I’m a roadie at heart but I started to burn myself out on trying to constantly improve FTP’s, PR’s, KOM’s etc. I went to a “mixed surface” ride because a friend begged me to go with him and I fell in love. Road cycling culture is very rigid, whereas the gravel culture is very open. I saw guys wearing (gasp) camelbaks and t shirts because the vast majority of the dudes there didn’t care about looking cool, crossing the finish line first or pretending that they had a team car supporting them. They rode that gravel event because they wanted to spend the day on a bike.
That ride changed my perspective on cycling. I still do care about trying to crush segments and push myself when on my dedicated road bike, but when I take out my gravel rig, it’s because I want to spend a comfortable morning on a bike just riding. Ive noticed that I take my road bike out a lot less lately. In fact, today I did a 95 miler on my road bike doing the normal thing of constantly looking at my power output and I couldn’t stop thinking about how I’d rather be out on my gravel bike and taking side trails and roads and not caring about how fast I was going.