1. Number plates look much cooler strapped to the handle bars than pinned to a 150 dollar team Jersey 
2. Trophy’s made of rocks, mud and bottle caps carry more sentimental value than $175 dollars
3. Crashing into a ditch still on your aero bars at 18 mph, is more of story tell than taking out a parking meter at 32 mph avoiding a sunken manhole cover.
4. Lime, lavender or red Gravel Kings just look cooler than Basic black Continental Black Chili’s 
5. All the cool photo people like standing in rural areas 
6. USAC cycling would ban you for two years minimum for racing with a Dacshundoodle on your back
7. Driving two point five hours to race for 45 minutes is far less appealing than driving 1.5 hours to race 4.5 hours
8. Rarely is it goal to just finish a crit, or road race.
9. Mud and sand washes off a lot easier than fresh blacktop after you hit the deck.
10. Gravel racers love beer, roadies love to get back in the car and hurry off to the next race before sunset
11. Melting man, Waterloo, DirtySancho sound much more alluring than Gaslight, the Deathcrit, or AAVC summer training special.
12. Because miles of an event hold more epic stories than the time of an event.
13. Finishing 80th overall but winning your age group in a 26 mile event  look much better on social media than finishing 4th place in the Cat4 masters category 
14. Having numerous bags hanging on your bike and fantasying about all the greasy, and sweet gas station snacks you can cram into them for your 4 hour ride is much more thought provoking than slipping a Gu shot under the thigh of your Champsys shorts and hitting hard for 2.5 hrs
15. Hitting a deer priceless, hitting a disengaged water bottle speculative 
16. Setting up a pair of tubeless wheels is far more enjoyable than sniffing glue and stretching tubulars
17. Falling off a into a ditch and being stuck in the giggle weeds has a longer life of story telling than high siding a mailbox.

Gravel is soo much more romantic...