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.
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Air Apparent - Pollution hasn't gone away. It's still there in every lungful, even if we can't see it in the air or on the news. But there are reasons to breathe easier, thanks to pioneering projects using cycling 'citizen scientists'. Rob Ainsley took part in one...
The toxic effects of pollution have been known about for years. 'Just two things of which you must beware: Don't drink the water and don't breathe the air!' sang 1960s satirist Tom Lehrer.Over recent decades, though, pollution has dropped down our list of things to worry about, thanks to ominously capitalised concerns such as Climate Change, AI, Global Conflict, Species Collapse, etc. That doesn't, unfortunately, mean the problem has expired. Air quality often exceeds safe limits, with far-reaching and crippling effects on our health.
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