Bikes. People. Growth. Community.

It started simple with an effort to get some friends together, ride the gravel roads of southern Minnesota, and see what happens. What happened was the Almanzo 100. One of the first gravel races in the country, launched in 2007 out of Rochester, Minnesota. Paper cue sheets, chalk start lines, and self-reliance light years away from any feed zone. It grew from 13 riders to over 1,400, was always free-to-enter and helped set the template for an entire genre of cycling.

Chris stepped away from the race in 2019. What stayed was the belief that riding with other people is one of the better things you can do with your time, and that it doesn't take much more than a route and a willingness to show up.

That's still the foundation for the Almanzo CC riding club. We are informal road, gravel, and MTB rides across Minnesota, Wisconsin, the Dakotas, and wherever else seems worth going. No entry fees, no podium, no FOMO content strategy.

Almanzo C.C. has, however, grown from there, into the following things:

IDEAS: Things worth saying about bikes, work, people, and language. Updated regularly. If you like it, the larger body of work behind it is GEOMETRY OF SERVICE - 78 pieces created in response to Rick Rubin's The Creative Act, transposed into the world of independent bike shops.

THE LEDGER: An accountant for the human, not the finance. Same job as a financial accountant, different ledger - Did you do what you said you'd do?

NEWSLETTER: A short email every Monday morning about what's actually happening. This is the rink, the bike, the writing and the slow burn that is every day life. No content calendar, just an honest weekly note from inside the work. Issues also live here.

Bikes + People + Work = Community

Founded in Minnesota · Est. 2007 · Strava · Instagram · Newsletter · LinkedIn