The Gravel Biking Corridor of Fame (GCHOF) at present introduced its fifth class of inductees: Meg Fisher, Kristen Legan, Jim Cummins and Paul Erringtone.
These 4 gravel specialists had been nominated by the general public and chosen by a gaggle of greater than 60 electors made up of previous Corridor of Fame inductees, GCHOF board members, impartial athletes, promoters, business professionals and followers of the game.
The category of 2026 will be a part of a formidable checklist of earlier inductees, together with the likes of Ted King, Alison Tetrick, Yuri Hauswald, Dan Hughes, Kristi Mohn, Rebecca Rusch, Bobby Wintle, Selene Yeager and Nick Legan — a lot of whom you’ll be able to examine in our article about gravel’s pioneers and legends.
Kristin Legan
(Picture credit score: GHOF)
Gravel biking has at all times been about greater than the trip itself. It’s a mindset rooted in resilience, curiosity, journey, and a robust sense of neighborhood, and few folks embody that “Spirit of Gravel” extra totally than Kristen Legan, in keeping with the Gravel Corridor of Fame.
Legan is a racer, coach, and business veteran who transitioned to biking after competing in triathlons, then spent years racing on the street and in cyclocross.
Finally, the huge gravel roads of the game lured her in for good. She rode her first Unbound Gravel (then known as Soiled Kanza 200) in 2013, ending fourth general. What started as a “bizarre facet challenge” quickly turned dwelling, because the folks and tradition of gravel pulled her in. Over the following decade, Legan earned a number of Unbound 200 podiums and in the end claimed victory on the 2023 Unbound XL.
As her involvement deepened, Legan transitioned from athlete to mentor, founding Rambleur Teaching and supporting athletes throughout all ranges of gravel and endurance biking. By means of teaching, camps, clinics, and training, she has helped riders not solely obtain their efficiency objectives but additionally construct confidence and resilience that stretch past the bike.
Past racing and training, Legan has performed a key function in shaping trendy gravel biking by her work with main business manufacturers, serving to introduce and outline early gravel-specific expertise whereas translating its function to a wider viewers by storytelling. On the coronary heart of all of it is her perception within the energy of bikes to carry folks collectively. As Legan places it, “Bikes are simply the entry level. What actually issues is the neighborhood, progress, and humanity that comes with them.”
Dr. Meg Fisher
(Picture credit score: Megan Fisher)
Avid Biking Weekly readers will certainly recognise Dr. Meg Fisher from her occasional contributions and perception on paracycling. A Canadian-American Paralympian and Physician of Bodily Remedy, Fisher is among the most achieved American para-athletes in biking, with 4 Paralympic medals and 10 World Championship titles to her identify. She competed on the 2012 and 2016 Paralympic Video games and, whereas she has since retired from worldwide para-racing, continues to compete in gravel occasions, persistently redefining what is feasible with each end.
Earlier than biking, Fisher was an NCAA Division I tennis participant, however a traumatic automotive accident altered the course of her life, leaving her in a coma and ensuing within the amputation of her left leg. Her athletic achievements since have been nothing in need of extraordinary. Along with her Paralympic success, Fisher holds the document for probably the most para-class victories at main gravel occasions, together with Unbound Gravel, Gravel Worlds, and SBT GRVL. Equally important is her instrumental function in creating para-athlete classes at those self same occasions, a legacy that continues to broaden entry and alternative for athletes with impairments throughout the game.
“Meg Fisher embodies the perfect of gravel biking—braveness, inclusivity, perseverance, and selflessness,” the Gravel Biking Corridor of Fame states in a press launch. “Her potential to excel as an athlete, advocate, and ambassador has propelled the game ahead in profound new methods.”
Fisher stated she is humbled to be included within the Class of 2026, noting, “Usually, Halls of Fame hooked up to sport don’t normally embrace folks with bodily impairments. I’m humbled to be the primary para-athlete inducted into the Gravel Biking Corridor of Fame, and I’m excited for the following technology to construct upon the muse I’ve created and do it even higher.”
Jim Cummins
(Picture credit score: GHOF)
Within the early 2000s, gravel using existed largely as a coaching software, not a self-discipline of its personal. It was Jim Cummins, alongside Unbound Gravel co-founder Joel Dyke, who helped change that, remodeling gravel from a method to an finish right into a self-discipline outlined by journey and neighborhood.
Popping out of the Midwest mountain bike scene, Cummins was impressed by Dyke’s expertise on the first TransIowa in 2005. “I stated, ‘anyone ought to placed on a race like that right here in Kansas,'” Cummins recalled. “Subsequent factor I knew, Joel and I had been brainstorming and planning what that occasion would possibly seem like.” The end result was the inaugural Soiled Kanza 200 in 2006.
With simply 34 riders on the beginning line, the primary Soiled Kanza felt extra like a celebration than a contest, and that environment continues to be Unbound’s hallmark at present.
Cummins offered the occasion in 2018, at which period Unbound had develop into the most important gravel biking occasion on the earth with some 2,500 racers. The race reshaped Emporia into a worldwide gravel vacation spot and helped outline the tradition of recent gravel biking. For Cummins, the measure of success was by no means simply progress, however inclusivity. “The main focus of the DK was at all times concerning the journeyman athlete,” he stated. “I’m very happy with the truth that yearly, I used to be on the ending line giving out finisher’s awards and hugs, proper as much as 3:00 a.m., when the final finisher crossed the road.”
Paul Errington
(Picture credit score: GCHOF)
As gravel biking developed from a regional curiosity into a worldwide motion, Paul Errington emerged as considered one of its key worldwide ambassadors. The Gravel Biking Corridor of Fame recognises Errington for his pivotal function in increasing gravel past North America and serving to form the tradition and expertise of recent gravel occasions world wide.
Errington’s entry into gravel started after studying a 2011 trip report on the TransIowa, which sparked his curiosity and led him to start out line of the 2012 Soiled Kanza.
“After that, I used to be hooked on gravel,” Errignton says.
Errington went on to create The Soiled Reiver within the UK, one of many nation’s first trendy gravel occasions. Launched in 2016 with roughly 300 riders, the Soiled Reiver rapidly gained momentum, rising quickly and serving to set up gravel as a authentic and thriving self-discipline within the UK.
As gravel continued to develop, Errington expanded his imaginative and prescient globally, turning into instrumental within the improvement and worldwide growth of the Grinduro sequence. After serving to carry Grinduro to Scotland, he finally acquired the sequence and at present oversees occasions that entice hundreds of riders throughout a number of continents.
Past occasion promotion, Errington has influenced gravel by partnerships with main manufacturers and by advocating for community-centered occasions. “An occasion is the place you’ll be able to go to someplace completely new and get to expertise somebody’s tackle the very best using their space has to supply,” he stated.
The brand new inductees will formally be inducted into the Gravel Biking Corridor of Fame throughout a ceremony to be held Could 27, 2026, in Emporia, Kansas.