Gravel events 2024

Have only done one organised event which was the Glorious Gravel in Coniston. Travelled down with a buddy, camped in the pouring rain the night before and headed over to the event early doors.

Well run, chilled out but plenty of potential to go hard if you wanted to. We ended up riding with a great bunch of guys from the Rapha store in Manchester.

Course was surprisingly gnarly in places for a gravel route, I loved it but bike didn't come away completely unscathed, a dinged rim and pinch flatted tubeless tyre for my troubles 🙄

So yeah, I would happily do another 👍

I’ve done one glorious gravel event

It was fine. Nice vibe ok stops. The team were out changing the route as conditions changed days before. So I got her feeling they really cared.

Also look at Bagman. The one day event had better food, but I think we paid for hot drinks.

I also did their 2 day event in wales that was excellent

The racing collective events are free with no support. I’ve done 2 of those and they were great

Calder Divide. Entered again this year after doing it the first year but missing it in 2023. A few route options and a good overnight camping set up to take the pain away from carrying all your kit (unless you want to).

Did the Wessex one. Well organised, no stress, not busy, range of abilities. Would do another. Quite fancy Tuscany or Portugal, maybe next year.

Thanks folks, most encouraging. Will check out the suggestions.

Any negative experiences for balance?

Any negative experiences for balance?

Well, I wouldn't go so far as negative, but I did the Lancashire/Forest of Bowland GG event last year. Admittedly the shorter route. But the vast majority was road based (nice roads, don't get me wrong) and the off road was good for a bit but ultimately led to 2 pretty tough miles which I would have found a slog on the MTB, let alone gravel bike. Plus the extra mile at the end when you pass the finish to do a pointless blue-grade MTB loop. Just didn't find it a great course, but organisation was fine, feed stops good. I wouldn't do that particular one again, maybe others though.

If you've got the legs, the Frontier 300 was the best thing I did last year by a long way. Challenging, awesome route, great camaraderie and nice finish setup.

I'd also look at the myriad of gravel events in Galloway. Rode there several times last year and it's just a top area for it. Quite fancy the 3-day Raiders event. The Gralloch is a proper race. Think GG might have one there this year.

I've always had a good day out on the Dorset Gravel Dash https://dirtdash.cc/. If bikepacking's your thing there's the 5050 too. Otherwise the Racing Collective 'events' are good, not so organised but you'll meet people on the way. Oxduro is a good route.

Thanks folks, was considering just day events to align with family commitments, but the bikepacking events do appeal.. although I'm more of an admire the view and partake in a tipple at sunset and a coffee at sunrise faff camper over an 'efficient' kip in a ditch for three hours under a foil blanket, in the small hours type.

A bit of diary coordination upcoming... Have attempted to join the Racing Collective mailing list..

I thought about doing a Glorious gravel event with Mrs Anagallis. Lot of money for a bike ride though. Not suggesting it's cheap to put on and people should make a living but it is beyond what I would want to spend.

I did the Cotswold Cross (bagman events) last year, weather was terrible, but it was a good fun day out for a sportive style event. I did it on my fat bike, but mostly gravel bikes.

Alpkit organise Sonder branded ones throughout the winter, cheap to enter but the routes are quite short. There's a few left this year. 

Glorious Gravel rides are great, they are expensive but feel worth it because of the obvious effort gone into planning the routes all over the country.  North Wales and Somerset are the ones I did last year. 

I've done a couple of the Glorious Gravel events and yes they are not cheap, but well run, cracking food stops, good routes, well marked, good day out.

By far my favourite however was this:

https://www.suttonbankbikes.co.uk/top-of-the-rock-2023

@davy90

Any negative experiences for balance?

Not me - but lots of people were complaining that the route for Top of the Rock was too technical - it was, in effect, an old fashioned XC MTB ride with quiet lanes and backroads linking up singletrack.

However as I have found that doing these events on a proper, lightweight, XC hardtail is far more fun and just as quick, then that wasnt a negative for me!

Otherwise the Racing Collective ‘events’ are good, not so organised but you’ll meet people on the way.

I did one of those a few years ago, was one of the worst days on a bike ever. Admittedly the weather was diabolical but we set off down a canal towpath, all got absolutely covered in gritty slushy mud immediately, the rest of the guys there were clearly full on "endurance racing" types and they were setting one hell of a pace.

Riding with a mate, we slogged on through the howling wind and sideways rain, got to the point where the route went off over Holme Moss and looked up at it hidden in the cloud, rain lashing across it and I just said "I'm not doing it". So we binned it off and rode into Holmfirth for coffee.

Bike needed a complete strip and rebuild after that.

I'd be up for one of those Glorious Gravel events though, had my eye on the Lakes / Dales ones for a while.

By far my favourite however was this:

Looks good, but did they really need TWO photos of Guy Kesteven catching flies on the webpage?! 😉

I don't mean to sound cynical but are most of these events still £100odd to enter? Girlfriend was looking a while back and so many gravel events seemed pretty expensive

50 quid for a glorious gravel one, which is definitely at the top end of the price range. 

Fair, that's not bad for GG

Re: cost, £50 for any sort of sportive type event seems pretty average these days, I'm sure we were spending close to that 10 years ago! Gravel will be harder as well as I'm sure there are extra considerations when you take people off-road over a long distance.

I certainly saw value in the Glorious Gravel Coniston route, I like to think I'm pretty good at planning my own routes but there is no way I would have been able to pick out the route they took us around from Coniston, especially as a blundering Scot who can't distinguish between all your arcane English footpath types 😂

Am less inclined to pay money for Scottish events unless they're a really special route or something, although I don't mind paying just for the social aspect of riding with new people.

Done a few of the Trailbreak gravel events, Ridgeway and down Salisbury way. Pretty well organised, signed and well attended, though seem to remember the feedstations being poorly stocked last time (or maybe the faster kids snaffled all the good stuff before i got there!) Am sure was under £40 too...

Last one started and finished at a micro brewery, which was nice...

These things piqued my interest last year as I discovered gravel biking. One of my resolutions this year is to do an event like these. After reading these posts, I'm definitely going to do one. Thanks for the responses.

I'm looking to do a few of these this year for something different, including possibly the Peak Epic 100km one and have also signed up for the Bagman one (77km I think).

Are they do-able on a cx bike, or am I better off sticking with my HT with XC tyres on? I know the HT will be more enjoyable on the downs, but thinking that a lot of it will be roads/climbing and much better on the cx bike. Thanks.

For some context on the pricing of gravel events I am helping organise a community event in Scotland and have been getting into the pricing and the costs so can get it listed on SI entries.

Working up from the elements needed for the event we got to needing to charge about £45 which when we compared to operations like glorious gravel seemed about going rate. Introducing offroad adds more admin in advance e.g. securing landowner permission and also on the day e.g. having to pay a fee per rider to FLS for access, insurance, mechanical cover and cover for event first aid for teams to be positioned to access someone quickly if there is an accident on an offroad section.

We are aiming for participation and a giving a sample of route options in the area than trying to make lots of money so doing all we can to make affordable. To make sense for us we are adding it as a course option to an existing road sportive event so can share the costs of the same base for sign on, showers, parking etc and we are providing food at the end so better to do as one larger event then do two separate.

On setting the route has been really interesting working out a compromise of views on what should be the level of technical challenge for gravel and tolerance for including linking road sections. We have erred on the side of less technical more forest road type stuff because as an organiser trying to find a middle ground between existing local road sportive and xc event to get new participants.

Not really aiming to defend any of the prices or route comments but more trying to give a feel of the considerations coming from trying to organise one.

I'm making another return to riding this year. Quite fancy the look of a few of the Glorious Gravel events. Whilst £50 is a lot of money, I'm fairly sure I was paying a similar amount in about 2010-2012 when I last did any events.

I particularly fancy the Coniston GG.

The Gravel Union has a very comprehensive list of events, both UK and abroad:

https://www.gravelunion.cc/events

I don’t mean to sound cynical but are most of these events still £100odd to enter?

I did pay over £100 for the 2 day Bagman one in wales. Maybe £140

But that included:

2 nights camping
Day food for 2 days. The best check point was bake potatoe cheese and beans

Luggage transfer on both days

Plus the usual mobile mechanic, amazing route, sag wagon, first aid etc. They didn’t actually mark the whole route. But they gave us a gpx file and had marshals at points where you might go wrong

The day events are around £50. Which isn’t as good value as the 2 day. But they pay dividends in motivation.

I’m happy on alloy rims with mechanical gears but cash to do some nice rides

Are they do-able on a cx bike, or am I better off sticking with my HT with XC tyres on?

There just isn’t an answer. The 3 events I did this year were on a gravel bike with 50mm tyres riding with people on hard tails and even mid travel fs bikes. On one long technical descent I got left behind. The rest of the time speed was determined by fitness and skill. However I do think as the tyres get thinner the gravel bike thing gets more marginal.

Not surprisingly the skill and confidence range at these events is huge. I ride off road regularly and I’m comfortable with it. But it’s mainly gravel round here and I’m a bit old and cautious for jumps and stuff.

In events I feel like a trail guru. I was following some kind of Santa Cruz fs along a broad level grassy track. I could see a bit of a dip with some water in up ahead. To the point where I felt the need to stop pedalling and get the weight off the saddle of my gravel bike. I then had add an extra manoeuvre as the bloke on the fs un clipped and walked over the dip…….

Jenn Ride is a cracker, for a good cause, and but its a toughy. I would heartily recommend though.

There just isn’t an answer.

Thanks, I suspected as much 🙂 it's a bit like asking about tyres and saddles, very much personal preference I suppose. I ride some very tech stuff on my hardtail, and suspect I could ride the gravel stuff on my CX bike fairly well but the HT would definitely be more fun (and less terrifying) on the downs than my 33mm CX tyres 😁

To me 33mm tyres wouldn’t work for most of events I’ve ridden. It’s not so much the most technical bits which are often short. It’s the more sustained small bumps that get annoying. But of course I’ve seen plenty of thin tyres at events and the riders just get on with it

Thanks all, I only linked to Glorious Gravel as an example, thanks for all the other links. I guess costs are a factor as you need to add in travel, accommodation (maybe), food and possible repairs...

Booked some leave and need to clear some head space and pick an event..

Good to hear of overwhelmingly positive experiences...

@jobro thanks for the gravelunion link, that's brilliant

Booked the longer Suffolk Gravel X for a starter.

Will see how it goes 🙂

Back from the Suffolk Gravel X, did the 85km route on my XC bike as the Revolt front mech spat its dummy on the Weds commute (I tried and failed to replace the cable with the outer in situ and managed to seize the shifter.....) its now in the LBS for R&R..

Well organised event, some lovely scenery and enjoyable off-road, although the route had a lot of road sections, more added due to recent rain - which wasn't huge fun on wide MTB tyres, which were great for an all too short sandy section. I dragged the ancient Talbot camper out Friday night and slept in a field nearby. Got back to SE London around 5.30pm..

A lot of time and petrol for a couple of hour's fun...it's made me appreciate the SE 'gravel' we have down here.

Everyone I spoke to was friendly but I can see it being a lot more enjoyable as a group. I may do another....

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Not one for these kind of events really but I did the Glorious Gravel Peak ride thats started and ended from Buxton Rugby club afew years back which was well run. Plenty of feed stops and a free 0% beer at the finish line.

Remember the route being really well thought out and also quite spicy at times (even for my Slate with its bit of suspension).

Cost about £50 and the staff running it were great. I'd do one again.

The mills and Moors series is nice

https://yorkshiredivide.co.uk/mills-n-moors-series

Shortish rides, self supported but with a group ride if you want to.

Definitely not a sportive type event

For anyone not in the mailing list, Dirt Dash has recently split the Dorset event back out to be run by Charlie as the original Gravel Dash, and Dirt Dash has Dunoon, Cateran and Yorkshire events.  Not sure about the Dirt Dash but Gravel Dash had a one day option if you are up for a 100 mile epic!