Favorite Opelika Okey Dokey Moments
Opelika only 3 months out! What was your favorite moment?
Hey Rollers, hope the first week of 2025 treated you well! We've been grinding to get all our ducks in a row for the Opelika Okey Dokey on April 12th this year!
If you're looking for the sweetest camping spot, be sure to go ahead and hit up Chewacla State Park. Those campsites are primo and usually sell out before we even get our promos put out there. We'll have Option B's for camping as well as hotel blocks announced shortly.
It's insane to think that we're less than three months out from our first event of the year. Last year we were in Opelika in May, so it'll be a bit earlier this season and we're really hoping that the weather plays nice with us. Last year ended up being almost perfect. That heavy rain during the week before padded down the roads nicely, although there were a few heavy mud patches on the course, causing a crash for one tough 'ole Roller.
Luckily, our team was right there when it happened and were able to get our dedicated medical staff on the scene in 12 minutes, and comfort the fallen rider while keeping him out of the mud and water. Another team member put down bark, sticks, and other solid debris to create a path through the mud. and guided other riders around our fellow Roller In Arms.
We were able to smoothly get our friend David into the ambulance and to the hospital where he was treated, has since recovered, and is already signed up for another Gravel Roll in 2025, Bird Dog 100! What a legend.
You're probably thinking to yourself: "Jeez Samson, your favorite moment was when a guy was injured in a crash?" "That's kinda messed up."
And to that I say, noooo, of course that wasn't my favorite moment from last year's Okey Dokey! Mostly because that crash happened at Pecan Shaker last year, not in Opelika.
How's that for a twist? Eat your heart out M. Night Shyamalan.
To get real for a second or as my generation likes to say, LBFFR (let's be forkin' for real, (but not forkin'.)) My favorite part of every one of our events is always and will forever be the after race hangout raffle and awards ceremony. It's so much fun getting to chop it up with all you Rollers, seeing the stoke at an all time high as you roll through the finish. It's always such a blast to see, whether it's people celebrating their win or just hyped for a day on the dirt roads, everyone is in it together and having a Super Serious Good Time.
Hope that's not too cheesy, it is the truth, I'm a social butterfly as my third grade teacher would tell my mom during parent teacher conferences - I think more as a nice way of really saying "distracting," and "obnoxious."
Sorry, sometimes the ADHD really comes out, anywho, let us know what your favorite moment from last year was! And what you're looking forward to this year!
We'll catch you next week in another edition of The Gravel Roll Gazette!
I’m currently working on an article all about how people of different walks of life find themselves riding gravel bikes and signing up for gravel races. I’d love to hear from you Gravel Rollers, or anyone else who might just be finding out about the sport, even you old timers that have been riding gravel since the days of beer raids and cigarettes on the the Tour of France.
