Innholdsfortegnelse for Gravel Cycling 2022 i Gravel Cycling 2022

Gravel riding continues to grow in the UK and abroad. The thrill of heading off the beaten track and seeking lifelong adventures is attracting many newcomers to gravel, whether it’s as a standalone passion, to complement their road riding or as a way for mountain bikers to mix up their off-road efforts. It’s also inspired us at Cycling Plus to bring you this second special-edition of Gravel Cycling. Inside you’ll find everything you need to maximise your enjoyment of cycling’s fastest-growing genre. As a snapshot, you’ll be inspired by memorable images from the world’s greatest gravel-cycling photographers; discover everything you need to maximise your maiden bikepacking voyage; find your next (or first) gravel bike, which might even include your debut electric model; and learn the skills and techniques to navigate…

cinelli.it CINELLI’S NEMO GRAVEL is handcrafted in Italy from Columbus’s top-end Spirit HSS steel. It’s triple-butted to reduce weight – the frame weighs 1,900g, the carbon fork 450g – while maintaining strength. It has mudguard mounts, twin bottle bosses, top tube ‘bento box’ mounts, flat-mount disc mounts and rear dropouts that beautifully incorporate the wings of Cinelli’s logo into their drilled-out design. With a slammed 563mm stack and lengthy 387mm reach, plus 72.5-degree head and 73.5-degree seat angles, the Nemo is built to be quick. The fork comes with a 47mm offset, which results in a trail figure of 61mm. This puts the Nemo in gravel-bike territory, but with a bit of road-going endurance bike thrown in. It’s dressed with Campagnolo’s gravel-specific 1x13 Ekar groupset. The 40t chainring and 9-42…

Stretching from rough commuter roads to mountain-bike territory, the ‘gravel’ category covers a vast range of potential uses and riders. Not surprisingly, that means manufacturers are lining up various options. While geometry, fixtures, tyre clearance and performance priorities are important to finding the right bike, one of the main decisions is whether you go for a bike with a double or single chainring. Running a single chainring with a wide-range cassette first caught on in mountain biking. The front mech-free simplicity suits wider tyres, while the sudden changes of speed and terrain make bigger jumps between gears an advantage. Whyte was one of the first manufacturers to produce ‘SCR’ – Single Chain Ring – mountain bikes to maximise the clearance and stiffness advantages of gaining extra space in the bottom-bracket…

There are certain things people really love and there are things people really loathe. Marmite. Coriander. The leader of the government of the day. And there are certainly those that believe that gravel riding and off-road bikepacking adventures also fall into this category. For some, the prospect of spending a night under the stars, close to nature but stripped of their creature comforts is the stuff of nightmares. I’ll put my cards on the table now: I’m one such rider. I’m a die-hard roadie. What keeps my fires burning through the dreariness of indoor training and relentless local loops are pristine Alpine cols, but with all my best-laid summer plans abroad up in smoke, it was about time to see if all this off-road gravel riding was what it’s cracked…

Getting there ● Gowerton Campsite’s easily reached off the M4. There’s a train station at Gowerton if you choose that option. Where to eat ● Nomad Bar and Kitchen is cracking and specialises in Mediterranean cuisine. Find out more at nomad swansea.co.uk. Where to stay ● If you don’t have a campervan and don’t fancy camping, The Mirador Boutique Town House (themirador.co.uk) is a beautiful place. Contact the owners beforehand about bike storage. More to explore ● The Gower Peninsula is an outdoor-activity playground with surfing, kayaking, windsurfing and more right on your doorstep. If the kids are with you, the LC Waterpark and its many slides and chutes is an entertaining day out. Find, plan and share adventures with Komoot komoot is an app that lets you find, plan…

Distance 104km Elevation 304.8m I FIRST RODE this whole route in October 2017 but it came together bit by bit over the previous year, just exploring trails, using maps and routing tools like Komoot, realising there are paths here and bridleways there and connecting it all together. The final half of the route, the Downs Link, is well documented, but the challenging bit was connecting that with our start at Hampton Court, and it took some trial-and-error to hook it up. The route is almost entirely flat along tow paths, old railway line, a bit of single track and gravel roads. There’s a section around Guildford through farmlands that gets very squishy in the wet and you need the most grippy tyres you can find. When it’s wet, bumps are…

Distance 71.45km Elevation 685.8m IN BRITAIN THE road network has lapsed into a pothole-strewn wreck, so picture what state the country’s oldest road is in. Circa 5000 years old, the Ridgeway’s at least got an excuse. The road predates the stone circles of Avebury, Wiltshire, which is its starting point in the west; in total, the Ridgeway stretches 140km, all the way to Ivinghoe Beacon in the Chilterns. It’s now a National Trail, open to cyclists all the way up to the river Thames – beyond that, there are fewer opportunities for two wheels, so our route ends in Goring-on-Thames. The Ridgeway is more popular with walkers than cyclists, and you’re still more likely to see mountain bikers than gravel-bike converts. Without suspension and with narrower tyres, it’s always a…

Galloway, Scotland ● There’s a mix of terrain to spruce up your gravel lives whether it’s alongside the coast or exploring the Galloway Forest Park. You can either go solo, with mates or via an organised outfit like Galloway Cycling Holidays. The Selkirk Arms Hotel in Kirkcudbright is a great place to base yourselves. Yorkshire Dales ● The Yorkshire Dales is a Mecca for gravel enthusiasts with an intricate and extensive network of gravel track and gnarly roads to navigate. If you fancy an organised sojourn, there’s also the Yorkshire Moors Gravel X in July, which features 85km and 65km routes with 1,700m and 1,350m climbing, respectively. Komoot Women’s Torino-Nice Rally ● A group of over 20 female riders from seven different countries set off from Turin in September 2021…

Fact: many of the road skills that have been drilled into you and become ingrained need to be unlearned – or at least tailored – for gravel. That’s where Nick Craig comes in. Craig’s a former British cyclocross champion who’s been tearing up the trails above his Peak District home of Hayfield for years. So who better to teach gravel novice Mark Bailey on conquering the gnarly terrain… 01_Smooth Operator ● With sharp turns on loose stone, your road technique – go in wide, clip the apex and exit wide – won’t always work, as the outer edges can be the roughest bits. “It’s better to choose the smoothest line and keep a nice flowing motion around the bend,” says Craig. Trim your speed before you reach the corner and…

British bike collective The Rider Firm (TRF) started back in 2014, launching with Hunt Bike Wheels, which has fast gained huge popularity. Since then it has added forward-thinking mountain-bike-design company Privateer, glove maker Dissent 133 and, most recently, ebike manufacturer Cairn. Brothers Tom and Peter Marchment are the brains behind TRF. Tom had over a decade’s experience in the cycling industry at the UK’s biggest distributors, while Peter’s a qualified engineer and materials scientist. I headed down to TRF’s Sussex HQ to meet up with the team… Low key and high tech TRF’s base is a 1960s industrial estate in Sussex in the shadow of the beautiful South Downs, and as the group has expanded, it’s taken on more and more units for the ever-growing team of engineers and designers.…

The Garmin breadcrumb trail says proceed, the crumbled route map ratifies, but the Garro Lane residential cul-de-sac feels exactly that. I trust the technology, modern and ancient, and ride gingerly onwards to enter a cycling Narnia. I don’t see a soul for an hour of riding, all alone bar squirrels, the sound of skylarks and the vibrations of my Duolingo app telling me I’m about to be relegated to the Obsidian league. I’m just 200 miles from my Bristol home, but even the place names – Predannack, Ogo-Dour Cove and Asparagus Island – suggest I’m half a world away. A maze of clifftop gravel tracks propels me close to Kynance Cove, where a detour to the Atlantic shore finds my dad is waiting with a pasty that could feed a…

Tucked away on the north-easterly coast of Scotland between Inverness and Aberdeen, Moray is perhaps less heralded among the thousands who head to the northern regions of the country each year. For man, however, that’s exactly the reason to come, to avoid the staycation crowd and explore the unique terrain of this underrated Scottish gem. And specifically, the gravelly delights of the Moray Coast Trail, which we’d come here to explore. To get there, we travelled, along with what seemed like half the planet, up the A9, peeling off northeast towards Elgin when we got to Aviemore, with the majority carrying on northwest to Inverness. The silence that hit us not long after gave the impression we’d taken a wrong turn, though as we travelled through the famed Speyside whisky…

Distance 70.65km Elevation 1257.3m WITH ENDLESS MILES of forest and estate tracks threading their way through hills and glens, the Trossachs are a gravel paradise. It’s so good that the locals here built a gravel extravaganza around it, the Duke’s Weekender. Named after the formidable Duke’s Pass that rises high above the town, this gravel enduro has a meagre 2km of road across its entire 70km route. There’s much more besides, too, so you’re spoilt for choice when it comes to a gravel deep dive. This ride is based in Aberfoyle, north of Glasgow in the Loch Lomond and Trossachs National Park. With cafes, shops, a great pub (Forth Inn) and plenty of parking, it’s a perfect starting point to kick-start your adventure. Take note of the facilities, as this…

Distance 26.2km Elevation 480m THIS ROUTE STARTS off nice and gently on the Pennine Bridleway, on a section of the path that’s a disused railway line that once connected Hayfield and Manchester. There are a couple of sections early on that you shouldn’t cycle on and my advice, generally, is that if you’re in doubt, get off and walk. After a ride on a canal towpath, we turn off and begin climbing into the high peaks, joining back onto the Pennine Bridleway. It slowly morphs from gentle gravel riding that anyone could do to a point where you really need to think about your bike and equipment – it’s wide, tubeless tyre and mountain-bike shoe terrain. I don’t think it’s that challenging but, hey, I’ve been riding it for 30…

“It’s about freedom – that sense of adventure that comes with being able to go anywhere”Max Burgess Q_What is gravel riding and where did it begin? ● The current boom started in the United States, where long, remote stretches of fire road offered a new middle ground between the worlds of road, mountain biking and cyclocross. With terrain that’s more technical – and often more remote – than your average stretch of tarmac, it allows riders to explore their passion for racing, exploration and adventure. It’s a change-up, for some, from the focus on speed and the science of hardcore road riding, and a respite for others who find increasing tyranny in riding on roads among speeding tons of metal. The bike industry twigged and created specific models to replace the…

We’re standing on a Welsh mountainside in the claggy mizzle, skin shimmering from the day in the sun combined with sweat from the humid air. We’ve just hiked up a steep, green zigzag hill with our loaded bikes and emerge, breathing heavily, above the climb. Despite the glorious sunshine for most of the day, the mountains have turned this trip into a proper adventure and we’re ascending into thick white cloud. The swirling murk is being cheerfully described as ‘atmospheric’ and it feels wild and remote up here. My riding companion, Alex, reflects, “It’s mad to think that this morning we were in Bristol!” And it is mad; the city couldn’t feel further away. I’ve been joined by Alex, a fellow physio; El, a seasoned Welsh bikepacker; and Hannah, who…

giant-bicycles.com AT THE HEART of Giant’s Revolt is a new frame and fork, albeit with the low-slung sloping toptube seen on past editions for ease of movement on technical parcours. The ovalised seat tube, aero-style cutaway and dropped seatstays look like the Giant Defy. It also retains a D-shaped post, though it can also accommodate a round dropper post. The new fork is lighter and provides clearance for tyres up to 53mm wide. At the rear, there’s a clever flip-chip drop-out, so you can extend the wheelbase to accommodate a 53mm tyre here, too; in its short standard setting, you get 42mm of clearance. The bike’s handling’s been sharpened thanks to changing the head angle to 71.5 degrees, while also dropping the bottom-bracket height in order to accommodate the trend…

www.cervelo.com CERVÉLO’S ÁSPERO IS a fast, light, fun and adrenaline-inducing bike. A 56cm frame weighs 1,100g and it has the same fork as its pricier Áspero 5 stablemate, complete with an adjustable dropout that flips fore and aft 5mm. This is to equalise the fork’s trail and keep the handling consistent whether running 700c or 650b wheels. Cervélo’s take on gravel geometry works if on-and off-road speed is your thing. The 73-degree seat angle makes the Áspero road-race-bike aggressive when you’re stomping on the pedals, while the 72-degree head angle is only a degree less than a road bike’s. The wheelbase isn’t as long as you find on most gravel machines, and the chainstays are pretty much road-bike standard. SRAM’s Rival eTap AXS 1x groupset performs very well. The gravel-specific…

01 Panaracer GravelKing SK TLC £45 Sizes 700c x 32, 35, 38*, 43, 50mm; 650b x 1.75, 1.9in; 26 x 2.1in (*tested) Weight 425g (700c x 38mm) ● THE GRAVELKINGS EXCEL on gravel and dry hardpack, offering a great compromise between grip and low rolling resistance. They also really stick on tacky hardpack, but as soon as things get wetter you can wave goodbye to grip. Also, I did have a few wheelspins on dry steep, grassy climbs. They are nippy on the road, with little drag, but I did get a large puncture on the first ride, which I had to plug, although the tyre held up okay for the rest of the test. The tyres inflated easily to a slightly square profile. 02 Vittoria Terreno Dry TLR £45…

When it was made clear to me, a roadie, that I’d be taking part in a gravel adventure, I’d mentally prepared myself for a night or two of sleeping under the stars with nothing but my long-lapsed scout skills to keep me afloat. You can imagine my delight, then, that - as a man with no great desire to sleep anywhere that doesn’t guarantee a solid roof and buffet breakfast - I’d have the keys to an Auto-Trail campervan. You might say the sun was shining on me. And, wow, would it shine. Our trip to the Gower Peninsula in south Wales was scheduled for the July week when the Met Office issued its first-ever Amber Extreme Heat Warning. Granted, this new warning system had only been launched a month…

Distance 73.9km Elevation 1036m I’VE BEEN MOUNTAIN biking in north Yorkshire for over 20 years and the arrival of gravel bikes has taken me back to those early days. It’s good to have to use your skills again because modern mountain bikes are skill compensators. It’s about exploration, too, just going anywhere, and that exploration has led to us setting up our own gravel event, Yorkshire True Grit. We want to show off how great the gravel riding is here. I think it’s the sheer variety as to why it’s so special. One minute you’re in forests, the next onto the moors and back again – you can be looking at a panorama stretching 96km or at the tree in front of your face. The route I’ve shared has elements…

NATHAN HAAS RACED professionally on the road for over 10 years before retiring at the end of 2021. The Australian now competes in gravel and has enjoyed a string of fine results in 2022 including second at the Belgian Waffle Ride in North Carolina and fourth in the Polish leg of the UCI’s new Gravel World Series. Here, thanks to those kind folk at Campagnolo, we caught up the 33-year-old to talk all things knobbly… How has your training and riding changed since devoting more time to gravel? I split my time training on my road bike and on my gravel bike. One of the biggest changes has been training for some of the longer events. Milan-Sanremo used to be the longest race I would train for; now it’s a…