What the Plate Is For

Number 1 for 2026 is sitting on my desk this morning. I keep picking it up.

Turn it over and there's no chip on the back. Riders who come to us from racing notice that right away and ask where the timing strip goes. It doesn't go anywhere. The Graveler isn't a race, so there's nothing to time and no clock waiting for you at the end of the day.

The finish times we publish exist for one reason: so everyone is through by the time the town is ready for you and the evening can start together.

What the plate does is simpler than keeping time. It tells us who you are while you're out on the road. When a volunteer at an aid stop looks up, or a support truck pulls alongside, your number is how we put a name to you, and a name is how we look after you.

Across the bottom are the six host towns: Jonesboro, Wynne, Marianna, Helena, Stuttgart, Arkansas City. Each one is a night of the week and a community that has made room for us, with a place to sleep, food on the table, and people waiting at the edge of town. Right now they're names printed on a plate. By the end of the week they'll be places you've rolled into tired and ridden out of the next morning.

When the week is done, the plate goes home with you. Hang it in the garage. Put the next one beside it. Start a collection.

Yours will be waiting at check-in on Monday in Jonesboro.