People are talking about gravel’s explosive rise to popularity and what will become of the traditionally messy and improvisational style of racing that so many love. Neal Rogers at Cycling Tips recently penned a great think piece that asked: “As gravel racing goes mainstream, can it retain its renegade status?”

Rogers’ article looked at gravel as a field of sport without a national championship and without a singular governing body. He dug into USA Cyclings’ lack of involvement in the sport overall and when, if ever, gravel’s rebel spirit might be dampened by wider organizational involvement.

Gravel is growing fast, that much is clear. But how did it get so big, and how can it keep growing without losing its spirit? While bike brands and pros retiring to race gravel are undoubtedly two major ways that the sport gained attention, we know a slightly alternate history of gravel’s meteoric rise.

Precisely because gravel races didn’t have national governing bodies or large corporations to promote them at the beginning, they have always had to advertise themselves. Rogers was dead on when he said that gravel is a discipline “driven by mass participation.” Many events live and die on registration fees and building hype around race sign-ups has become a fine art in gravel marketing.

Hype is built in many ways, and we at Vermont Social are especially proud of the content we’ve created and the races we have helped grow without massive injections of cash from larger bodies. Necessity is not just the mother of invention but also of innovation. As the underdogs on a rapidly expanding world stage, we have had to get creative. Working with “influencers” (in this case professional athletes with a penchant for gravel, a few handy sponsorships, and even your local riding hero whos opinion has a lot of weight in the local riding community) has been a big part of the rise of Northeast races like Rasputitsta and Vermont Overland. Documenting races on video and in photos, and then publishing them on social media has helped support the vibrant human community that is truly to credit for gravel’s growth.

Vlogging, funnily enough, has also been a big part of getting the word out. And vlogging as a medium hews close to gravel’s burly and trickster soul. Vlogs are first-person confessions whipped together loosely and focused entirely on viewer participation: “Drop a line in the comments to let me know what you want to see next,” is a refrain so often spoken by YouTubers.

We know that gravel is gritty and discombobulated and hella fun because of the people that make it so, and that is what our marketing work will always privilege. As one commenter said when Rogers’s article went up on LinkedIn: “when people in blue blazers start showing up, the party’s over.” People in blue blazers and all their investment potential may be inevitable for gravel’s overall future, but to the forever weird and funky races we say party on!

Social Media Grew Gravel

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