Gravel Grinders: Rough, Life-changing Bike Races

When I was working on my new book, The Renegade Sportsman, I spent nearly two years tracking down sports odd, brutal, obscure, independent and idiosyncratic. In the course of this sweaty amateur anthropology, I did, saw and contemplated many strange things: I ran seven miles while drinking about seven beers; I was disgraced by prepubescent…

Zach Dundas

Jun 16, 2010

By Zach Dundas

June 16, 2010

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When I was working on my new book, The Renegade Sportsman, I spent nearly two years tracking down sports odd, brutal, obscure, independent and idiosyncratic. In the course of this sweaty amateur anthropology, I did, saw and contemplated many strange things: I ran seven miles while drinking about seven beers; I was disgraced by prepubescent swordfighters; and I founded a flailing, incompetent croquet-league franchise. However, nothing I encountered proved quite as striking as the Trans-Iowa: a torturous, 300-plus-mile, overnight endurance cycling race down some of the Hawkeye State’s least hospitable roads. In 2007, the year I tracked the race, the top Trans-Iowa riders finished this inquisition in just 25 hours. Even though I just drove the the thing in a rented Pontiac, the expedition into darkest corn country almost killed me.

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TFbubAEqdWY

And yet the Trans-Iowa is just the kind of do-it-yourself sufferfest that seems to thrive in America’s sports underground. As it turns out, this race is just one of an emerging, fast-growing subgenre of off-the-grid races that focus on unpaved punishment. Collectively, these races are now known as “gravel grinders.” Their following is small but dedicated, and seems to consist of amateur cyclists who care more about unusual thrills, horrific weather, physical pain, and epic challenges than how much wattage they’re generating.

For example, competitors in the recent Dirty Kanza 200 encountered both geological and bovine obstacles on a ride through remote Kansas ranchland. On his blog, Minneapolis-based gravel enthusiast Tim Ek writes:

“We were riding in high plains terrain with breath taking, expansive views. This was open range country and it was not uncommon for us to be riding through areas that contained no fences. Many times we rolled through herds of cows. We’d call out like cowboys, ‘HEP, HEP!’ in order to get them to move out of our way. It was a world foreign to me, but I liked it.”

While that does sound pleasant, in the same race Ek later nearly succumbed to heat, exhaustion, and the perilous borderline mental collapse that seems to be the aim, rather than a side effect, of the typical gravel grinder:

“In a hypnotic state I pushed on … confused and scared by what was happening to me. I analyzed my options. If I were able to get cell phone service, which I doubted was possible it would take them hours to get to me and I’d most likely just die in the dirt waiting.”

While Ek survived, ordeals like that leave the neutral observer wondering just what the point is. (If you want a harrowing vicarious experience, read Ek’s full account.) So I called my old pal Mark “Guitar Ted” Stevenson, founder of the Trans-Iowa and one of the godfathers of the nascent gravel-grinder scene, to ask for his insight.

GOOD: Explain, if you will, the origin of the “gravel grinder.”

GUITAR TED: Well, obviously there are gravel roads all over the nation. In the Midwest, and in Iowa in particular, it became popular for cyclists to use gravel for training rides, because the traction and the fact that gravel roads usually follow the grade of the landscape provide a better work out. And there were smaller rides and races for years, but I don’t think the idea really gelled into a genre or subgenre of racing until we started Trans-Iowa six years ago.

G: And things have obviously progressed from there?

GT: A little while ago, just looking around the landscape, we were like, whoa—these things are popping up all over the place. And what we’re seeing is different races that are born out of different styles of riding. Some grinders are 60- or 80-mile races that are based on cyclocross. The Trans-Iowa and some of the other, longer races are coming at it from more of a roadie or mountain biking background. But there are several dozen races around the country that I know about, and more all the time.

G: And it seemed to me that there is now a definite gravel grinder scene, correct?

GT: There are absolutely some dedicated riders and groups of riders, and they tend to be scattered in little pockets around the Midwest. I think Lincoln, Nebraska sent about 20 guys to the Dirty Kansa this year. Kansas and Iowa, obviously. Minneapolis. But it’s not just the Midwest and it’s not just gravel rides—there is a little movement of sorts that is creating more and more events outside the parameters of traditional cycle racing.

G: Why?

GT: You know, people are looking for something more adventurous. They’re looking for something they can tell their grandkids about, rather than a packaged race that costs $40 and is over in an hour. There’s an appetite for something that’s pretty raw. The Dirty Kansa guys come right out and says in their mission statement, “We are trying to provide a life-changing experience for our participants.” That sounds a little grandiose, but I think it just reflects what the riders themselves are looking for. As race directors, we’re getting this as feedback from the participants, not making it up ourselves.

For more on the emerging national gravel-grinder scene, see Guitar Ted’s own Gravel Grinder News.

Image via Gravel Grinder News.

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Photo credit: Holger Uwe Schmitt/Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA – St. Paul is one of the many Christian figures whose paintings have made an appearance.

Culture, Internet

The church fathers of early Christianity are showing their swag – on TikTok

Sacred art meets social media swagger.

Good Partner

7/8/2026

Denva Gallant

It begins with the music: a late 1990s rap song. Then someone appears on screen, moving slowly into a pose that can only be called deeply, theatrically serious. Then comes the reveal: The video fades from the person into a medieval painting of a haloed man doing almost the exact same pose.

Videos imitating “church fathers,” bishops and theologians who helped shape early Christianity have been popping up across social media since late 2025. Several versions have drawn hundreds of thousands of views.

In part, they’re funny because of the incongruity: hoodies, bedrooms and phone cameras, suddenly paired with the solemn authority of saints. As an art historian who studies Christian images, I know that these types of paintings were carefully made to communicate holiness through visual cues like books, clothing, gestures and posture.

But the humor also comes from how current they feel. These paintings may be centuries old, but the visual language is timeless. The raised hand, the open book, the severe gaze – they all communicate power. On TikTok or Instagram, a gesture once used to symbolize doctrine or wisdom starts to look like confidence, coolness, even swagger. The captions say as much: “They had swag fr,” one reads – for real.

When the trend crossed my feed, I had to try it. What better way to show how these images work than by stepping into the pose?

Church fathers

“Church fathers” were not “founders” in the simple sense, but foundational authorities: figures whose writings later Christians returned to when debating central questions about doctrine, scripture and religious life.

Today’s social media trend uses the term more loosely. In addition to early Christian authors, many of the videos show later saints, monks, bishops and theologians, especially from Eastern Orthodox traditions. Online, “church father” becomes shorthand for religious authority itself.

The paintings circulating online range from Eastern Orthodox icons to Western European Renaissance and Baroque paintings. In most cases, they were made long after the saints had died, so they don’t document what the men actually looked like.

Instead, this style of art was meant to inspire awe, surrounding worshippers with a sense of religious authority. The saints’ books, rich vestments and formal poses were visible signs of holiness, symbolizing their learning, discipline and eloquence. Such images did not merely decorate sacred spaces; they taught viewers what closeness to divine truth – saintliness itself – could look like.

Man of books and learning

Several of the videos show Athanasius of Alexandria, a fourth-century bishop and theologian traditionally considered one of the church fathers.

Painted by the Italian painter Domenichino in the 17th century, Athanasius stands in “contrapposto,” a pose inherited from classical art and common in Renaissance and Baroque painting. He leans back with his left shoulder, causing the right side of his body to project outward toward the viewer. The saint is dressed in a rich damask dalmatic – a long, wide-sleeved robe – over a white silk tunic.

An image of Athanasius by the 17th-century Italian artist Domenichino on the walls of the Santa Maria di Grottaferrata monastery outside Rome. The Web Gallery of Art

Athanasius’ shifting stance and sweeping vestments create drama. They also direct attention to the open book he holds in one hand and points to with the other – a reminder of his place among the great teachers of the church. In religious art, books are not just props. They help the viewer recognize the figure as someone whose words matter.

The Greek text on the page begins with the words “Whoever wishes to be saved”: the opening of the Athanasian Creed, a statement of Christian doctrine long associated with Athanasius. In the fourth century, he became famous for defending the idea that Christ was fully divine, a fiercely debated issue at the time.

TikTokers recreating Athanasius’ pose today use a Bible or another thick volume, wielding the book with as much swagger as the saint himself.

They lose the luxurious vestments, trading Athanasius’ sumptuous robes for hoodies and jeans. Yet their captions recognize the force of the look: Church fathers “knew the fit was hard,” one video says. The language is modern, but the point is old: Clothing, books and posture make authority visible.

Charged with meaning

Another star in the videos is Gregory Palamas, a 14th-century Byzantine theologian and Orthodox saint – and he presents another type of authority altogether.

Palamas is best known for defending Hesychasm, a mystical tradition in the Orthodox Church that joins repeated prayer with contemplation. He represented holy power grounded not only in learning, but also in spiritual practice.

An icon of St. Gregory Palamas from the 15th century. Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts via Wikimedia Commons

Unlike Domenichino’s dramatic Athanasius, the painting of Palamas appears still and distant. He is not turning toward the viewer with theatrical movement, but formally facing outward, set against a plain gold background – a sacred figure, held outside ordinary time.

Palamas’ image is an icon, a sacred image used in Orthodox Christian worship and devotion. The saint raises his hand in the Orthodox gesture of blessing, with his fingers forming the letters “IC XC,” a Greek abbreviation for Jesus Christ.

In sacred art, hands are rarely idle. Christ and the Christ child often hold up their hands to bless the viewer. Mary and John the Baptist draw viewers’ attention to Christ through their gestures and sometimes their gaze. Saints lift their hands in prayer, teaching or intercession.

To some viewers online, Palamas’ raised hand may simply look solemn or strange, charged with an unknown or mysterious meaning. But that gap in knowledge, I’d argue, is part of what makes the “church fathers” trend work. On social media, a hand gesture doesn’t need to be fully explained to feel meaningful: a slow point toward the camera, a hand over the heart, a peace sign.

TikTokers today may be a great distance from the church fathers, but their images still resonate – even, and perhaps especially, on the internet.

This article originally appeared on The Conversation. You can read it here.

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Photo credit: SKashkin/iStock / Getty Images Plus – Does that look tasty?

Environment, Science

Beyond birds and mice, free‑ranging cats eat a surprising number of insects

Cats’ wild diet goes far beyond birds and mice

Good Partner

7/8/2026

Christopher A. Lepczyk

Daniel Rubinoff

Jean E. Fantle-Lepczyk

It’s pretty commonly known, and not very startling, that free-ranging cats eat birds and small rodents. But the degree to which they eat insects might surprise you.

We are biologists who for many years have been trying to figure out what feral or outdoor-roaming pet cats eat outside.

When domesticated cats – Felis catus – live freely in the wild or are allowed to hunt outside the homes where their owners live, they are an invasive species, which live in every ecosystem of the world except the continent of Antarctica. We wanted to know all of the species they eat – and to what degree free-ranging cats are eating endangered or threatened species.

Examining reams of research

Over the past two decades, we have evaluated hundreds of scientific findings, including searching through Google Scholar and Web of Science using the keywords “cat predation,” “feral cat,” “cat diet” and “Felis catus.” For each item we found, whether peer-reviewed or not, we evaluated whether it contained conclusive evidence of cat diet or predation. We also reviewed each one’s reference section for additional unique articles or databases pertaining to cat diet and predation, and included those in our search.

Overall, we identified 533 unique publications – books, journal articles, theses and agency reports – that reported specific animal species consumed by cats. Cats’ plant-eating habits are occasionally, but haphazardly, noted in studies, so we did not include them in our analysis.

Our initial work focused on an overall assessment of what free-ranging cats eat around the world. Published in 2023, this paper analyzed the 533 studies on cat diet or predation events published over more than a century and found that cats ate nearly 2,100 different species of animals, including invertebrates.

Of those 2,100, the International Union for Conservation of Nature’s Red List of Threatened Species listed 347 as “near threatened,” “vulnerable,” “endangered,” “critically endangered” or “extinct” in 2023. Some of the species went extinct during the many decades covered by the data.

Insects and the like

Most of the species cats ate were vertebrates – mostly birds, followed by mammals and reptiles. But the data also indicated that at least 7% of the species cats eat are insects and other invertebrates, particularly beetles, and less frequently crustaceans, arachnids, centipedes, snails and slugs, and millipedes.

Many of the cat studies we reviewed did not report on how many individuals of a given species cats ate, so it was unclear what the total amount of insects was or how many calories cats are deriving from insects.

Invertebrates make up more than 70% of all terrestrial animal species and are important pollinators, predators and herbivores in virtually every nonmarine ecosystem. Many invertebrates are in decline globally due to urbanization, habitat destruction, increases in both light and pesticide pollution, and climate change. So we dug deeper into the data to understand what invertebrates cats are eating.

While a little more than one-third of all the studies we analyzed included invertebrates as part of cats’ diet, most of those failed to identify specific species of invertebrates. But we were able to find identifications of 148 invertebrate species.

Of those, two are considered endangered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature: the Aldabran grasshopper (Pternoscirtus aldabrae) in Seychelles and the Tasmanian giant freshwater crayfish (Astacopsis gouldi), which can grow up to 13 pounds (6 kilograms). Two others are considered vulnerable: wētāpunga (Deinacrida heteracantha), an insect native to New Zealand that can be about the size of a mouse, and the common yabby (Cherax destructor), a freshwater crayfish native to southeastern Australia. One other, the Canary Islands horned beetle (Arhopalus pinetorum), is listed as “near threatened.”

Not surprising: Cat eats mouse. Julian Stratenschulte/picture alliance via Getty Images

Effects on populations

We have not found formal research evaluating how cats’ eating habits affect invertebrate populations. And for many species, they are likely not as significant a factor as wide-scale pesticide use.

But it’s possible that cats could be significant contributors to the deaths of rare species or in specific locations.

Cats require a large amount of protein, as much as one-third of their daily diet, and invertebrates are good sources of protein.

In many places, invertebrates provide an easy source of food. Whether in an urban backyard or on a remote island, cats are unlikely to turn a blind eye to available prey. And some cats may find it entertaining to chase, catch and eat insects even if they don’t need their nutrition.

A challenge of researching this question is that many invertebrates are relatively small, which makes direct observation in the field harder and can require more analytical approaches in the lab. And they have soft bodies, without distinguishing characteristics that could be easily recognized in scat or stomach contents.

However, molecular technologies can identify species using trace amounts of DNA left in the environment by animals. Promising new studies are beginning to identify what cats eat by analyzing the DNA found in their stomachs and scat. That research may help explore in even more detail what cats are eating in the outdoors, and how it’s affecting various species and the environment as a whole.

This article originally appeared on The Conversation. You can read it here.

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Photo credit: Canva – Plastic bottles, left, and an airplane.

Environment, Science

The University of Cambridge found a way to reduce plastic waste and create clean hydrogen energy at the same time

Turn plastic into green power.

Erik Barnes

7/8/2026

The world’s top environmental concerns come down to two basics: reducing waste and creating clean energy. Thanks to researchers at the University of Cambridge, we may be able to tackle both with a single solution.

Inspired by a previous solar-powered reactor the team created that turned carbon dioxide and plastic waste into fuel and useful chemicals, the researchers developed a new device that uses sunlight to break down plastic into hydrogen.

“Converting waste streams into valuable products using clean energy sources is…an attractive strategy to address both energy and environmental concerns,” the team wrote in Nature Chemical Engineering.

How does this device work?

The reactor is relatively simple compared to others of its kind. The researchers sprayed a light-absorbing material onto a glass panel. They then added a second layer of molecules containing zirconium and cobalt to act as the catalyst for the reaction. All told, the device measures about one square meter and was tested under natural sunlight.

Under sunlight, the device was able to extract hydrogen from sliced-up plastic bottles. It also extracted hydrogen from glucose and cellulose. This means the device can produce hydrogen from both plastic and plant waste.

Hit two problems with one device

This could help reduce a rapidly growing problem. The world produces more than 359 million tons of plastic each year, much of which ends up in landfills. Most modern plastics take 100 to 1,000 years to decompose. Much of the plastic polluting our land and oceans comes from food packaging, including water bottles. This device can turn those plastics into a cleaner fuel source. It could also help address the growing problem of microplastics contaminating drinking water and soil.

Hydrogen is a powerful fuel for trucks, ships, and airplanes, and demand for it is growing. Because it typically produces only water as a byproduct, it is a highly sought-after source of clean energy. While there are green methods for producing hydrogen using solar and wind power, a significant amount of the world’s hydrogen still comes from natural gas. In other words, while hydrogen itself is a clean source of energy, the way much of it is produced is not.

Could this device work realistically on a global scale?

The use of spray coating and relatively simple materials makes this new reactor easier to manufacture.

“What surprised me was, after all the optimization, just how simple it is,” researcher Ariffin Bin Mohamad Annuar said in a press release. “We just have this huge panel, we spray our catalyst on it, put it into our solution, put it under the sun, and it produces hydrogen and other valuable chemicals just from plastic waste. It’s just simple and scalable.”

The team says that before they can make the device commercially available, they hope to make it more durable and efficient. Time will tell whether it becomes a solution to both problems as it becomes more widely available.

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