In this episode Elspeth will be joined Maddy Nutt by who turned from starting a career in a corporate role, to turning into a gravel pro.
Gravel riding is gaining a huge amount of popularity over the past few years from simply exploring off road routes, multi-day bike packing, taking part in races to completing to turn it into a career.
Maddy first talks about how she got into cycling, she started 6 years ago as she used to do triathlon, then realised that she had a big love for cycling out of all the 3 disciplines. She raced a bit in road, but found her love for gravel. Her love came from just enjoying the nature and her love for travel. Over the past few years she has visited some amazing places, Her top 3 are Rwanda, Mexico and regularly visits Girona in Spain. She finds Girona a great place to because of the choice of roads and there's lots to do and explore for when you are not cycling. Whilst Rwanda was a really special and beautiful place. Mexico has great food, but could be a bit chaotic getting out on the routes.
What's different about being on a cycling team to racing on gravel is that Maddy manages her own calendar, securing her own sponsorships and promoting herself through social media. Parts of this she really enjoys such as having the freedom plan her own calendar and her social media, but what is a challenge is not having the support at races as you would in a road cycling team.
Maddy talks about how gravel bikes differ from road bikes, being that they have wider clearance for bigger tires that can handle more rugged terrain, the gearing is often different and handlebars shaped for comfort. Gravel bikes generally are heavier than road bikes as they are designed to be more stable. Saying that Maddy reports that many riders in races are using road bikes with bigger tires as generally road bikes tend to have more clearance than they used to.
This year Maddy took a huge win in Rwanda, where she won her first UCI gravel race, it was unexpected for her as she thought that she had fallen apart towards the end of the race.
Unfortunately Maddy is unwell at the moment, and having to take at least a few weeks off the bike. As all cyclists told to take a break, it's tough on her, but we look forward to seeing what she has in store. You can follow her Insta account HERE
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