The Belgian Waffle Ride (BWR) has seen huge growth in recent years, prompting them to add new events outside of the original southern California race. With new courses in Asheville, NC and Cedar City, UT, more athletes can take on the notoriously difficult BWR challenge – featuring long distances on a mix of pavement and gravel. If you missed it, check out our recent Cedar City course preview, which gives all of the pertinent details and equipment recommendations.
Most of you know Slowtwitch as an endurance sports hub, with a focus on triathlon. Our audience has grown to become more and more gravel-curious over the years, with many of our forum members taking part in events such as BWR. As you could imagine, our ears perked up when we learned that two of the world’s best triathletes opted to take part in the Cedar City event. That’s right – none other than our friends, Heather Jackson, and Ben Hoffman.
With so much of the 2020 triathlon race season cancelled, these two turned to gravel to keep in shape, stay motivated, and take on a new type of challenge. Both are sponsored by ENVE Composites, who were kind enough to provide us with the images and videos featured in this article.
We’ll kick it off with videos of each athlete, talking about their equipment choices for this year’s BWR Cedar City. First, Heather Jackson details her Argon 18 Dark Matter:
Next up, Ben Hoffman shows us his very-gold Cervelo Aspero:
Spoiler alert – both athletes not only survived the grueling 125 miles, but they placed VERY well for being “just triathletes”. Jackson wowed us with an incredible 4th place overall finish, while Hoffman fought back hard from a flat tire to finish just outside the top-30. Bravo!
We saved the best video for last, which is a Slowtwitch-exclusive conversation between Jackson and Hoffman. They discuss dirt roads, tire pressure, mustaches, sourdough, and how they’ve navigated the craziness of 2020. I’m a biased editor, but I’ll tell you that these are two of the nicest people in the sport, and their conversation is worth listening to in its entirety – especially while wrenching on your own gravel bike.
We’ll leave you with several images from this year’s course and event. It looks like a truly epic adventure, and we look forward to much more from the BWR series.
Heather Jackson looked lean and mean on her Argon 18 (no apologies for the rhyming).
Ben Hoffman rocked his Cervelo with his usual style and poise, as the World’s Most Interesting Man in Triathlon.
A gorgeous golden hue gives the race course a dreamy look.
Neil Shirley (right, above) is a former pro cyclist and current ENVE employee. As usual, he crushed the day, finishing 5th in the men’s 35 – 44 category and 20th overall, in 6:30.12.
Vicious climbs and winding roads are a common theme in Cedar City.
This could be you – will you take on a BWR event in 2021?
