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Quite tempted by this, despite never really having ridden gravel, let alone raced it. I do mountain bike and road ride though, so feel I'll have the fitness and skills to make it round. It'll come two weeks after I do the Fred, and a month before Frontier 300, so should be fine, right?! Anyone else entered? Are you proper racing or just getting round? First cut-off is quick compared to the second, but I think manageable.
As always, wondering about tyres. The route description talks about chunky, rocky gravel so I'm thinking something about 45c but maybe just a file tread pattern like a G-One. Anyone local fancy imparting their opinions?
Yes signed up. Not proper racing but will do my best. I hadn’t noticed a time cutoff but it’s quite a short event or at least that’s how I was thinking about it. Off to the Dirty Reiver this weekend- will use 45’s as they worked well before - so you are on the e right track.
I thought the cut-offs looked OK for the terrain, pretty certain they worked out as 15km/h for the full distance and 18km/h for the first 30km or so?
If you ride clever, eat on the go and think roadie thoughts you should be fine 😎
Not for me this year though ☹️
Was helping out in the pits at wheels of fleet for the raiders gravel last year and we were there till about 10pm replacing tyres for people who had underestimated the surface compared to where they usually rode.
Not just people with tubes. We had a few sidewall cuts on tubeless tyres where had to just replace because could not plug. A few snakebite type damage too from running pressures too low.
I think it is the type of rock used in the roads that caught people out rather than any particular feature or section.
The route of the gralloch looks to include a lot of the same sections as the raiders gravel.
Good info Tom. What's the tyre of choice? Currently looking at Conti Terra Trail or Speed, or maybe Hutchinson Touareg. Trying to look for durability over light weight.
think roadie thoughts you should be fine 😎
Will do my best to channel van Aert!
Sorry I don't have much experience of gravel tyres other than helping at the event. Have had the terra trail tyres and they were fine, currently have Michelin power gravel and they are also no bother but not got much to compare to.
Whatever choice you make our plan of sidewall and and casing toughness over saving weight sounds sensible.
It was noticeable that most of the people who seemed to be taking it seriously were on tyres in the 30-40mm range.
Just looked at the maps and they had more on road climbing to get to the forest than you will have on the gralloch route. The road section you do have from kennick burn to the first feed stop is a bit of a drag but not to the point where would suggest choosing tyres for it. The majority is off road
As a final observation vittoria tyres seemed popular on the bikes I was working on but they were also sponsoring it I think which may skew what people were using.
Rode about half of the route on Saturday. It’s absolutely stunning.
I rode cinturato H 40s and my mate was on SKs in 38s. Both were decent choices, neither of us felt like we needed anything wider.
Sadly away for it shame as I'm local
Go for tough tyres it's big gravel
Now that it’s done I thought I’d note down some thoughts from the Gralloch.
Firstly, the route was really good. A mix of surfaces but nothing difficult. Some amazing views and less foresty that I was expecting. A big day in the saddle (for me and I suspect for many folk, at 70 miles, with 60 off road, and 1900m climbing) but couldn’t really fault it. As far as gravel goes, it was top notch.
Organisation was pretty good. Feed stations were big, plenty of bars, gels, fruit, water and energy drink. Plenty of marshals all along the route and good signage. The start/finish also seemed pretty good. Easy to get signed on and find my place on the start line. Timing was pro level with about 10 checkpoints (as you might expect for a pro UCI race). Was still a small crowd cheering folk home when I rolled in and hour and a half after the winner!
Mechanicals. I’ve never seen as many issues as on this event. Firstly it seemed like dozens of people had lost bottles, either through bouncing out of cages or dropped when trying to drink. They were a regular occurrence throughout the course. Then punctures. My estimate was that I saw at least 50 folk throughout the ride trying to fix flats. Hard to tell what the issues were, but plenty of folk were riding round with a broken insert or tubes wrapped round their chest, or just walking forlornly to a checkpoint. Leisure Lakes had put on quite a few tech boxes with spares throughout the course which may have helped some folk out with track pumps, CO2, tubes, etc. Was very happy with my Hutchinson Tundras (40c) – not the fastest rolling but I’ll take reliability every time.
Speaking of tyres, there was the whole gamut on the start line. Super slick and skinny to MTBs with XC tyres. I guess if you can put up with the discomfort and lack of grip, slick and skinny is fast, but I was pretty happy on 40c with a good amount of comfort and grip.
Cost. It was quite pricy to enter (about £70 from memory, plus another £8 for parking). Not sure I’d call it value for money, but ultimately I enjoyed it, so not too fussed.
Would I do it again? Probably not. Ultimately it was a race and I was never going to be anywhere near the front. But I thought there would be more folk like myself, there more for the day out than a placing. As it turned out, I was out the back within ½ mile and getting passed constantly for the first 10 miles from groups who started a few minutes later. Once the fast folk went by, it became a much nicer ride.
Bottom line: I’ll definitely be back to ride this area again. Top notch gravelling.
Enjoyed a glorious day on the bike. Hard course but great scenery. Support at feed stations was super friendly as were people on the course.
Lots of very serious racers, which I’m not. Highlight was getting passed by the pros at warp speed - captured by course photographers for my Strava.
Went with a large bunch of friends. We had a couple of very good nights out to complete the weekend away. One even managed to qualify for the world champs.
Yeah, but did you beat Valtteri Bottas?
Heard him being announced on the start line and might have seen him chilling afterwards. So in a word, no.
Funnily enough one of my mates got a great picture riding beside him in a group. Beat him too - I did not
Then punctures. My estimate was that I saw at least 50 folk throughout the ride trying to fix flats. Hard to tell what the issues were, but plenty of folk were riding round with a broken insert or tubes wrapped round their chest
Any idea why? Just folk getting carried away, or silly tyre pressures? My colleague put in a pretty good time (actually it was just her average pace I noticed, 25.5km/h!) but also punctured twice.
Am gratified it's not just me that can pinch flat tubeless tyres!
Everyone is going flat out on the descents so there is plenty of opportunity to slash a tyre on all the loose stone if you are unlucky. I try to insure against by running burly 45 mm tyres which seems to work. Completed Reiver twice and now Gralloch without a puncture on the same set. But I’m not really racing so can accept the weight penalty while others at the sharp end will probably risk a lighter set up.
I was out taking photos at the Gatehouse of Fleet last weekend for the race. The images from the #ucigravel race - @grallochfgravel are now live.Just a few more still going up. Over 2000 images taken and have the majority of riders. The images are being tagged with race numbers.
Saw my second snapped flat top chain in less than a week. Resulting in a broken Rival axe rear mech.
The images can be found by this link -
Firstly, the route was really good. A mix of surfaces but nothing difficult. Some amazing views and less foresty that I was expecting. A big day in the saddle (for me and I suspect for many folk, at 70 miles, with 60 off road, and 1900m climbing) but couldn’t really fault it. As far as gravel goes, it was top notch.
Good to hear, I'll probably give the route a go when I'm on my hols up there sometime.
I try to insure against by running burly 45 mm tyres
Just curious what's regarded as burly in the gravel world?
@unsponsored - good pics of Mrs Yak there. I will let her know. Re tyres, she was on 40mm maxis ramblers exo run tubeless with stans and they seem ok.
Just had a flick through the pictures linked above and wondered if anybody did this on an xc bike? There were a lot of photos so didn't see them all but everyone seemed to be on pukka gravel bikes
Based on my recent experience, put the right tyres on your XC bike and make sure you're comfortable with the handlebar setup for a relatively static 5-6 hours ago you'll be golden.
That was my feeling too. My HT is set up with carbon forks ,light wheels and fairly fast tyres and seems ,for an old giffer like me, to do a reasonable job as a gravel bike.
Perhaps not for big road mileages but for an event like the Gralloch, ideal.
Yeah, despite loving my gravel bike and having spent a lot of money getting a custom frame built, I'm coming to the uncomfortable realisation that my 29er with some Mezcals might be the better bike for most of what I do!
No matter how careful I am, most of my gravel rides lead me into MTB-lite terrain 😎
My little (deeply unscientific) test lap I did for Dirty Reiver lead me to the conclusion that an XC bike is a very very good gravel bike! And so it proved to be for a 9+hr day at that event (& one less burly than the Gralloch by all accounts).
But I guess I knew that already as it was the same sort of riding I used to enjoy on my XC bike anyway.
I think marketing has hyped up every micro-niche to the extent we forget that if you squint your eyes and look at a bike from a distance- they’re all not actually that different 🤣
I remember 10 years ago when I bought my first road bike moaning that I wasn’t any faster round the local sporting TT course than I was on my Scott Spark on Rocket Ron’s 🤣
Because I was still riding it bolt upright of course.
For Dirty Reiver, I reckon 8hrs is the cut off for where you’d appreciate the aero benefits of narrower tyres and drop bars. Above that and the puncture protection, suspension and tyre deflection of an XC bike makes that the outright more enjoyable choice for very little sacrifice.
Just curious what’s regarded as burly in the gravel world?
I use Pirelli Cinturato M. They roll well for something that looks like a tractor tyre, give plenty of grip and seem robust.
Not many MTBs at all. I was going to take one but didn’t know whether they were allowed so left it at home.
Well that was incredible. First ever bike race and looks like I've qualified for the finals. Here's to all those other non-pro, non-club independent chancers!
Just curious what’s regarded as burly in the gravel world?
Not sure burly is the right word, but my Hutchinson Tundras were ace. Good mtb-lite style tread that rolls easy, good and tough casing. Not as light or supple as some, but unless you try different tyres back to back are you really going to notice? I'd always take reliability over saving 50g.
There were a few MTBs.
Not sure burly is the right word, but my Hutchinson Tundras were ace. Good mtb-lite style tread that rolls easy, good and tough casing.
I'm riding WTB Raddlers, I think the SG2 casing - which seems pretty good to me.
I should learn more about the range of casings in the gravel world though, and where different ones might be needed.