How I Won a Gravel State Championship on the OBED RVR

By Mark Meadows

Mark Meadows is a long-time OBED rider, gravel racer, and the new 2025 USAC 50-59M Colorado Gravel State Champion. Earlier this month, Mark competed at the Colorado Gravel Grinder Championships aboard an OBED RVR endurance road bike! He tells us the story of how he discovered gravel racing, what it took to achieve one of his biggest goals, and why he picked the RVR from his stable of OBED bikes. 

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Where It All Began

Every champ starts somewhere. Photo courtesy of Colorado Gravel Grinder Championships.

Hi everyone. I'm Mark Meadows from Littleton, Colorado. Like many, I am a transplant, originally from Asheville, North Carolina. I moved here the summer of '97 to work in Estes Park and decided to stay. I transferred to CSU and the rest is history! I am celebrating my 20th anniversary this month to my beautiful wife (a dedicated runner in her own right), and we have two kids; one a freshman at the University of Utah and the other a freshman in high school.

Like many others, my story involves numerous twists and turns. I have been an athlete all my life, playing baseball and basketball in high school, then college basketball. Bicycles have always been a part of my life… mostly as forms of transportation while in school, but even afterwards, I had a bike to tool around on for stupid adventures with others that I was certainly not qualified for! As with many middle-aged people, life moves ahead with marriage, kids, a career, etc., and the next thing you know, you're a little heavy, out of shape, and partaking a little too much on the weekends! Following a series of injuries (Achilles tear, plus knee and back surgery) and a lot of frustration related to what the next fitness chapter of my life looked like, I decided at the age of 40 to get serious again. 

Rediscovering the Bike

Mark's RVR gets around.

I stopped drinking. I changed my eating habits, and one morning after aggravating an old knee injury at CrossFit, I looked up at the garage ceiling to see my old 26" Schwinn hardtail, and the light went on! I had done the Whole Enchilada in Moab on this very bike, and it was what I needed at the time to get me out of my funk. I pulled the bike down, pumped up the tires (the tubes held!), and took it up Deer Creek Canyon with some buddies. They were astonished that a guy wearing cargo shorts and a tank top on a 20-year-old bike with a shock that didn't work and knobby tires could be keeping up with them and their shaved legs, Lycra kits, and carbon frames! I was hooked.

10 years later, 50 pounds lighter, and with multiple races and adventures under my belt, I've learned a lot about cycling, made great friends, but most importantly, I've learned a lot about myself. Team sports, and especially fast-twitch sports, are a different beast than mid- and long-distance cycling. The training and nutrition were such an enigma to me when I first started. I thought a granola bar and a Gatorade were all I needed to ride more than 30 miles.

How far I've come!

Becoming a Gravel Racer

I've found that my strength is in long/endurance distance gravel racing. I learned I have a high tolerance for suffering!

As the years have passed, I've leaned into the gravel scene. Being on quiet, dusty roads was always a draw to me. Seeing things at 20mph on a bike is a much different experience than at 50mph in a car. Gravel seemed to level the playing field, giving a "bigger guy" who knew how to handle a bike on rough roads the opportunity to stay competitive with the "jockey guy" who was small and fast. The first official race I entered was the Bailey HUNDO in 2016. 106 miles, 12,761 feet of elevation, and 11 hours on a hardtail… oof. I was in over my head just trying to stay in front of the course sweepers for the day, but I finished and it showed me I could do more!

Over the past five years of cycling, I've found that my strength is in long/endurance distance gravel racing. I learned I have a high tolerance for suffering! That's really what gravel races come down to, in my opinion. I found the gravel roads around Trinidad, Colorado, a couple of years before Life Time made the area known to the rest of the world. I am fond of Trinidad as it reminds me a lot of my hometown of Asheville. Once the racing world started organizing races there, I jumped in as many as I could. Over the last eight events there, I've won five Age Group races, and took home one 2nd place and two 3rd places. In all eight races, I finished no lower than 7th overall. 

Mark finishing Rad Dirt Fest (left) and the epic scenery of Trinidad, CO. Photo courtesy of Life Time.

One highlight in Trinidad was The Rad, put on by Life Time in 2021. It was the 165-mile course, and the finish came down to a three-man sprint for 4th. I took 5th overall and 1st in my age group. The next and biggest highlight was this past Sunday when I took 1st in my age group (7th overall) at the USACycling Colorado State Gravel Championships. I won the 50-59 age group and became the State Champion. 

This was a goal of mine that almost didn't come to fruition. I have been battling ongoing knee issues dating back to my basketball days. These issues came to a head in the last 6 months. Having to take time off and dial back training is not a strength of mine, but it was a necessity. In early 2025, I decided to put off surgery and lean into therapy, medication, and holistic treatments to see how much my body could tolerate. With good returns, I was able to lean back into my training sessions in early March, and they paid off with the State Crown. I'm not 100% but am getting closer each day.

Racing the OBED RVR

The flexibility to handle different surfaces has quickly made the RVR my go-to.

I currently own three OBED bikes. Jack (one of OBED’s dedicated sales and customer service pros) and the OBED team have always been great to work with. I bought the first iteration of the Boundary when the company name was Ocoee. I built that bike up as a heavy training/bike-packing bike and loved it. After selling that bike to a rider who was riding across the Western US, I turned around and bought another Boundary. Then a GVR, and now the new RVR. 

Mark's first Boundary, loaded up.

For the State Championship, I brought both the RVR and the GVR for different course scenarios. Having ridden and raced so many times in that area, I knew the course could be fast and smooth as butter or a quagmire of ruts and loose gravel. I outfitted the RVR with 32mm Vittoria CX Pros and the GVR with 45mm Goodyear Zipp XPLRs. What gravel race isn't complete without a plethora of tire theories, selections, changes the day before, and the constant look around to see what others are riding and why! I pre-rode the course the day before, and the RVR with the 32s were the perfect choice.

Race day was like many others I've experienced—it's won and lost in the first two hours. You have to be able to burn matches, close gaps, and chase the front group until it settles into a rhythm. Because this race was shorter than most, the pace was fast from the gun and only got faster once we hit the gravel at about mile 10. Three riders rode off the front, and I found myself pushing the pace with two others to try and keep it close. I knew the RVR's gearing (I had a 52x10t top gear) and tire setup would allow me to push the pace on the flats and downhills, and that's what I did.

The three of us never caught the front group, but the chasers behind also never caught us. Once the finishing order became apparent, I settled into the last 10 miles knowing that I'd finally won a significant milestone race and was all smiles at the finish. Knowing the course, knowing your strengths, and setting up a bike to match both of those is key. The flexibility to handle different surfaces has quickly made the RVR my go-to. It allowed me to go from finishing 3rd last year in the State Championship to 1st this year.

Beyond the State Championship

A 50-year-old can still find a passion later in life and attain challenging goals if they are dedicated and committed.

Moving forward for the rest of 2025: riding 12,000 miles per year is always my fitness goal, and I will continue training for other gravel races in Colorado and other states. My ultimate goal is to win the 2025 Gravel Nationals in the early fall. I was unable to achieve it in 2023, finishing 10th in my age group in Gering, Nebraska. Bad legs in a 131-mile National race is not a recipe I plan to repeat. Depending on conditions, I will be racing my Boundary, GVR, or RVR.

I think the takeaway from my story is that a 50-year-old can still find a passion later in life and attain challenging goals if they are dedicated and committed. It's not easy, but if it were, everyone would do it and that's what makes days like last Sunday so freaking sweet!

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