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Gravel combines road and dirt, embodying the adventurous spirit of running without spatial and temporal limits.
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It represents a meeting point between road runners and trail runners, putting aside rivalries, having running as the sole focus, wherever you do it.
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Already popular in cycling, gravel could catch on in the running world as well, resulting in the emergence of new communities and crews.
Oneof the first times we heard about gravel relative to the world of running was last March, when Craft unveiled the Xplor model, a versatile shoe conceived and designed to run on different surfaces, seamlessly transitioning from road to dirt.
Yesterday we published a news story featuring the launch of Salomon’s gravel line, which will be part of the new fall/winter collection.
The growing interest in this discipline is pushing brands to expand their product offerings to meet the needs of those who, between asphalt and dirt, just don’t know which way to go.
The gravel world
When I think of the gravel phenomenon automatically my mind tunes into a dimension without boundaries and space-time limitations.
Gravel is going into and getting lost in the wildest nature.
It is adventure in its purest state.
As an alternative to road and off-road cycling, the gravel movement was born by taking the best from both worlds, and now, little by little, history is repeating itself in the racing world.
To each his own dialect
There are those who like to go out running on city streets and those who prefer trails and the feel of the earth running under the soles of their shoes to asphalt.
De gustibus.
Everyone has preferences, and it is good and right to have them.
However, it is not always the case that one has to necessarily choose sides.
It often happens that street walkers and trail runners, or mountain bikers, look at each other sideways for no reasonable reason.
Everyone argues their own thesis and “superiority,” but without considering that, at the end of the day, we all practice the same sport, albeit declined in different ways and environments.
We all speak the language of running, each with our own dialect.
The peacemaker between the two disputants
So why not fade these rivalries by fueling a movement that could be a point of contact between the two worlds?
Gravel is the solution for the eternally undecided, for those who do not want to choose or compete at all costs with the next guy, but who just and simply want to run.
It doesn’t matter where or how long, the important thing is to run.
Brands are realizing the potential of gravel by offering hybrid products that allow users to be comfortable at all times, on whatever surface they find themselves running on.
Gravel community
In cycling, there are already several points and groups of reference for those who want to approach the gravel world: in Milan there is the Wizard Cycling Crew while in Bergamo Reverb Hub is both a place to rent bikes and a meeting point from which to share rides, evenings, experiences and the passion for cycling lived as a tool for exploration and discovery.
There are already many crews in running, both in the road and trail worlds, and perhaps we will see new ones emerge, or see some of the existing ones change their faces, in the wake of this new strand, with the hope that they are not just trying to ride the “fad” of the moment.