From 350 Pounds to Chasing Gravel Worlds

Every once in a while, someone in the KETL community sends us a story that feels like it belongs here. John Wintersteen is one of those people.

John is a KETL ambassador and the guy behind Moonshot Cycling , a project built around a pretty ambitious goal: qualifying for the UCI Gravel World Championships.

Here’s John’s story, in his own words.

At my heaviest, I weighed more than 350 pounds. I wasn’t thinking about racing bikes or chasing huge goals. I was trying to get healthy. There wasn’t one dramatic moment that changed everything. Just the slow drip of consistency. I logged my food, moved every day, and kept showing up even when progress felt slow. More than 150 pounds later, those habits had become a completely different life.

The before-and-after photos show the physical change, but they don’t fully explain what happened next. The bike gave that change direction. What started as another way to move turned into long rides, gravel racing, and, eventually, multiple 200-mile finishes.

Now I’m building Moonshot Cycling around my pursuit of qualifying for the 2027 UCI Gravel World Championships. I want to see how far I can take it. More importantly, I want my granddaughters, and maybe a few other people along the way, to see that you don’t have to know how a big, hairy goal will turn out to decide it is worth going after.