It may sound cliche, but 2024 was a year of many ups and downs. The biggest success of the season, as well as my entire cycling career, was undoubtedly the victory at the U.S. Gravel Nationals. But it was also a year of challenges, bad luck, and all the other usual complications. In this article for the Mosaic Cycles Blog, I will look back on the good, the bad, and the ugly that 2024 delivered, while also shining some light on the various wonderful bikes that made it all possible.
The year started well, despite another wet and challenging winter that made high-volume training sometimes difficult. Fenders were mounted on my GT-1 iAR, additional winter gear from Q36.5 was ordered, I smashed out an ‘Hour of Power’ on my RT-1 iTR in the pouring rain, and countless base miles were ticked off on all the bikes. After riding the southern half of the California Coast with a couple friends in late January, it was time to kick the racing off.
I landed on a handful of early season podiums, mostly on the top step. I won the Huffmaster Hopper, one of my favorite races all year that also happens to be a part of our cherished local off-road series, the Grasshopper Adventure Series.
I was second in the Road Race at the Sea Otter Classic and won the Gravel Race the next day. I came frustratingly close to the podium at Valley of Tears and Midsouth, but a few weeks later managed to attack late to win the only 2024 UCI Gravel World Series race in the U.S. in Fayetteville, Arkansas.
My build into Unbound went quite well and I thoroughly enjoyed logging massive hours in preparation for that savage event. I even made the trip to U.S. Pro Road Nationals, where I raced my RT-1 iTR to a finish in the reduced chase group.
Unfortunately my race at Unbound was riddled with many challenging mechanicals, as is sadly so often the case there. As I’ve said before and will likely say again about that race, “we’ll try again next year”…
Then came time for the mid-sumer megatrip. In each of the last three seasons I have spent a good chunk of time in Europe through the middle of the summer to attend various training camps and races. This year was no different. After Unbound, I briefly popped back to California to swap my trusty GT-1 i45 for my GT-1 iAR. After a quick flurry of unpacking and repacking, I flew to Toronto to race another UCI Gravel World Series event, where I again landed on the podium, despite a hard slam in training the day before the race. After a quick stopover in New York for a wedding, I set off for Zürich, Switzerland. I ended up spending almost a month based in the countryside outside of Zürich, racing additional UCI gravel races in Germany and Southern Switzerland. This was a particular highlight of the season as I connected these two races with an insane alpine bikepacking trip first from Zürich to Villars sur Ollon for the next race, before dipping into France, ultimately returning to Switzerland to traverse the country back to Zürich. This trip was easily my favorite week of riding all summer as the routes were stunning, the weather was optimal, and the entire experience was bucket-list-worthy. For this trip, I mounted a pretty slick Tailfin rack and frame back to my GT-1 iAR, which was absolutely a dream setup and worked flawlessly for the entire trip.
After returning home to California for another quick unpack and repack, it was time to head to Boulder, Colorado for a pre-SBT GRVL altitude camp. This block of races with SBT, Gravel Worlds Nebraska, and U.S. Gravel Nationals was the one I was looking forward to the most of any on the calendar. The races were sure to suit my strengths and I was really coming into some good form after all the volume in Switzerland. Unfortunately, this dream block of races ultimately turned out to be a bit of a nightmare. A few days after arriving in Boulder, CO, I came down with a very nasty case of COVID. I’m not sure if it was the altitude, the particular strain I caught, or just luck of the draw, but I was utterly clobbered. I spent about two weeks mostly in bed, not riding at all. I watched my partner and many good friends enjoy the SBT weekend, while I was stuck in our Airbnb, quarantined and unable to do much of anything.
This was truly a nightmare and I quickly began to worry about how this would impact the rest of my year, with most of my concern focused on my lack of preparation for the then rapidly approaching Nationals. In January, when I was mapping out the year, the race calendar, and the priority races with my coach Dennis, we determined Gravel Nationals would be the biggest target. Last year, I managed to land on the podium after Keegan Swenson made a savvy move about 4km from the finish. When I found out the Nationals would once again be on the same course as the year before, I knew I had a great chance to go for the victory.
We built a lot of the early season training and preparation around that goal. We prepared well and had a very solid plan. Unfortunately this untimely COVID infection completely derailed that. But throughout the entire infection, Dennis was constantly checking in with me to execute the most optimal return to training and competition. We knew Nationals would be risky, but we went in with a plan of racing extremely conservatively, knowing how limited my physical reserves were at the time.
And that is exactly what I did. I raced defensively and conservatively, ultimately enabling me to make a late race attack in the final and come to the finish solo, with time to celebrate. This was a dream come true, and also a huge relief. I had finally done it, I had won one of the big U.S. gravel races.
One of the other key factors in this win was my GT-1 iAR, set up in a rather aggressive configuration with fully slick tires and massive road gearing. If you’re curious to learn a bit more about that specific race and the setup, please check out this article from earlier in the year HERE.
The aftermath of that win was very special and I certainly took the time to fully soak it in and enjoy it. The day after the race, Jim and I stopped in to savor the moment with the whole team at the Mosaic HQ on our way to the airport in Denver and also began the discussion around the Stars & Stripes bike. This was no easy undertaking for them, especially given how late in the year it was, but they eagerly stepped up in a big way.
While I was off to race the UCI Gravel World Championships in Belgium, which was an insane experience deserving of its own full length article, the crew back in Boulder was hard at work. After the trip to Belgium for the Worlds, I had the great fortune of returning home to the Stars & Stripes Mosaic GT-1 i45, recently assembled by the fine folks over at Above Category. It was so stunning and absolutely took my breath away. I honestly couldn’t believe my eyes.
It’s hard to sum up an entire year of highlights, lowlights, learnings, ups and downs, and experiences in one brief journal post, but it’s been truly a heck of a year. I want to thank all of you for being a part of this journey and for the shouts and support along the way. I also want to extend my deepest gratitude and a heartfelt thank you to the entire team at Mosaic Cycles for all their hard work and support with building this incredible fleet of bikes and enabling this year of adventure. Without your support and all of these beautiful bikes, none of this would have been possible. Thank you.
Photos:
Jim Merithew
Mosaic Cycles
Brennan Wertz
Joe Harper
