PERFORMANCE

Former professional motocross racer turned physical trainer Gareth Swanepoel currently has his hands full as the Covid-19 Pandemic put a pause on the 2020 racing series which resulted in a much later end time to the series.

Monster Energy athlete Jamie Bestwick is a BMX icon who holds 13 gold medals from the X Games and went on a 9-year winning streak. Though, to some surprise, Jamie is an avid cyclist as well and has recently grown fond of the new gravel segment within cycling. 

With the current climate of events becoming non-existent this year the North American cycling world was hit particularly hard. One event chose to press forward and conduct a race! The Belgian Waffle Ride looked to host their new event in a new location in Cedar City, Utah. Normally based in San Diego and after years of success, the BWR would host a gravel-specific event in Utah consisting of 125 miles over dirt roads with 6,000 feet of elevation gain all while sitting at an altitude of 4,500 ft.

With a gravel style event you can expect to see an array of different style of riders show up. To fly the Monster Hydro flag, we had none other than current XC MTB National Champion Keegan Swenson make the trip out to Cedar City just a few days after arriving home after a five-week block of racing in Austria, which consisted of four World Cups and the XC MTB World Championships.

Also showing up to the start line would be fan favorite Tj Eisenhart, who stepped away from professional racing on the road last year to pursue his own program within the new gravel/adventure racing world. To round out the Hydro crew Brian McCulloch; current road professional, who won the Belgian Waffle Ride in 2018, would look to come back and put a stamp on the new Belgian Waffle Ride in Cedar City.

We caught up with Brian to get the insights on how his training has gone thus far and what preparations he has done to be in winning form come October.