Events
Oakridge
Dirty Kanza Gravel Camp
Kitsbow Ambassador Yuri Hauswald is a professional endurance racer who gets to travel the world by bike. Here’s what Yuri’s been up to recently. “This one time, at gravel camp, I spent three days riding with forty folks from all over the country in the windswept Flint Hills which surround Emporia, Kansas, the launch pad for the Dirty Kanza gravel camp and the home of the Dirty Kanza 200, arguably the hardest gravel race in the world. There are no National Parks in Kansas, there’s no BLM land, the paved roads rarely have safe shoulders to ride on and there [...]
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Do you have what it takes to be a Grasshopper?
Started in 1998 by Miguel Crawford and the tight-knit Gianni cycling club out of Occidental, CA, the Grasshopper Adventure Series are long, fun, hard rides with cold beer and good stories at the end. Road, cross, and MTB skills are all tested to their limits, with each ride often blurring the line between cycling disciplines. With the start of the Grasshopper Adventure Series drawing near, Kitsbow Ambassador Nicholas Haig-Arack asks fellow Ambassador Mig Crawford about the Series and what it takes to become a Grasshopper. What kind of rider should sign up? “A rider who comes out to [...]
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Kitsbow and the Grasshopper
Kitsbow is proud to have ambassadors who are involved in the mountain bike community locally and across the country. Meet Kitsbow’s newest ambassador Miguel “Mig” Crawford. Miguel’s life has revolved around the bike since 1988, when he sold his first car to buy a Stumpjumper. Every weekend he swapped commuter skinnies for burly knobbies and spent days buried in the Arcata, California redwoods. In the summers he rigged his mountain bike for touring and spent several weeks camped out on the north coast. After a brief detour to Colorado by way of Oregon and Idaho, ‘Mig’ realized that Sebastopol was [...]
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Confessions of a Downieville Veteran
With the Downieville Classic only days away, the small town of Downieville, nestled in the heart of California’s Sierra County is preparing for the masses. Whether or not your quest for the hot and crazy has already begun with packing and pre-rides, we thought it fitting to get Yuri’s perspective on what the fun-fest has meant to him over the years and how he’s been prepping for the epic event. Confessions of a Downieville Veteran – Yuri Hauswald I have a confession to make. I went well over five months without touching my mountain bike, geared or [...]
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Tour de Frănks
In the wide world of professional sports, there is no greater spectacle, no single endurance event more renowned than the world’s biggest cycling race. Competitors from all over the world gather in the picturesque countryside to test their mettle in the ultimate battle of two-wheeled prowess with a side of frites. Welcome to a 73-mile day of sausage gluttony and pure endurance. Mmes et mssrs, bienvenue to the Tour de Frănks. Bon Tour! On Monday, our field of four eager racers met at Kitsbow HQ with a hunger for three things: hot dogs with all the fixings, miles of country [...]
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Independence Day Inspiration
The Fourth of July is traditionally spent grilling hot dogs by a pool, but we like to do things a bit differently in Kitsbow country. To celebrate the spirit of American independence, we like to spend the day getting out there on a big beast of a ride, followed by a gourmet meal. But not just any meal – in addition to cycling and coffee, we are obsessive about food, especially grilling outdoors over an open fire. We’ve partnered with our favorite chef, Zander Ault of The Cyclist’s Menu, to provide a few of his favorite summertime recipes for [...]
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Peak Life
Mountain biking may have been born in Marin County, but its beating heart can be found two hundred miles to the northeast, in rural Plumas County. The small town of Downieville and the vast network of trails there have been considered classic Northern California destinations for well over twenty years. But a region near Downieville is getting a large share of new trail building efforts that are on par with Butcher Ranch, Third Divide, and the other legendary trails of Sierra County. Rockier, wetter, more alpine than the surrounding area, the Lakes Basin region is strewn with gorgeous, bikeable trail [...]
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Lemons Into Lemonade
When we last spoke with Yuri Hauswald, the 2015 winner of the Dirty Kanza 200 was on his way back to Kansas to defend his title as champion of the most difficult gravel race in the world. Training and racing had left “The Diesel” in top shape, prepared to take on a formidable field of pro racers. But as fate would have it, incessant mechanical failures plagued him for the entirety of his race and led Yuri to abdicate after 115 miles in the Flint Hills. We’ll let him tell the rest of the story in his own words. [...]
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Forefathers of Roadventure
Over the past 18 years, a small training ride has grown into a coveted mixed-terrain race series: the Grasshopper Adventures. Ranging in length, terrain, and difficulty, the Hoppers have become a staple of early season California endurance racing, with many of regions fastest pros coming out to push themselves on the remote routes. During the spring of 2016, Kitsbow followed series founder Miguel Crawford and his Sonoma County clan on a discovery ride for the new Skaggs route. In final form, it covered 97 miles and over 10K feet of climbing, finishing on 10-miles of brutal single track around lake Sonoma. The [...]
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Dirty Kanza 200: Return of the Diesel
Photo Credit: Eric Benjaminson (@adventuremonkey.com) Yuri Hauswald has been a fixture in the Northern California bike racing scene for years, and his win at the 2015 Dirty Kanza 200 has cemented his place as one of the premier endurance athletes of our time. We spoke with Yuri as he was preparing to depart for this year’s Dirty Kanza in the Flint Hills of Kansas. What has your training routine been like for the last year? When I finished the Dirty Kanza last year, I didn’t take time off. I still continued to ride a lot, but I [...]
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Winning + the Tour of California
Photo Credit: Dylan VanWeelden (@dylanvanweelden) We get so excited this time of year. Trails are primed, summer trips are planned, and the racing season is just heating up. We want to share in that excitement with all of you. We are particularly thrilled to stoke out one lucky Obsessive, who is about to receive the most extravagant prize package we could conjure (with a lot of help from our generous co-sponsors). Without further ado, we can finally announce our winner of the Roadventure Giveaway. Drumroll please. The winner is Portland’s own freewheelin’ kiwi, Aaron Tuckerman. We didn’t know [...]
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