01 Struggle Borderlands GRVL
Billed as an epic test of fitness, Borderlands Gravel takes in a variety of Yorkshire trails, with plenty of gnarly climbs, descents, abandoned mines, moorland tracks, and closer to Swaledale and Wensleydale. The Dales Bike Centre near Reeth is the starting point, with 50 and 100km routes, on 15 September 2024. ridethestruggle.com.
02 Dirty Reiver
It claims to be the UK's largest gravel event and takes place every April in Northumberland, regularly attracting over 1,600 riders to the English/Scottish border region. There are three distances - 65, 130 and the full 200km and the event offers the riders the chance to experience some of the UK's best gravel tracks. 2025's date is 25-27 April, with entries opening 1 December 2024.dirtyreiver.co.uk.
03 New Forest
With its pristine tracks, part of a dense 100-mile network, the New Forest feels like UK gravel riding at its finest. Britain's smallest national park, at 219 square miles, is best digested at bike speed. Many of the tracks originated during World War II, when the forest, with its vast expanse of flat countryside ideal for aircraft, was seconded as a training base for the troops. thenewforest.co.uk.
04 The Cantii Way
The multi-day, mixed-terrain route from Cycling UK (creator of the King Alfred's and West Kernow Ways) starts in Wye in the Kent Downs and hugs the coast before reaching lovely Rye in East Sussex. It then turns inland through the Kent countryside to Ashford and Canterbury and finishes back in Wye, just 40 minutes on the train from London.cyclinguk.org
05 Great North Trail
This story is from the October 2024 edition of Cycling Plus UK.
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This story is from the October 2024 edition of Cycling Plus UK.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.
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GANARY A COALMINE
The James Brown tune 'It's a Man's Man's Man's World' comes on the radio, filling the coach, and does nothing for my pre-event nerves as I sit surrounded by serious-looking, wiry, tanned men in Lycra. It's 6.30am, pitch black outside and I'm feeling very out of my depth as a relative newcomer to the world of clipless pedals and hurting for fun. Last night's stress dream involved being very unprepared to get married and being handed my great-grandmother-in-law-to-be's hideous silver dress with lace trim to wear minutes before the ceremony was due to start. I'll let you psychoanalyse that one.
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