Minnesota’s gravel cycling out in front with national stage this weekend

Local gravel cyclists have long touted the fun and challenge of the rolling back roads of southeastern Minnesota’s bluffs and valleys.

This weekend, the gravel playground is getting attention from around the country.

The USA Cycling Gravel National Championships are coming to the Mississippi River city of La Crescent. The event, which includes a 100-mile race and two shorter ones, is recognition for a type of bicycling that is increasingly popular across Minnesota. Local officials say hosting it is an honor, and they hope to capitalize on the attention.

Gravel cyclists have an appetite for rolling on dirt and rocks on vehicle-free roads. The open country around La Crescent and communities like Hokah, Caledonia and Houston have those ingredients in abundance.

USA Cycling, the national governing body, had the region on its radar, said race director Will Smith, after staging the nationals the last two years in the western Nebraska city of Gering. The organization holds similar events for other forms of cycling, such as mountain biking, road and track.

Saturday’s event in La Crescent has 760 registered riders, about 70% more than last year. Most are from Minnesota (128) and Wisconsin (104) and represent some of the best cyclists in the Midwest, Smith said.

Smith credits the surge in entrants to the river city’s proximity to population centers — and to gravel riding’s grip on the Driftless Area, which includes parts of Wisconsin, Iowa and Illinois.

A gravel title event in Minnesota was almost inevitable, some cyclists said. Gravel’s Midwest roots run deep: Online histories consistently refer to a 350-mile Trans-Iowa event in 2005 as the beginning of the “modern gravel movement.”

Southeastern Minnesota was swept up, too.

Innokenty Zavyalov, a former elite cyclist from Minneapolis, reflected on an all-day gravel trip among a handful of buddies in 2007 turned into a race called the Almanzo 100 in Spring Valley, Minn., south of Rochester. It continues today with a different name — the Spring Valley Gravel Bike Races — but the same spirit: a free and self-supported ride 100 miles long.

“Gravel has mostly been a non-sanctioned racing discipline, a bit punk rock, a bit closer to the purity of bike riding. Less rules, less fancy,” said Zavyalov, a road racer who finished 10th among elite men in Gering last year.

Jenna Rinehart, a former pro teammate of Zavyalov, said she rode on gravel in 2003 as she trained for her mountain biking career.

“The sport has changed a lot,” said Rinehart, who runs Nicollet Bike and Ski shop with her husband, Justin, in Mankato.

Rinehart finished fifth among women in the inaugural national championship event in 2023 in Gering, covering 131 miles in six hours, 54 minutes.

She will line up Saturday to tackle the 100-mile course, which she test-rode in July. She expects some of her competitors to be wowed by the landscape, which mixes intense climbs with twisty, fast descents.

“It is going to be a very challenging but national championship-worthy course,” she said. “Beautiful.”

Smith, the race director, said its design is intended to push but also interest cyclists, whether they excel on hills or on sprints. La Crescent will have more shorter and steeper climbs than Gering — and also more greenery and water. Gering is dry and desert-like.

The 100-mile race, which will run mostly south of La Crescent, has at least 7,500 feet of climbing. There are 74- and 31-mile races that promise intensity, too, Smith added.

Organizers Jeremiah Burish and Larry Kirch are hoping for thousands of cheering spectators and a beneficial ripple effect. The races intentionally coincide with La Crescent’s annual Applefest USA, a three-day festival beginning Friday that historically draws about 10,000 people.

Add hundreds of cyclists, their families and friends to the mix, and the combined activity is a plus for businesses in his city and across the river in La Crosse, Wis., said Kirch, La Crescent’s economic development director.

“We are grateful the nationals are here,” Kirch said.

Burish, sports sales director at Explore La Crosse, said while the Driftless Area already is known for its natural beauty, there is a dearth of events giving it national exposure. He said he thinks the attention will be a springboard to more tourists looking to cycle.