Ep. 154 ~ GRUSK featuring Maggie & Chris

GRUSK or Grave Ride up Spruce Knob is a bike race that has been taking place in West Virgina since 2016. It’s evolved over the years and now offers distances from 25 miles up to 260 miles. Each route features a long out and back up Spruce Knob, the highest point in West Virgina at 4,863’.

*^ Event Director, Travis Olson, hard at work. Running these multi-day events is an endurance sport as well*

When Travis, the race director, contacted me about coming out I was immediately interested and excited. I had done a bikepacking trip in WV back in 2019 that shared some of the same roads as the route. I remembered it being very beautiful and remote and I was excited to go see it again and see what the cycling scene was like.

I’m happy to report that West Virgina is just as Wild and Wonderful as I remember and the cycling scene is thriving as well.

^ *Maggie Livelsberger, 1st place SingleSpeed Women’s on the 260 mile route, and my guests for this episode*

I spent the weekend following the 220/260 mile riders and taking some photos. Afterwards, I sat down with the two first place single speed winners of the 260 mile route, Chris Joice and Maggie Livelsberger. I also sat down with Travis Olson, the race director, to tell us more about the event.