Brent Prenzlow and Andy Brightman are two local riders who have watched the Belgian Waffle Ride evolve from its inception in 2012 in the hills of North San Diego County. Ahead of this years California BWR, we caught up with each of them to hear about how the race has developed over the years, and how their equipment has adapted. Plus a few predictions thrown in, some general cycling wisdom, and gear talk. If you're an aspiring Belgian Waffleur, this is a read you won't want to miss!
I've been racing BWR since the inaugural edition in 2012. Last year was my 7th finish, and I have a yellow Overall, orange King of the Dirt, and a blue Hardman jersey from the early years. The contrast between year 1 and year 10 is massive and watching it evolve to it's current state is mind blowing! It started as a small underground road race with some dirt sectors. Everyone rode road bikes with rim brakes. Most on 25mm tubed tires with the then standard of 115 psi. I probably rode 28mm tires at 85 psi, which was super low for the times!
Fast forward 10 years. The race is huge and has way more technical dirt. Of course, we now have amazing advanced gravel specific equipment options to choose from. Last year, I chose an OPEN UP gravel bike with SRAM Force AXS mullet for low gearing (42 x 10-50) and great clearance on Spinergy GXX wheels with Schwalbe G-one speed 35mm tubeless tires at 38/40 psi. I love the GXX's 24mm wide internal rims and PBO spokes for their extra comfortable bump soaking support. This set up worked perfectly and I used the low gear many times! 2023 is rumored to have even more demanding new dirt and rocky sections so choose wisely and leave your road bikes at home!
When Michael Marckx (aka MMX, founder of the BWR) introduced me to unroad riding I was scared. He would lead these local rides, but disrupt the usual routes by taking roads and hills that few others ever took. And as a new cyclist I wanted to be on any ride the ‘cool kids’ were on, so I would jump in every chance. I had no idea that in the middle of these rides we would go up Puerta del Sol (easy gravel road) or ride around Lake Hodges (more difficult trails) on our rim-brake road bikes. It was terrifying! On these rides I would see riders fly by me through sand pits and over rock gardens with unimaginable grace, speed and skill, so I wanted to learn how to do that too (I’m still not fast or graceful but do know how to ride through a sand pit, usually without tipping over). When MMX created the BWR in 2012, as a small invitational event for around 136 riders, and put all the pieces together of road, gravel and unroad…disrupting the normal way of riding bikes, I was hooked. 
