100,000 miles or 160,000km. The number of miles / kilometres recorded during the 10 years I began logging with my first GPS device, the Garmin 705. I won’t go deep into the plaudits of this device, but it has been a gamechanger. Starting in early September 2008, this moment signified the end of haphazardly logging my rides on a spreadsheet since the early 1990’s. Also gone was the requirement to create cue sheets for my exploratory rides. The Garmin 705 had legitimate mapping and routing capabilities!
10 years of offline data in Sport Tracks (I seldom upload to Strava).
Sure, there are plenty of people out there who ride more than I do, but for a bloke with a regular full-time job, and during the past four years, jamming in the Gravel Cyclist website and all that entails, I’m pretty happy I can still manage to ride about 10,000 miles / 16,000km per year.
What follows is a small selection of images from my last 10 years of riding over 100,000 miles / 160,000 kilometres, gravel and road.
My first gravel bike, a Redline Conquest CX bike, all Campagnolo.My first home-made light, which still works!That time I tried cyclocross. Took 3rd then hung it up! Photo by Amanda Adams.Post-race, Webster Roubaix, Webster, Florida. The coal miner edition.Pre-riding Rouge Roubaix, Louisiana. L: Some bloke, R: K-Dogg.L’Eroica, Italy. The full-monty course. 1987 Vitus with Mavic groupset.First appearance at Hilly Billy Roubaix. Let the mud begin!Wild horses in North Dakota.After the Gold Rush Gravel Grinder, Spearfish, South Dakota.Vermont gravel.Coastal South Australia.My first Dirty Kanza 200 wearing loaner welding glasses (mine broke). Photo by Linda Guerrette.Riding around Waycross, Georgia.Bridge out? No problem!Journalist sign on at the Taiwan King of the Mountain Challenge.Vermont Overland Grand Prix with drop-bar MTB.Luggage on walkabout, civvies gravel ride on a road bike.Crusher in the Tushar!Training ride with AG2R, pre-Tour Down Under (they crushed me).Domenico Pozzovivo carrying the spare wheels. Tour Down Under.Near Boulder, Colorado. Smooth gravel.Taiwan KOM Challenge aboard a cyclocross bike!K-Dogg in Australia, roadie style gravel.My penultimate roadie race, made the winning break, 2nd, Masters 35+.Canada! Amazing gravel roads in Quebec and metric 🙂When I used to own an MTB. Somewhere in North Carolina.Watching K-Dogg fix a flat at night time. We’re super helpful!Start of the Vermont Overland Grand Prix.Relaxing, coastal South Australia.Sludge hike-a-bike, way North Florida.My first Gravel Worlds, Lincoln, Nebraska.Castillo de Brolio, Italy. Nowhere do you find amazing gravel and history like this!The gravel roads of Tuscany.Done and dusted at L’Eroica! My #1 lifetime bike ride, an amazing experience.Always stop for turtles.One of my favorite roads in North Central Florida.With the Lotto Soudal lads, Tour Down Under (Thomas de Gendt on my left).Love Valley Roubaix.Bison at Theodore Roosevelt State Park. I rode past real slow…The lads at the inaugural First Standard Deluxe, Alabama.Hike-a-bike at Iron Cross, Michaux State Forest.Shenandoah Valley gravel, Virginia, USA.Shenandoah Valley gravel.Always help out a stuck goat.The beauty of North Florida.Edge of the Barossa Valley, South Australia.Riding a Jamis Renegade Steel review bike with friends.Thinking about the next day. L’Eroica, Italy.Beautiful rental villa for L’Eroica, Italy.The one event I host, Heartbreaker Cycling Invitational, Gainesville, Florida.Australian Galahs, chowing down with a solitary Magpie.Railway desolation, South Australia.Tunica Hills, Rouge Roubaix, Louisiana.Badlands of South Dakota.Burned out gravel, post-bushfire, South Australia.Mud at L’Eroica.
Thanks for reading!
I hope you’re setting your own personal mileage milestones. Here’s to another 100,000 miles / 160,000 kilometres, or whatever your goals may be. Keep it fun!
1 – Love the picture of the Wild Horses, that had to be very memorable
2 – the picture from North Central Florida of the overhanging trees on the dirt road, can you reveal where this is ?
Jom,
You’ve been the main inspiration for me to become a GRAVEL cyclist about 6 years ago.
Like you, I was jaded by the road racing scene and it’s politics, but your website, PM’s and encouragement has helped me rediscover the enjoyment of cycling again AND with the help of others to form the CVGCC with it’s 141 membership.
For that, I thank you.
Cheers
Sven de LAGG
Jom, thanks for all the content and great pictures/ video. Your advice on turning with your hips and not the bars is something I work on all the time. It really works. Working full time, running the site and creating all the content makes it amazing that you had any time left to log all those miles. Have there been years when you rode much more or less then 10,000 or has it been pretty consistent? Look forward to every post!
Thanks again, Jesse
Awesome pics and adventures. JOM and Gravel Cyclist is THE go to authority for all things gravel. You do it with intelligence, wit, and style. Thanks for all you do JOM. OY! Mate!
1 – Love the picture of the Wild Horses, that had to be very memorable
2 – the picture from North Central Florida of the overhanging trees on the dirt road, can you reveal where this is ?
The bike has taken you many places… Awesome
Thanks for sharing
Hi Ken, #2 is near Williston, Florida. The Live Oak trees are amazing.
Really impressive -amazing stats – love following your adventures and equipment reviews – thanks for sharing ally’s do
Greg
Those are some fantastic photos!
This is really cool! Thanks for sharing and I so appreciate the GravelCyclist! You inspired me to build my first gravel wheel set(s) and gravel bike.
Great pics JOM – thanks for sharing.
Jom,
You’ve been the main inspiration for me to become a GRAVEL cyclist about 6 years ago.
Like you, I was jaded by the road racing scene and it’s politics, but your website, PM’s and encouragement has helped me rediscover the enjoyment of cycling again AND with the help of others to form the CVGCC with it’s 141 membership.
For that, I thank you.
Cheers
Sven de LAGG
Jom, thanks for all the content and great pictures/ video. Your advice on turning with your hips and not the bars is something I work on all the time. It really works. Working full time, running the site and creating all the content makes it amazing that you had any time left to log all those miles. Have there been years when you rode much more or less then 10,000 or has it been pretty consistent? Look forward to every post!
Thanks again, Jesse
Awesome pics and adventures. JOM and Gravel Cyclist is THE go to authority for all things gravel. You do it with intelligence, wit, and style. Thanks for all you do JOM. OY! Mate!
Wonderful chronicle, I would like to ride at least half of the places you have before I’m done.
Just awesome!
JOM, thanks for the site and the content. You have given me plenty of ideas for future gravel events. Keep on keepin’ on!
Congratulations! An incredible milestone. I hope you continue to share your miles with us. Thanks JOM.