Jan 17, 2024
Michael Marckx is the founder and CEO of the Belgian Waffle Ride, one of the biggest and most influential multi-surface, gravelish series in the world. He’s a prime mover behind what has become today’s booming gravel scene and wow, this guy has lived what would be 20 lives the average human.
We talk everything that went into the birth of the BWR including
Michael’s time as CEO of a publicly traded company, his other
career as a professional musician, his other other career as a
professional triathlete during the golden age of the sport when
Kenny Souza had unrivaled hair and Mark Allen and Dave Scott were
battling it out for the Ironman and Michael’s childhood in an
environment where running marathons when you were 12 was
normal.
Most importantly, we talk about why you should pick something hard
to do with friends and go do it. That’s what I did last fall when I
did the BWR Kansas Wafer with the No Pressure No Diamonds crew and
got a taste of the Belgian Waffle magic then swore I would never go
back and am now going back.
Choose the Hard Way is the show about how hard things
build stronger humans who have more fun.
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We are in year six of Choose the Hard Way and it’s going to be a
big one with some amazing guests and the chance for us to spend
some time together as a community at a few gatherings and live
events.
To make it all happen I’m open to mission-aligned sponsors I’d be proud to share with my audience directly supporting the show this season. If you or someone you know have a company that wants to reach the high-achieving, high-influence, highly networked people who listen to this show and do amazing things, then send a DM to @hardwaypod or email us at choosethehardway@gmail.com.
I’m also ready to retire the Giant TCX cyclocross bike I’ve been
using to race gravel since 2015 and I’m ready for a new ride. If
you’re in the industry and work for a company that makes an amazing
bike you’d like me to race and talk about this year, holler at me
and let’s make it happen.
Finally, I’m going to have big news to share some time in the next
few episodes about the business I started that I’ve quietly been
working on for the past 18 months. We are getting ready to publicly
release our product and I want to give you all the opportunity to
be among the first to get to try it.
Go to choosethehardway.com to sign up for the newsletter and if
there’s someone you think would make a great guest, DM @hardwaypod or send an
email to choosethehardway@gmail.com.
To learn more about BWR go to @belgianwaffleride and you can find Michael gram’ing @ibemmx.