When Ian Boswell and Lachlan Morton crossed the road collectively ultimately month’s Vermont Overland, Sule Kangangi was on the entrance of everybody’s thoughts. Three years on from the Kenyan’s tragic demise on the occasion, the 2 gravel professionals who knew him greatest discovered a second of shared closure, celebrating Kangangi’s life as he lived it: driving collectively, racing collectively, and giving positivity a win.
For Ian Boswell, Kangangi and his Workforce Amani venture was an enormous step in his skilled profession publish racing. Boswell is the International Athlete Supervisor for Wahoo, the place he has managed the model’s international athlete partnerships for the previous 5 years. Workforce Amani was a key partnership in that international portfolio early on, and Kangangi was a elementary a part of that group.
Ian Boswell and Sule Kingangi on the Migration Gravel Race in 2022.
(Picture credit score: Credit score OVRLND.Studio)
“We spoke a few hours after Sule was pronounced lifeless, and, you already know, I did not actually have a lot to say on the time,” Boswell mentioned. “I feel there was nonetheless simply a whole lot of shock of shedding a pal, being the one on the hospital, and the one performing CPR on him, you already know, there was only a lot that I used to be experiencing.
“[Lachlan and I] had by no means actually talked about it exterior of the hours after Sule had handed. We mutually knew that it was nonetheless one thing that was on our minds, however often when Lachlan and I see one another, we are able to’t sit down and chat for an hour.”
In fact, each riders have networks of mates and colleagues who had been in the identical boat as the 2 athletes. However then once more, Boswell and Morton had been in distinctive positions to empathise with one another in a deeper approach.
“We have by no means actually had that point to sort of reconcile together with his loss collectively, after which [the Vermont Overland] offered a possibility for us to try this in a really particular spot. I imply, that was one factor that Lachlan talked about. Whereas it is nonetheless tragic, what an attractive place to spend your closing day on earth.”
Balancing Household, Work and Racing in Gravel’s Period of Monetisation
Ian Boswell and Lachlan Morton completed hand and hand throughout the road to honor Kingangi.
(Picture credit score: Credit score OVRLND.Studio)
The Overland joint win with Morton was part of an emotional finish to a really satisfying season for Boswell.
Boswell, who’s a previous WorldTour racer for Workforce Sky, a former winner of Unbound Gravel, and on the shortlist for hottest gravel racers on the earth, has been selecting and selecting his races away from any collection, prize cash and even skilled race obligations.
Practically a half-decade into his gravel journey, Boswell has hit his stride in a sport the place all the pieces is consistently shifting.
“I hit the tail finish of what you name the grassroots gravel interval,” Boswell mentioned. “There are a few individuals who came to visit [from the road] earlier than me, athletes who had been pursuing it as a profession for some time, and I caught the tail finish of the second the place individuals had been doing it as a result of they simply love driving their bikes.
“In fact, individuals needed to do effectively and needed to win, however there was an actual purity to the method and the expertise of each occasion, the place it was nonetheless extremely aggressive, however with a way of shared expertise and camaraderie.”
But over time, gravel has backed itself right into a extra aggressive nook. And whereas most easily see this vibe shift because the professionalisation of gravel, Boswell doesn’t see it that approach.
“The monetisation of gravel is absolutely what it’s,” Boswell mentioned. “Impulsively, a race throws up $25,000 value of prize cash, and everybody exhibits up.
“In a approach, that is nice, and I feel that is superior that U.S. biking has been sort of reborn with gravel. Now, there are younger, up-and-coming riders who can pursue a profession domestically by racing bikes. However, I do not go to races due to prize cash. Perhaps I ought to, however I am going to races that I’d take pleasure in and that encourage me, the place there may be some exterior connection to it.”
If anybody has digested gravel’s transfer away from its modest roots and refused to surrender that foundational spirit, it’s Boswell. He has the luxurious to maintain issues enjoyable, and he has grabbed it with two fingers.
“I am 34 now, I’ve received two youngsters, a full-time job at Wahoo. Coaching just isn’t my job,” he mentioned. “In fact, I take pleasure in doing it most days, nevertheless it’s not all the time the precedence, and it does not get the complete consideration because it did once I was in my twenties and racing on the street.
“It’s truly labored out fairly effectively for me. It nonetheless looks like such a present to have the ability to work with Wahoo, which is extremely versatile with me blocking out the center of the day to go for a experience.”
And but, regardless of the full-time job Boswell holds, these noon rides are sufficient to generate sufficient energy for Boswell to compete at a excessive stage. Curiously, Boswell appears to be driving stronger than ever.
Energy Data, Strava KOMs and Becoming that into his Gravel Philosophy
Ian Boswell on track on the Vermont Overland.
(Picture credit score: Credit score OVRLND.Studio)
In August of 2025, one fascinating subplot of the niche-gravel Instagram content material was Boswell’s journey to the Mount Washington Hill Climb. Alongside the way in which, Boswell was open together with his energy information, the place week after week the previous WorldTour climber was setting his all-time greatest energy numbers.
Finally, this culminated in a Strava KOM on the well-known and fearsome Mount Washington (12.4 km, at 12.6%) the place he managed a 405W efficiency for 50 minutes with a VAM of 1719. For these uninitiated, VAM is the velocity at which a rider accumulates meters on a per-hour foundation. For reference, Boswell would have ranked third on the KOM rankings of the steep aspect of the Mortirolo, the most effective approximation of Mount Washington on the Grand Tour circuit. That might put him simply above Vincenzo Nibali’s Strava time from the 2019 Giro d’Italia.
Add in his top-ten end at Unbound earlier this 12 months, and it’s virtually laborious to consider that Boswell isn’t an expert anymore.
“The entire energy file factor puzzles me as effectively,” he mentioned with a light-weight chuckle. “Since Unbound, I do not suppose I’ve accomplished greater than a 14 or 15-hour coaching week, and most of them are like 10 to 12 hours every week.
“I feel a part of it’s residual health. Particularly once you take a look at Washington or Mount Scotty, these had been one-off efforts, and that could be a massive distinction. You realize I am a bit of bit heavier, I am additionally approach more energizing than I ever was racing on the street, and I’m not carrying months of fatigue or 25-hour coaching weeks.
All of that gave Boswell the power to chalk up his 450-watt 20-minute energy file the week earlier than the Vermont Overland to only having a whole lot of “love” for the bike.
“I do know that I am getting older, I do know that sooner or later there can be a drop off of efficiency, whether or not that is age or availability, so I am simply having fun with this for all that it’s as a result of I don’t know when the writing can be on the wall.”
When that can be appears to be anybody’s guess. In the interim, Boswell has signed off on his 2025 season. After we had our dialog, Boswell hopped on a airplane to Greece for a marriage and every week with no bike. Not as a result of he “wanted a break,” simply due to logistics. He wanted to clean up his operating, anyway.
And when the 2026 season comes round, Boswell will mud off his gravel bike after an extended Vermont winter and can be again on his personal curated schedule of licensed bangers of occasions. If this 12 months is something to go by, count on him to as soon as once more baffle the gravel world with skilled performances by gravel’s greatest non-professional rider.
Ian Boswell on one among his hill climb efforts to arrange for the Mount Washington race.
(Picture credit score: Credit score OVRLND.Studio)