Ride Report: Grinduro Wales 2021

Grinduro, for anyone who hasn’t heard of it, is a gravel event which combines four short, timed stages over an all-day adventure route, mixed with a festival atmosphere, camping and an epic party at the end. That sounded way too good to miss, so Olly headed over to mid-Wales to check it out.

Left or right? Left or right? Left or right?

“What’s the A-line like?” said Andrew. He had 2 or 3 seconds to decide which line to pick. His body and bike were pointing left, towards the flowy but speedy B-line, whereas his head (and with it, his Grinduro spirit) were looking right at the A-line. I was busy concentrating on capturing images, so couldn’t really give him detailed advice, but yelled “It’s steep, rooty, off-camber, difficult and most importantly fun”. Actually, I probably just shouted “go right”, but in my head I gave him more detailed advice. He made a very last minute change of course and headed off down the bedrock chute into the start of the A-line, kicking up a cloud of dust from his tyres in the process.

Flared bars for the win?

This section of the route, which was the top part of the last descent back into the arena summed up the spirit of Grinduro Wales pretty well. The ethos of the event is a mix of riding and partying. Even the riding was a good combination of two polar opposites – reasonably gentle and, critically, non-timed liaison stages where you could ride along sociably, chatting with friends which potentially you hadn’t seen since the pre-Covid19 era, followed by short-timed sections where if you wanted, you could go #fullgas. The timed sections varied from a long, constant gradient forest road climb to some seriously steep and techy downhill sections. For anyone coming to the event with an XC MTB background, there wasn’t much that would unduly worry you (albeit everyone was thanking their lucky stars that the trails were dry – Welsh slate is known to be the world’s most lethally slippery trail surface when wet). But for anyone new to gravel riding, or coming from a road riding background, there was plenty to keep you on your toes.

Doing your weekly shop before heading out on the course

The course designers had done a great job of making the course scary enough to be fun, but in most places giving riders a choice of lines to ride. Pretty much everyone agreed that it was on the upper side of what was common for a gravel event, but the low rate of accidents (fortunately only a couple of riders required the use of the event medics) was testament to the skills of the riders in attendance and the fortuitousness of having dry conditions. The fundamental ethos of a Grinduro event is that riders are supposed to ride each section “on-sight” (so without the prior practice which might be more common in other forms of bike racing). While some riders clearly had insider knowledge of the last couple of drops (or had made the short walk up from the arena campsite to check it out), many people were riding it blind. The skills of some of the riders were incredible – a couple went absolutely flat-out even on the steep, rooty and rocky surface that made up the last section of timed trail.

Stohk won the “best atmosphere” award for their fairy lights & flags combo.

Of course, the event was about more than just riding. Grinduro sells it itself partly on the party and they did a grand job. Friday evening saw the amazing Diprose Brothers get their vinyl decks out and play (I’m too old to write “drop”) everything from hip-hop to disco to house (and most things in between). Later a live covers band and a fantastic sunset brought the evening to a close. On Saturday night, a well-received podium prize presentation was followed by a different covers band and the crowd partied well into the night. The combination of post-ride buzz, catching up with friends and some liquid refreshment from Stohk proved to be a winning one.

It would be only right to give an honourable mention to the caterers too. Another of the driving forces behind Grinduro’s success is that riders are well looked after in all respects and that includes feeding them. The caterers provided three great meals on race day, with plenty of choice and cyclist-sized portions. If you needed caffeinating, the team from Elliot’s Coffee did a spectacular job of remaining constantly cheerful despite having to produce constant top-quality coffees from sun-rise to sun-set.

Dalila Lecky attempting to turn her pockets into a cargo bike – image by Stephen Smith Photography

As well as keeping the riders topped up, there was mechanical support from Canyon & SRAM, who bought their portable workshops and indefatigable staff, who somehow managed to stay cheerful despite a barrage of “can you just….” requests from riders. I’d like to give a personal thanks to the mechanics at Canyon who fixed what seemed like it was a terminal gear issue on my own bike at 5.30pm on Saturday evening (when I’m sure they would have preferred to have been relaxing and drinking beer). This meant I could help run the komoot sponsored Hangover Ride on the Sunday morning.

Blowing away the cobwebs with the Sunday hangover ride

Sunday dawned blue, sunny and warm. For anyone keen to get in a few more hours of perfect riding before the long drive home, komoot had laid on the perfect “all-the-highlights” route – just enough climbing at the start to get us warmed up (and regretting our previous night’s alcohol consumption) and then a great mix of vehicle width and singletrack trails, with plenty of fun downhills, most of which had stunning views and all of it bathed in sunshine. I led a small high-speed group around the route and we all arrived back at the campsite buzzing after our last ride.

A quick caffeine top-up from the folks at Elliot’s Coffee and then it was time to hit the road for the drive back the Gravel Union Towers. Thanks #GrinduroWales – you put on a fantastic event and we’re already looking forward to next year’s event.

Random highlights photo gallery from the event

Sunshine and mountains – the perfect Welsh combination

While the XC hardtail riders looked to be faster on the gnarly lower section of Stage 4….

Drop bar gravel bike riders seemed to be having the most fun

The annual gathering of the checked shirt foundation was a big success.

Can't decide between MTB or Gravel - just combine the two

Big views and fun riding were the order of the day

You’re obviously not trying hard enough if you can smile at this point

How much further does this climb go on for?

Even steeper than it looks

Welsh mountain backdrop

Image of me apparently wearing more clothes than anyone else in the entire event courtesy of Stephen Smith Photography

RedBull providing the hilltop entertainment

Please tell me there’s no more climbing….

Making it look way too easy

The Chris Froome stem-staring competition got off to a good start

Good job this was dry

Is this the perfect Grinduro bike?

The Diprose Brothers on the decks.

Gillian Kyei - Spirit of Grinduro prize winner – image by Stephen Smith Photography

The komoot team doing a great job with the #maxinandrelaxin vibe.

Big smiles seemed to sum up the whole event