“I’m writing a book about the best UK gravel routes and wondered if you would like to help contribute?” said the email from Markus Stitz. Markus should be well known to Gravel Union readers, as he is a route creator, author, filmmaker, explorer and all-round gravel riding fan. When you are asked to come up with a route which showcases the very best of your local riding, but which also is 100% legal, ideally starts/finishes at an easy access point for public transport, is super fun, has suitable food and drink spots and most importantly, is scenic enough to make ‘outsiders’ want to come and visit, it’s actually quite a hard challenge. I figured a problem shared is a problem halved, so I contacted my friend Francis whose knowledge of local trails was second to none. We soon came up with a cunning plan and organised things for a meet up with Markus.

Our plan was to take Markus from the centre of Newcastle down the coast as far as the town of Seaham. Local riders might roll their eyes at our route choice and ask why we eschewed the amazing collection of moorland trails and hills to the north, west and south-west of Newcastle and the answer is simple – partly we wanted to showcase some of the less popular routes, partly the route had to start/finish in central Newcastle and most of the good moorland riding is too far way, partly because our route is a really brilliant one (even if we do say so ourselves!) The final route was all down to Francis' tireless research over the previous winter. His many hours of trying the various different permutations really paid off.

Despite our ride being scheduled for what should have been peak summer, the weather was cold and grey which is never ideal for capturing the scenery at its finest, but Markus did an amazing job of finding interesting points-of-view and making the best of the conditions.

Guide books take forever to publish – there’s a hell of a lot goes into the research, planning and behind-the-scenes bits, but as of today, his book is available to pre-order. We’re getting a copy in for review once it’s published in July, so we’ll give you the full run down then. In the mean time, you can find all the details by hopping over to Vertebrate Publishing. All pre-orders will be entered into a prize draw to win a pair of Schwalbe G-One Bite tyres! If you sign up to the VP newsletter you will also receive a 25% discount code to use on this and future purchases. The publishers asked us to mention that Markus’ book is published with the kind support from Schwalbe Tyres and Kinesis Bikes