blew up in his face. At the end of the day this is racing and if it’s within the rules it should be fair game. Lots of sponsorship dollars on the line for these athletes to compete for. It Stetina doesn’t like it he can always ride with the rest of the amateurs midpack and enjoy the “Spirit of Gravel”…
I love Sofia’s fiery demeanor. I think she is at her best when that fire is stoked. She wanted to prove a mountain biker could win and Unbound and she did it. Although not part of the GP, I loved seeing her and Haley tear up the Cape Epic.
At Leadville, my wife and I had a chance to talk to her the day before at the Specialized booth. She was incredibly friendly and kind, but when we talked about the race it seemed something was off. I wished her luck and she said she needed it. The next time I saw her was as I rode up Columbine only to see her walking down after she gave her wheel to Finsty. Her heart was not in it that day.
Just finished the Unbound episode. What a great series, super well produced. Looking forward to the racing this year, mostly to see how Trekky (Brendan Johnston) goes, compared to the Americans. Ten Dam seems like a cool dude.