Events: Gravel Rocks – Dirty Reiver Training

Have you been bitten by the endurance gravel bug? Has the illness it unleashed made you physically ill during such events? Or have its germs infected your performance during these competitions, and you’re looking to improve? Or did you enter an event such as the Dirty Reiver with great ambitions, only to realize at the 130 kilometer mark that the allure of rest, warm food and delicious beer proved more attractive than another 70 kilometers of suffering? …And then you immediately spot your friend at the same food station who had the same idea, and with a simple glance at each other, you both quietly and somberly ride away from the course towards the warm embrace of the event HQ, and spend the next few hours eating and drinking and waiting for your mates to finish the brutal event?
Whoops…please excuse the tangent there…
Perhaps you’d like to train a bit more properly and learn from the best to make your next event more successful and less demoralizing.
Well, here’s your chance. Put on by the same minds that brought you the Dirty Reiver 200, Gravel Rocks is a weekend of “gravel-focused” training at the Calvert Trust, in Kielder Water, Hexham.
Set for 22-23 October, “The weekend will allow riders in a social environment to gain helpful information on riding gravel, bike set up, nutrition and how to mentally prepare for the long day in the saddle.”

Endurance legends Mike Hall (who just set the Tour Divide record earlier this summer) and Lee Craigie will be your instructors for the weekend. The agenda will include both theoretical and practical instruction for such gravelly endurance events. Hall and Craigie will share their insights about preparation, nutrition, bike set-up, mental preparation and strength and conditioning. And, of course, there will be some riding. These ‘hands-on’ lessons will include a four- to five-hour ride on Saturday, and a three-hour jaunt on Sunday.

The fee for Gravel Rocks is £145, but that includes entry for the 2017 Dirty Reiver 200. That alone is worth the price of admission. The fee for the weekend also includes:

• Full Board and Accommodation at Calvert Trust (shared basis) on Saturday 22nd October 2016
• Drinks and snacks upon arrival on Saturday
• Food and water/energy drink provided during the ride on Saturday.
• Evening meal Saturday
• Sunday Breakfast
• Product Samples
• Ltd Edition Gravel Rocks memento

Sound good? Of course it does, and you should move fast. Only 50 spots are available to learn from, and ride with, the best.
For more info, a full schedule of events and seminars, and to register, click over to the Dirty Reiver web site.