(upbeat music) -[Jason] It's going to be a fun show.

There's going to be some dirt.

There might be some walking, but here we go.

(upbeat music) Ten.

Nine.

Eight.

Seven.

Six.

Five.

Four.

Three.

Two.

One.

Lauf Gravel Worlds 2025 has begun!

(upbeat music) This gravel world belongs to you.

It belongs to people.

It's not a race.

It's not an event.

It's an experience that when you do these really hard efforts, it's a memory that you will have for a lifetime.

We had just under 2500 participants this year, from almost all 50 states and 27 countries from all six inhabited continents.

And that is divided up between our triathlon, our running, but our biggest section is our cycling events.

Which puts us into one of the largest gravel events in the world.

The top five, top ten every single year.

(upbeat music) -[Sophia] Oh, it's full speed ahead from beginning to end.

I mean, it's only what, 1:40 and I almost have 20,000 stops, so I'm probably going to get 40,000.

By the end of the day.

(upbeat music) -[Volunteer] Yeah.

-[Sophia] Could you take them over to that green Good Life tent?

-[Volunteer] Yeah.

-[Sophia] This is the week that we all live for.

Because it's so special to be able to put on an event that's worthy of people's time and energy and money.

In and out.

(upbeat music) (crickets chirping) (upbeat music) And we are expecting probably about 5 to 6000 people total at this event.

We've always said we want Gravel Worlds to look like the world, and that means everyone, no matter who they are, what they believe, where they're from, they are here at Gravel Worlds.

(people chatting) -[Scott] According to the MC it looks like this is the biggest 75 race that they ever had.

So look at all the people.

(people chatting) -[Jason] Let's go Lauf Gravel Worlds!

(clinking and cattle bells) -[Scott] 1,500 feet of climbing already.

Get that.

So a lot of up and downs.

Nebraska is definitely not flat.

- It's wrinkly.

(group laughing) - Wrinkly.

That's perfect.

- And I thought it was beautiful too.

Like, I came into it thinking lots of cornfields out there, but there was a lot of other beautiful terrain that kind of mixed it up, too.

And I thought it was interesting.

-[Geoffrey] There's Scott Baumann.

Woo!

We've done a lot, and I would say that this is definitely in the top tier of organized (upbeat music) -Woo!

Great Job.

-[Geoffrey] Thank you, Nebraska, for having a well-positioned gravel race.

(group laughing) And a beautiful state.

(upbeat music) (crunching gravel) -[Jason] We're really proud of the impact that Gravel Worlds has.

We did a community impact study that showed we bring over $2.5 million into Lincoln and Nebraska.

(insects chirping) The big thing that Gravel Worlds has done is shown that Nebraska is not a flyover state.

It's a place that is beautiful and is challenging to go experience on a bike, (gravel crunching) but really shows off the beauty of our land, the kindness of our people.

(wind and crunching gravel) Gravel Worlds started in 2010 with a bunch of friends and a parking lot.

There was about 100 people at the first event.

So it's pretty crazy to see the growth of this event in such a relatively short amount of time, but also just the growth of the sport of gravel cycling.

It started right here in the Midwest and now has become a global sport.

-{Reporter] Congratulations Rosa!

How was the mud at the beginning?

-[Rosa] Wow.

It was quite tough.

I must say... -[Jason] The type of participants that we have is a very drastic difference.

(cheering and cattle bells) From kids, our youngest rider we had this year was eight years old.

Our oldest rider was 82 and riders from all over the world.

But then also different ability levels.

We have the pro riders who some have ridden in, like the Tour de France at that level.

A lot of them, this is their full time job where they are professional athletes.

(upbeat music) -[Joe] You know, it's way up there in terms of competition with what they've done for us this year.

So it's a chance to race really good racers.

So.

(upbeat music) The most challenging part of my day was myself underestimating what that little rain shower did.

Going into it, it wasn't too bad, but right before we got out of it, it just turned into peanut butter mud and a guy crashed in front of me.

I crashed and then someone else landed on me.

And then my bike got all clogged up with mud.

(upbeat music) Then you kind of shift mindsets and you're like, just ride hard.

Other people are going to have problems too.

We'll group up,come together, ride really strong and then we ended up finishing 19th on the day for myself.

(upbeat music) -[Announcer] Joe Goetti.

(upbeat music) (cheering) So to come back from that after losing so much time early on.

Was a, yeah, good way to overcome that a little bit, and make something of it.

(upbeat music) I think it's kind of cool to highlight both experiences.

Like me I'm at the point in the men's professional race, and she's doing her second ever gravel race.

(upbeat music) -[Kendra] So this year I decided to take on the double half, which included a 25 K run, and then the next day, a 75 mile bike ride.

(upbeat music) But for me, like once we started, I just focused on my ride and what that was gonna entail and met some amazing people along the way.

Supporting me in times that I really needed to hear that.

So that was really cool to have and so competitive.

But everyone was just also having a great time.

(upbeat music) (serene music) (crowd cheering) -[Jason] Our celebration for our last place finisher is bigger than our first place finisher.

So this year we had 40 bottles of champagne that we sprayed on our last place.

We have a finish line party where we invite the whole community to come in to the finish line and celebrate all those people that are out there for 13, 14, 15 hours.

I would say that's the biggest aspect that's different with gravel is this that camaraderie, that community competitive and noncompetitive alike, are treated the same, and we can all come together at the end and can proud of what we finished and celebrate every single person.

-[Announcer] Well done to John Starrs from Omaha.

Well done Randy.

-[Jason] I hope that all of our participants walk away with a memory that they're proud of.

Whether their day went perfectly or they did not finish.

(serene music) - Good.

-[Jason] I hope they learn something about themselves.

(serene music) Make a new friend.

- Love it.

- Awesome.

Get it!

-[Jason] Make a new memory (serene music) and leave inspired to maybe do it again or do something even harder.

Themselves when they leave.

(serene music)