Hi, I’m Andy. I am the head idiot in charge (at least that is what they tell me, but I’m pretty sure Lauren is really the one pulling all the strings).

Back in the winter/spring of 2019, Sam Pickman and I were riding and testing prototypes of the new ALLIED ABLE on the endless primo singletrack in and around Bentonville, Arkansas. For us, and specifically me, it was a time of profound enlightenment around what a more capable gravel bike could do. It was also some of my first exposure to the fast and flowy trails in NWA where we were ripping around on this drop bar offroad machine. We played and laughed. We’d stop and talk about the bike, changes needed, and about how much fun was to be had in them there woods.

Over the past few years Sam and I have obsessed over bikes and races and the status of community. We love road racing, flannel shirt gravel, and a good singletrack shred sesh on fatties. So why not mix them all together like a good hardy beef stew? Equipment choice is clutch. Strategy is key - what are your strengths or weaknesses? Keep it quirky and raw (how about a prize for most selfies with farm animals and team categories?), with a direction that is steered by the community that supports it. No sponsorship cash, with affordable entry fees, a rockin’ finish-line party, and one hell of a hard course.
This is the Rule Of Three.

Andy
I’ve spent my entire adult life trying to not grow up. I relish anything that embodies a good time, revel in shenanigans with good humans, and love a pure community gathering. Before obsessing over bikes, I was rabid about rock climbing and founded a festival in 2006 called 24 Hours of Horseshoe Hell, which accidentally became the “Burning Man of Rock Climbing”. Fifteen years on I still direct this trainwreck, and 24HHH has become the biggest and longest-running rock climbing event in the world (that’s what I’ve been told but I’ve never taken the time to Google it). I take pictures and tell stories for brands for money, travel around in a van, have the most excellent 10-year-old daughter who somehow has turned out to be normal, and am married to a beautiful woman who barely manages to keep me a functioning member of society and affectionately calls me “Caveman”.

Lauren is the real brains behind this operation, and rightfully so. Rumor has it that she moonlights as a superhero, along with a day job of wife, mother of two, ripping bike rider, and advocate as one of the founding members of one of the most successful clubs in the USA, the Women of OZ mountain bike club. She obsesses on riding bikes and believes in the ability to bring community together. Her idea of a good day is a sufferfest on the ole shred machine, but plans on putting the bike down for a day to captain the ship of the Rule of Three.