I gotta say, we ride our Cannondale a lot, it is such a versatile bike. We have used the bike for everything from racing, touring, rain riding, single track, gravel roads, etcc.. What a value, we bought it new in 2011 for 3K, it came new with good components so we didn't need to make any changes other than adding fenders and wider tires. The plan was to use it as a winter rain bike so we didn't get our custom tandem dirty ;-), oh well it became our go to bike and we started riding it for all seasons (that is until we got our Calfee this year). So yes, bottom line is gravel riding is a new found love.