The end of May 2024 saw the Grinduro purple party land for the third time in the small German town of Hellenthal. With a combination of gravel roads, forest tracks, steep singletrack, deep mud, exposed roots and paved minor roads, the Grinduro Germany parcours promised something for everyone. Olly headed south to join in the fun and ended up getting a lot more than he bargained for. Read on to find out how he got on.

“Houston we have a problem.” One of the first things that Timo did when we met was to apologise for his English. Timo is a German citizen who splits his time between Germany and Spain and despite his protestations, his linguistic skills were impressive. They weren’t just restricted to the kind of phrases you would learn on a language course either. He liberally sprinkled his conversations with appropriate English language film quotes, the latest of which he uttered just at the point where my bike computer registered a gradient of 24%. If the trail had been bone-dry, I had been riding an MTB with a super-low hill climbing gear and my legs hadn’t already had around 1300m of climbing in them, I might have made more of a stab at riding the climb we were looking at. But, after a winter of record-breaking rainfall, in places the trails were completely saturated. This one was oozing water and to say that grip was in short supply would have been somewhat of a killer understatement. We admitted defeat and got off, pushing our bikes up to the top of the climb.

Grinduro, which first arrived on the gravel scene back in 2015, is a loose amalgamation of gravel grinder and MTB enduro. It’s as much about the party as it is about the race, but there were four timed sections included in the roughly 100km loop, so anyone with a competitive spirit could get their fill of racing the clock. The organisers had created a rough figure-of-eight shaped loop with the centre being the event village. The parcours is designed so that everyone comes back to the village at lunchtime, where they get a high-quality cooked lunch included in the price. For some riders, the morning’s exertions are perfectly enough and they decide to spend the afternoon chilling out in the event village, but for anyone with energy left, the afternoon loop is ready and waiting.

"Miraculously, we didn’t see anyone’s lunch making a re-appearance at the top!"

Grinduro events generally comprise a timed prologue stage on the Friday, a whole day of riding on the Saturday and a social ‘hangover’ ride on the Sunday morning. Friday morning saw us open the curtains to rain bucketing down from black clouds – never an ideal start to a cycling event! Fortunately, as the day went on, the weather improved and by early afternoon the rain had stopped. Things kicked off mid-afternoon with the Schwalbe Prologue Hill Climb, a short-but-sweet timed hill climb challenge which saw riders tackling a set course against the clock. The route included a steep, slippery grassy initial section, followed by a gravel sprint to the first hairpin turn. A sharp right here was followed by a steep grassy ramp. A quick hip wiggle around some small sections of box hedge saw riders briefly descend (who said Grinduro does things by the books!), before hitting the final section – a long, gravelly drag up to the finish line. Finishers were able to down a restorative shot of fortifying liquor if they wanted it, before rolling back down to the campsite. Unusually riders were given the opportunity to tackle the course up to five times, with the aim being to best their other times. Winning times were just over the one-minute mark and miraculously, we didn’t see anyone’s lunch making a re-appearance at the top!

In the women’s category, Terry Fremineur stormed to victory and Sebastian Mordmüller took the honours in the men’s category. Patrick, from prologue sponsors Schwalbe, handed over bags of swag to the podium riders and everyone went home happy.

In appropriate Grinduro fashion, once the prologue prize ceremony was completed, riders either headed back to their tent for an early night (racers) or enjoyed the event village atmosphere and then painted the bar purple (party pacers).

Saturday dawned a little grey, but importantly dry and with sunshine forecast from the middle of the day onwards. There was much rejoicing over the great cooked breakfast laid on by the Grinduro caterers. The mixed forecast led to a kit quandary though – legs out or legs covered? Long sleeves? Gillet? Lightweight windproof jacket to be shoved into jersey pocket? Overshoes or not? The great thing with Grinduro’s format of timed sections linked with non-timed liaison stages in between is that if you’re not happy with your current temperature, you can always stop and adjust your clothing choices. 

"I spotted a few fender-friends dotted at intervals around the course."

I went for the more-is-more option with arm warmers, leg warmers and a windproof jacket, though Timo’s rapid pace straight from the off meant I was soon at operating temperature and stripping off layers. Unlike my experience in The Netherlands a few weeks previously, I received less strange looks and quietly muttered comments about my choice of full-mudguards and in fact I spotted a few fender-friends dotted at intervals around the course. They were easy to spot as they were the ones with clean faces and arses! The course designers had done a brilliant job of creating as weatherproof a course as possible, but the torrential rain on Friday morning and overnight on Friday night meant the course was pretty slippery in places. 

Grinduro events are famed for looking after their riders well and it didn’t seem long after we set off that we came across the first feed station. Staffed with cheery volunteers and with tables laid with sugary and salty snacks, plus slices of fresh fruit and vast containers of water (plus tubs of rehydrate and energy powder for anyone who wanted them), riders were soon refuelled. As it came pretty early in the route, the mechanical support team provided by Shimano & Schwalbe weren’t having an overly taxing time when I was there, but it was nice to know they were there if we needed them. 

" With the right tyres, a lot of practice and a small dollop of luck, it was possible to ride the whole thing."

If you could choose anywhere in the world to live as a gravel rider, I’m not sure that many people would choose the UK, but the one benefit that British riders have is that when conditions turn wet, muddy and lacking in traction we have had *a lot* of experience! It was quite funny trying to guess the nationalities of riders based solely on their reaction to the post-feedstop mud section. It was around 1km long and included hub depth slop, mud-soaked grass, decomposed vegetation, a small stream crossing and some mud-filled ruts. This was probably no one’s idea of a perfect gravel bike trail (Timo was impressively vocal about what he thought of this section), but with the right tyres, a lot of practice and a small dollop of luck, it was possible to ride the whole thing and gain some serious time benefits too, as this section was one of the four timed stages. I might have been one of a limited number of riders who really really enjoyed this bit of the course!

"No matter what bike they were riding, everyone was having a good time!"

If you search online for the question “What is the right bike for Grinduro?” you’ll get some impressively varied responses and that is part of the charm of the event. The course is designed to be as varied as possible, with steep punchy climbs, sections of singletrack, wide flowing forestry roads, some paved sections, rocky descents and pretty much everything in between. For this reason alone, we don’t think there is a perfect bike for Grinduro. Timo’s stunning looking Open U.P.P.E.R (which weighs a mind blowing 7 kg) was set up with Shimano GRX Di2 in a 1x11 set-up, with very minimally treaded tyres and on the faster sections of the course he was flying, while I struggled to hold his wheel. On the muddy or steeper sections of the course, my 2x11 GRX Di2 set-up and more heavily treaded tyres paid dividends though and I was able to create a gap. The variety of bikes used at the event was as varied as the course – everything from 1990’s 26” wheeled mountain bike with v-brakes to an amazing long wheelbase GinkGo cargo bike to top-of-the-range gravel race bikes. The uniform factor seemed to be that no matter what bike they were riding, everyone was having a good time!

"Throw in the off-camber corners and a slightly damp surface and you had some tongue-out, concentratey fun"

The lumpy terrain of Hellenthal is perfect for testing all aspects of gravel riders’ skills and the last descent before the lunch stop was a perfect example. It started off innocently enough, but the gradient soon increased and the surface degraded into large sections of rocks if you got off the perfect line. Throw in the off-camber corners and a slightly damp surface and you had some tongue-out, concentratey fun. Riders arrived back at the event village for their lunch with large smiles plastered over their faces. 

Lunch was a delicious eat-as-much-as-you-like pasta (with gluten-free options) and a lentil soup, served with warm bread rolls. The organisers had made significant attempts to reduce the environmental impact of the catering, so everything was served in biodegradable containers and riders were given bamboo cutlery. All the waste was recycled afterwards too of course. With lunch eaten, we headed over to the Shimano-sponsored coffee stand where with a flash of your included wrist band you could order your choice of barista-made coffee and tea. 

As Timo and I set out for the afternoon section of the route the sun burst through and the temperature rose dramatically – cue large smiles and beautiful dappled light on the trails. The organisers promised even more variety of trails in the afternoon and they started properly with some fantastic woodland singletrack, practically as soon as we left the event village. 

“That was f*cking steep. Sorry about my English, but my tyres were sliding, sliding, sliding…”

The route profile for the afternoon showed numerous small, steep climbs with barely any flat area between and this was pretty much how it felt on the bike. We grovelled our way up some of the climbs, desperately hunting for just one more cog on the rear cassette, before plummeting our way back down again. “That was f*cking steep” said Timo after one particularly interesting grassy descent “Sorry about my English, but my tyres were sliding, sliding, sliding…”

The organisers weren’t wrong about the afternoon parcours being spectacularly varied. Not long after lunch we had a 10%+ gradient cobbled climb up to the ancient town of Reifferscheid, its skyline dominated by a majestic looking castle. Later we had a long section of smooth, vehicle width gravel which wouldn’t have looked out of place at the Strada Bianche.

Just when you thought you had got the hang of the course though the crafty designers would throw in a curve ball – this photo singularly fails to capture quite how steep this descent was, but I was too busy trying to control a gravel bike on what would have a singletrack mountain bike descent anywhere else (complete with 180 degree hairpin bends, small rock step downs, roots and a loose surface) to take photos! If you come to a Grinduro event, pack all your bike handling skills, as at some point you will probably need them!

"The mid-afternoon feedstop appeared on the horizon like a mirage."

Right at the point that our energy levels were starting to flag (and our water bottles were running dry) the mid-afternoon feedstop appeared on the horizon like a mirage. Well stocked, with a good mix of sugary and savoury snacks, it couldn’t have come at a better time. The Shimano and Schwalbe support team were slightly busier this time around, with a combination of chains need re-lubing, tyres needing topping topping up and other minor tweaks.

As we rolled out of the afternoon feedstop, we knew we only had one timed section left to conquer – an undulating four km jeep trail, which sounds relatively easy, but with a combination of tired legs and a strong headwind, it was far more tiring than I was expecting. Timo romped away and ended up being a minute faster than me over this section. Fortunately, after we crossed the line marking the end of the timed section, we had a long downhill to look forward to, which took us down to the Olefatlsperre Reservoir, which apparently holds 20 million cubic metres of water. As we cruised along the southern shore at high speed, making the most of the gently downhill gradient and the perfect gravel road surface, a man clad in a purple all-in-one morph suit suddenly jumped out in front of us, brandishing what looked like small white pool noodles in each hand. Much to our amusement, he insisted we take them.

As rode around the next corner and headed over the dam of the reservoir we spotted a purple two-seater armchair located in the centre of the road (which is closed off to vehicles) and a very familiar looking eazyup. The armchair was the idea of Chantal, who coordinates the volunteers who help run the event. Under the eazyup were tables laden with plates of donuts and a wheelbarrow stuffed full of ice and chock-a-block with cans of coke. I couldn’t have thought of a more perfect ‘surprise’ to have at the end of a long day on a gravel bike and the fact that it was Gravel Union branded added to the serendipitous nature of the stop. Chantal was shooting photos of everyone and managed to perfectly capture our expressions, despite the fact my face was half full of donut!

At least one of us looked we had a good time…. Image courtesy of Grinduro/Fat Pigeon

Suitably refuelled after the donut stop, we rolled down into Hellenthal and onwards to the finish line, where Gravel Union yet again managed to photobomb the occasion for some more blatant advertising. Timo assures me that he did have a good despite, the less-than-impressed look he is pulling. With 104km and more than 2000m of climbing in our legs from the day, a well-earned beer was in order, followed by a great dinner laid on by the Grinduro catering team.

"I was absolutely amazed to have somehow got on the podium."

After dinner, event head-honcho and compere Carlo called the assembled masses together for the prize giving. Timo, his partner and I all took up places near the front, me in my role as unofficial photographer and Timo in his role as expected winner in his age group. When Carlo got through to our age category, he called out Timo’s name as the winner, but then in a completely unsuspecting turn of events, called out my name in second place! Considering that I had stopped within one of the timed sections and spent a good five minutes taking photographs before crossing through the timing line again, I was absolutely amazed to have somehow got on the podium, but a Gravel Union one-two seemed a very appropriate end to the day! The overall winners of the event were a carbon copy of the hill climb prologue, with Terry Fremineur taking the top place in the women’s category and Sebastian Mordmüller taking the honours in the men’s category.

The traditional Grinduro after-party kicked off as soon as the podium celebrations had finished and continued well into the night. The mini-pool noodles given out by the purple morph man at the end of the afternoon turned out to be dual purpose – they contained a LED light so worked as a glow stick at the afterparty, but also could be used as currency for a post-ride beer from the event bar.

"We’re pretty sure the purple party will be back to the forests of Hellenthal in the not-too-distant future."

The traditional Grinduro hangover social ride always closes out the event. A hardy group of enthusiasts headed out for one more ride before the finishing flag was waved and everyone packed up for the journey home. Feedback from everyone we spoke to was positive and there were lots of questions about whether the event would be back to Hellenthal in 2025. The organisers haven’t confirmed anything yet, but based on how successful the weekend seemed to be, we’re pretty sure the purple party will be back to the forests of Hellenthal in the not too distant future.

If you would like to try out the route that the Grinduro Germany riders took on, you can find it here: