If you try and get hold of Olly or Carlo from the Gravel Union team from the end of next week onwards, you’ll find they’re both out of the office. Olly will be on his gravel bike capturing an insider’s view of the inaugural The Ride Gravel event, while Carlo will be sitting in the Event Director’s car, trying to keep everything running smoothly and overseeing a 150 strong peloton of gravel riders travelling safely from the Vosges mountains on the eastern border of France up to Valkenburg in Holland. We chatted with Carlo to get some details on the event.
GU – Can you give us a bit of background to the event?
Carlo – “The company behind The Ride Gravel (TRG) are super experienced and have run multi-day, multi-country cycling events for the past seven years. We’ve also run numerous single day and weekend gravel events such as Flanders Gravel, LtD Gravel Raid and many others. We knew that we had the right experience and the perfect team already in place, so for this year we decided to take our multi-day road event experience and translate it to the gravel world instead. “
GU – What makes TRG different to other gravel events?
Carlo – “We like to think of this event as bikepacking with a safety net. Riders will need to be self-sufficient during each of the five stages, but we’ve got all the back-up in place in case something goes wrong. We will have regular water stops on the course. There will also be mechanics provided by event sponsor Trek Bikes. We’ll have paramedic teams including one on an off-road motorbike and even have a broom wagon, in case a rider suffers a major mechanical and needs to be collected and taken to the next support facility or the overnight campsite. The other major difference is the route for the course – we travel through five different countries across the length of the event. This will give the event a very special feel, compared to a more typical circular event – it will be more like a gravel pilgrimage!”
GU – It sounds like a complicated event to manage – lots of riders, multiple countries, moving locations every day – how do you go about making sure it all runs smoothly?
Carlo – “We have a really great team in place, which includes forty volunteers, without whom the event would be impossible to run. Each day the crew pack up the event village and move it to the next location. They will set up the new village, including the catering facilities, bar and everything else we need to give the riders the best experience. They will also transport the riders’ luggage and set up the tents for anyone who has paid for the Lean&Mean or Bold&Beautiful packages. We’ve got a lot of experience in running multi-day events, so we know we can make everything work smoothly”
GU – Can you tell us a bit about the team who will be working with you?
Carlo – “We have a really diverse team. We’ve got a management team of five people, our amazing volunteers, plus a catering crew, mechanics, paramedics, support drivers and even our own barista team who will be pouring great coffees for anyone who needs one during the event. We also work closely with the staff at the different campsites that we use across the five days of the event.”
GU – From a rider’s perspective, what do you think the highlight will be for them?
Carlo – “For many riders, the biggest highlight will the achievement of getting to the finish line. It’s quite a challenging event – if you choose the two XL options on days two and four, the total distance is nearly 700kms with nearly 8000m of elevation gain. There will be a big celebration and a post-ride party when we get to the finish line in Valkenburg. But along the way the riders will see some amazing scenery, ride a huge variety of trails and will be really well looked after by our team. Participants just need to focus on the riding itself and we’ll take care of everything else.”
GU – How did you go about finding the trails to link the different parts of the event together?
Carlo – “Our ‘routemeister’ Gjis has some incredible knowledge of the areas that we’re travelling through. He’s been riding here and setting up events here for years. He’s done a lot of additional desk research and then has reccied the routes on his bike too. The final route is roughly 60% off-road/40% on-road and we think is pretty much perfect! Having said that, Gjis is always looking for new trails and already has some other ideas in mind for next year’s event.”
GU – Why did you decide to make this event non-timed rather than competitive?
Carlo – “We feel that having TRG as a non-competitive event is more a more appropriate ethos. The event will be challenging enough without adding in the extra stress of timed segments. It might sound a little corny, but we genuinely believe that you’re a winner if you’re a finisher and that’s the ethos we’re working to for the event”
GU – There are some really big days in the event, so the riders will be using huge amounts of energy. How will you keep them fed and watered each day?
Carlo – “We’ve got full facilities with us on the event thanks to our caterers Koks voor Koks, so riders that choose to have their meals with us will be well fed. This starts with breakfast every day and then a three-course dinner each evening. At breakfast each day riders are encouraged to make their own lunch packet and put it in their own individually numbered rider bags, which we will then take out to the midway checkpoint for them. Out on the course we have energy drink from event sponsors SIS too. There are also plenty of opportunities along the way for riders to stop off in local towns and villages that they pass through where they can buy additional supplies if they need them.”
GU – If anyone wants to sign up for a very last-minute place, is this still possible?
Carlo – “Technically we’ve now stopped taking sign-ups, but I know we’ve had a few cancellations in the last few days, so if anyone does want to sign-up at the last minute, we should be able to find them a place. They would need to contact us via the info@the-ride-gravel.cc email address. If anyone does decide to do this, don’t forget to mention you heard about it on the Gravel Union website!”
GU – Do you have a top tip you’d like to give the riders before the start on the 5th September?
Carlo – “This event will be a big challenge for a lot of our riders, but if you believe in yourself and have confidence, then you will able to make it to the finish and have a great time along the way”.
If you’d like to find out all the details about the event, check out the website here. Olly will be posting regular photos from the event on the Gravel Union Instagram page and you’ll be able to read his write-up of the event on the Gravel Union website once he’s back in the office.