The Growing Gravel Riding Culture | The Races That Should Be In Your Calendar

by | Apr 29, 2024 | Featured, Bike, Bike Events & Racing, Event News, Sports

Gravel riding has blurred the lines between road and mountain, creating an entirely different and unique fusion of the sport. Unlike their sleek road counterparts, gravel bikes are built to handle the demands of off-road terrain, but without the comforts of mountain bikes’ traditional suspension. The sport is for those seeking the thrill of off-road without the technical demands of switchbacks and singletracks.

Cover Image: Tyrone Bradley

The raw, unfiltered experience of tackling rough dirt roads has grown a strong, devout community of gravel-junkies. Bound by a shared revere for corrugations, gravel-ers find love in the semi-sadistic nature of the sport; the jaw-rattling shake of ungroomed roads and tires crunching dirt. Here, endurance is celebrated, sweat, dirt and cycling tans are worn as a badge of honour, and the hard suffer to the finish-line is embraced as a rite of passage. 

So, why has gravel riding become the latest trend, despite the physical strain and mental anguish the sport evokes? There are several factors at play:

The Growing Gravel Riding Culture | The Races That Should Be In Your Calendar
Gravel Riding in South Africa. Photocred: Julian Robinet for Community Connect at Road to Desolation

Scenic Diversity & Escape from the Urban Bustle: 

Our country boasts an incredible playground of landscapes from white-beaches, blue coastlines, towering mountains, rolling vineyards, to burnt-orange desert roads. Gravel riding allows cyclists to explore these varied terrains, easily changing between the comfort of a tarred-road-cruise, to uneven, rocky dirt surfaces, all in a single ride.  

For the typical city-dwelling-cyclist, gravel offers an escape from the metropolis’ bustle. Trading their roadie slick wheels without compromising on speed, for a ride that can – as easily as switching gears – change between offroad and tar. 

Community and Culture: 

The surge in South Africa’s gravel scene owes much to its, some may say vibrant, others may say (insane) community and  the unique culture that has flourished around it. The term “trauma-bonding” speaks to the shared struggle and triumph experienced on gravel rides. Enduring long stretches of rough terrain, shaky descent, battling headwinds, riding through clouds of dust, and weaving up steep climbs foster a unique form of camaraderie. Riders develop an unspoken, helmet-bopping understanding for one another, and it’s precisely this shared suffering that brings the community closer together. 

The sport is hard, there’s no sugar-coating to it, but it’s the stories of time spent on the saddle that promote the sport (no matter how harrowing the narrative). 

Event boom: The rise of gravel-specific events and races has further fuelled the popularity of gravel riding. From fast-paced, wheel-to-wheel gravel endurance races to laid-back gravel festivals celebrating the sport’s spirit of exploration, these events attract a particular type of cyclist – a purist, dirt-devotee, maverick, endurance-junkie, grit-master, and just someone who is simply insane.

The Growing Gravel Riding Culture | The Races That Should Be In Your Calendar
Gravel Riding in South Africa. Photocred: Tyrone Bradley

Gravel Riding Races to add to your calendar:

  • Eroica – A celebration of classic bikes, with the Nova route celebrating and tailored for the modern gravel rider. 
  • The Gallows – a 100km race with an unthinkably challenging summit finish. 
  • Road to Desolation – A race that will empty the tank. 178 km and 65km of gravel to ride in the semi-desert of the Karoo. The Eastern Cape’s only gravel-exclusive race.
  • Race to Sun – A 100-miles of gravel from Hartbeespoort Dam to Sun City. 50-miler route option available. 
  • Race to Sea – A 100-miles point-to-point race from Franschhoek to Hermanus. 50-miler route option available. 
  • The Ceder – A race through the other-wordly rocks of the Cederberg, pick between the hero-loop 245 km, or the shorter 140 km race.  
  • The Stanford 100  – 100 or 50 miles in the heart of the Overstrand. Around the Pot – A race through the blooming Canola fields (25, 60, 100 & 200 mile route options).

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