I’ve had my eye on the Nepomuk Narly.
But it falls in the territorial no man’s land.
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I’ll be honest with you when I started the original thread in 2022, I would never have thought it would be a hot button issue of what is the Midwest? Let alone needing to be debated yearly. 
Well, I may need to abandon ship on Barry Roubaix, work might be sending me to Sea Otter which would be awesome. I have never been to Sea Otter but it is a bucket list trip for me, having it paid for is an even bigger bonus
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To all the MI folks from your southern (OH) friend…what’s the “best” gravel race up there? Which one has the least amount of sand (I’ve heard some horror stories)? Which one is closest to somewhere that would make a nice little 2.5-3 day family weekend (wife + 5 year old)?
People from MI don’t have friends in OH!
Get with @Justafatguy and get his barry ticket/slot. The event in itself needs to be experienced, stay in Kalamazoo or Grand rapids for the family sake of things.
If you really want to get frisky you can do the Moran and stay on Mackinac Island but you would really want to make that a “vacation”
I am originally from Cincinnati and speak on behalf of northern Indiana, we welcome him.
Look last night was the worst night of my life but I’m willing to get over that for some nice cycling events.
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I can recommend !
Thanks. I’ve looked into Barry before but that weekend doesn’t work for me - usually travel with guys to the Major Taylor Mountain Summit but this year have a family western National Park trip the week after so can’t pack too much in there.
Moran I’ll put on the list. My coworker heads up to the UP for MTB rides a few times a year and would probably be interested. Although that’s the week after the Marji isn’t it? So maybe not.
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Yes Marji is around the same weekend - and hats off to your friend because marji is just not a good time haha (IMO).
Other races that are not sand heavy you can consider are;
Melting Mann - Mar 23 (usually icy, muddy, wet etc)
Waterloo G&G - April 27
Cow Pie Classic - Jun 8
Uncle Johns Dirty Ride (basically a road race the gravel is so tame) - Sep 8
Thats all I can think of off the top of my head where the races do not have a lot of sand.
question for midwest guys
Ohio has Black fork as its best event, its not sold out yet.
Indiana has dust bowl for its best event, sold out in 2 days.
Why does one sell out and the other doesnt?
I have a theory but wanted others input
Black Fork sold out in 7 days last year. I’m not quite sure what’s different this year (although there are only 30 spots left so probably just a couple days left). I don’t know much about the Dust Bowl - but it appears to be closer to Indy than BFGG is to Columbus. I’m on the Northeast side of town and it still takes me about 75 minute drive to get there.
In terms of the RACE - looking at the Dust Bowl course profile - this is WAY flatter and seems like it could actually be a race? Maybe not? - but the start of BFGG is BRUTAL and the leading group (of like…3 guys) will be gone by mile 8 at the latest.
If you’re just there for the event. It’s fun to hang out at BF after but there’s not a ton going on. Like one food truck and a dude with a guitar last year and only a handful of vendors. Appears as though the expo at DB is bigger.
So basically. I don’t know. LOL. What’s your theory?
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Ohio makes all there races brutal, which makes all the races a solo ride. Why pay for a race when you will end up riding solo in.
If you look at the Ohio gravel series each race keeps trying to become more epic. Epic doesn’t bring most people to the race
I agree. I sent my hot take into the podcast a few months back about gravel races without categories is just an expensive bike ride and they seemed to not agree. But I guess I had it framed with Ohio races in mind since that’s what I know. They’re always on open, public roads (there are a few that have like 1 mile of private land in a 50+ mile race. Or maybe one or two guarded intersections). So why am I paying $75 to ride alone when I could just go do it on my schedule for free when the weather is the best?
Ohio has the most brutal gravel races in the country I would say. One was so brutal they changed it from a gravel race to an adventure race.
My view point is that by making stuff so hard/epic it keeps people away from the events.
Not saying thats false but thats a pretty hot take, coast to coast in MI is pretty freaking brutal.
C2C is pretty brutal, I have done it and enjoyed the first 100 miles.
Take a look at the ohio gravel races and find one that is easy. Someone put together a race that has 25k feet of climbing in like 100 miles.
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Do you recall what race that is? Just browsing thorough the list of the OGR it seems they want to be a MTB series 
Hey y’all. Don’t forget that we have a Midwest Events for 2024 thread now. I’ve linked it below!
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