At the outset of the 2025 season, Canadian cyclist Alexis Cartier decided to compete in all nine of the big American gravel races, including every round of the six-event Life Time Grand Prix, which begins in April with the Sea Otter Classic. But, alarmed by the ever more apparent damaging effects of human-caused climate change, the 34-year-old adventurer was determined not to fly repeatedly across the continent. So he wrote himself a code of conduct, ruling out flying and driving, and rode between the races instead.
The odyssey he subsequently embarked upon involved spending seven months on the road, bikepacking a grand total of 15,000km (around 9,000 miles). And when he arrived at the starting line of each event, he competed in the races. All on the same bike (except for one time, when he rented a mountain bike for Leadville). A newly released short film, The Spirit of Gravel, tells the story of Cartier's incredible year. And it's a spellbinding (albeit somewhat humbling) watch.
