Holy Spirit of Gravel

I was at Valley of Tears gravel race in Turkey, TX and I got high-key activated!

I don't really know what I was doing there to be honest...vibe checks, instagram story coverage, gravel dad mogging, dirt crit alt-stream analysis, camping with my friend, drinking lonestar beer...a bit of everything.

All the instagram stories and some reels are up on my instagram page but listen to this episode to hear the answers to questions like:

-which privateer did I get to shotgun a La Croix?

-which PAS racer was sharing a house with Lunchbox racing?

-who flatted out early and had to get ride with us back into town?

-why can't we say "enve mog squad"?

-what was it like bantering with sofia?

-why is my bartape digital snow camo?

-will you use code "HSOGSEAL" for 15% off Stans products?

This podcast is what happens when two friends are having a post-race weekend Facetime catch up and decide, in the middle of the call, decide to turn it into a content fodder for the gravel machine.

A post-modern gravel race recap for the ages. We get sincerity-coded for a bit and talk about love, life, winning, losing and the crashes that happen in between. We also dig into her most recent race, Homegrown Gravel, Atlanta's best strip clubs, what it's like crashing into barbed wire AND a finish line banner AND almost a car.

There are bigger things in gravel, like your health and safety and no one knows that better than my big dawg LDC. Only one of the most prolific elite racers in gravel and one of the OGs paving the way for the modern privateer era.

Welcome to a cracked out convo between two friends, one of which is quite fast.

follow LDC's adventures here

use code HSOGSEAL for 15% off Stans products

or if you're into Silca buy stuff from them and tell them in the order section that it's because LDC bullied you into it

I only intended to ask Chase about BWR Arizona and let him ramble about getting dropped in the single track but then we start talking a lot about bikes (remember I have his 2024 Lauf), and wintering in Arizona and legos and mario kart and fast food oh and Drew Dillman crashes the pod does his "Dizzle" thing.

If you listen to his and you aren't a gravel dad or like me a gravel dad interpreter it will make you horrifically mentally ill so don't do it, healthcare isn't great in my home country. I don't know about yours.

oh yeah code HSOGSEAL for a discount on the STANS Sealant website. Yes I use Stans and its the first sealant I ever used and after trying others I went back to it. I keep it g money.

In this week's episode we talked to Euro-coded American gravel privateer Andy Lydic. He's raced all over the USA and Europe and is pursing his dreams in a way different to most young bucks who are born and raised in the USA.

He's raced with the big boys at UCI Gravel World Championships but also the gravel dads at your goated mass start Colorado races and lived to tell the tale.

We talk about the chaotic nature of semi pro euro road life, Girona vibes, freak mechanicals, training for early season gravel, dirty bottom brackets, being a fan of rosa kloser and much more.

And I also talk a bit more about my past with bikes and what my current set up is (Andy asked, I'm not trying be a main character about it).

Give homeboy a follow @andy.lydic

Has the gravel season started? Or does Santa Vall not count if everyone was felt kinda meh fitness-wise? More ruinations on euro-gravel vibes.

What is a team and what do tactics mean in 2026 Gravel culture?

Who is the Lindsey Vonn of Gravel? Who is the Ilia Malinin of Gravel?

Why did I finish one step off the podium at my gravel race?

Why do people act insane around me when I ride my new (to me) Lauf Siegla on our greenway?

Should I livestream myself brutally mogging gravel dads on Kick at gravel race expos?

Let's all make fun of Jutta Leerdamn's fiancee trying to ride a bike.

All this and more! Thank you for listening, rate and review or whatever!

We are still in pre-gravel season, lots of incoherent rambling about nothing. No mention of gravel cycling, any privateer or any brand in Epstein's emails.

We're back for season two of this thing. Unlike a viral Netflix series the VFX budget has not doubled and the cast did not negotiate for better contacts.

But much like Alexey Vermeulen's 10 year ENVE contract we have signed on to do this til we reach true AI singularity.

This week’s topics include:

- decade long contracts/indentured servitude

- new Specialized team

- how to care about this sport in the off season

- Trek Driftless “leak”

- sending your delinquent children to Gravel Therapy Wilderness Camps and it makes them worse

- the Bodega Ride

- cycling journalism

- someone sent me a bike…

- brown PAS puffer winter

- Rapha things

- Skimo?

Please remember this is a satirical podcast and if you take a bad faith reading of anything we say, we will assume you are very slow on a bike with the most expensive componentry.

It's been a minute since the last episode, you could say we had an OFF SEASON to enjoy this American holiday but really we just had nothing to talk about til HSOG put silly tires on her gravel bike and the With Pace team uploaded their Big Sugar episode.

Yes, you read correctly, our very own Holy Spirit of Gravel meme page admin was featured on what Forbes, CNN, the Wall Street Journal and the New York Times call "cycling's most Payson McElveen-coded podcast". She reflects on the experience of hanging with Payson and his team and talks quite a bit about being a crappy ebike handler. It was an awesome experience.

watch the race vlog here

watch the full interview here

listen here

Oh yeah, tech talk, she also rambles on and on and on about putting cyclocross tires no one wanted on her road bike as if it's paying her bills. Her cohost remarks on how his sad, indoor peloton trainer won't die. Wahoos, power meters and pedals all make an appearance.

They end up pivoting to F1 because even though it's boring as hell, there's some light drama...much like a gravel race but even more boring (I will die on that hill).

Also they talk about disgraced celebrities because why not.

Welcome back to Holy Spirit of Gravel: The Podcast, the only gravel podcast willing to say out loud what everyone else is whispering into their Wahoo head units: Did Lifetime just deal Gravel Earth a quiet, corporate deathblow… or are we finally watching two gravel series split into their true identities?

LTGP came out with a star studded female line up and a unknown-ish euro coded male line up (simon pellaud coded if you will). Will the most talented roster ever live up to its name?

People are dogging on Gravel Earth series right now but is it a bit too early to pile on?

Does any of it even matter because we are just two normies (out of many) who will watch anything presented to us anyway and find ways to talk about it while also bringing up Chase Wark regularly?

Lifetime rolls out the prize purse, the infrastructure, the media machine… and suddenly half the hitters are signing NDAs and smiling for drone shots. Meanwhile, Gravel Earth is posting artsy European B-roll and hoping the Americans remember how passports work.

We’ll break down:

• Europeans invading Leadville like it’s a cultural exchange program with altitude sickness

• Americans descending on Traka trying to cosplay as Girona locals

• Gravel Worlds deciding it might actually be Unbound’s real rival… and not just the quirky cousin

• BWR quietly sharpening knives

• And unaffiliated races like Mid South whispering, “You know we were cooler before everyone started chasing series points, right?”

  
  

  Plus:

  • Our totally not-actionable new bike pitches for Scott

  • The Dylan Johnson backlash, which is the gravel version of a bar fight in a Whole Foods parking lot

  • Privateers telling their fanbases to stand down in the comments like they’re running a militia

  • The Rift being spiritually annexed by Cuckoo Gravel, whether it likes it or not

  • And Holy Spirit of Gravel reminding everyone that she “DMs everyone,” but still refusing to say what those spicy insider messages actually contain. Classified. Sealed. Buried under the dangerous feed zone that everyone hates but actively contributes to its potentiality for disaster.

The end-of-season list highlights notable achievements within the sport, including, but not limited to, exceptional performances and landmark moments. This is a not an exhaustive list, and the omission of certain events or individuals does not imply a lack of significance, but rather reflects the necessarily selective nature of such a compilation and the mental duress of what it takes to produce a satire podcast for a niche sport.

Gravel is over for 2025 (unless you live in a hot place, now is our time to shine) . And privateers and normies alike have never been happier! Gravel racing is more fun to talk about than to actually DO anyway. And do we ever talk...it's a long one.

If anything mentioned in this pod offends you or we forgot about something....blame Holy's cohost who is desperately trying to get her cancelled.

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Welcome, normies, podcasters, privateers, Ben Delaney’s frenemies, and everyone who thinks they’re too cool for their local non-gravel group ride — this is the Holy Spirit of Gravel Awards 2025.

Tonight we honor the brave souls who attacked in the feed zone, denied it later on Instagram, and still somehow posted their power files publicly. Remember: gravel doesn’t believe in team tactics… unless your ‘non-team’ has matching kits, a nutrition sponsor, and a Team House with a full-time videographer and espresso machine.

In a sport where cancel culture means reporting your opponent for renting an Airbnb too close to the start line, we’re here to celebrate imperfection, chaos, and the beautiful delusion that this is still about fun.

We’ve got heroes, we’ve got villains, and by the end of tonight at least one of you will be crying like Chase Wark watching his own documentary. If you came here for structure, fairness, or clarity — you’ve taken a wrong turn somewhere around mile 47.

So clip in, unclip immediately because we’re on loose dirt, and let’s begin the only awards show that still refuses to define what gravel actually is.