[Event] Karoo GravelGrinder

[@BigJohnSwan]

Event Name: Karoo GravelGrinder
When: 7 September 2017 - 10 September 2017
Where: Prince Albert, Western Cape
Category: MTB

The Karoo GravelGrinder, a new format for competitive riding

• 3 days
  
• Spectacular Karoo
  
• Remote gravel roads and tracks
  
• Strava segments
  
• Luxury accommodation
  
• Local cuisine and great wines
  
• Different terrain everyday
  
• Navigate with supplied GPS unit
  
• Fully supported
  
• Your own group - great social
  
• Runs throughout the year
  

 

 

http://www.mtbafrica.com/uploads/5/8/4/6/58469259/published/karoo-gravelgrinder-alt-logo_1.png?1495552388

 

South Africa has no shortage of incredible mountain bike stage races and road races to choose from. Most of these races are run in fairly populated areas for the simple reason that you need a high number of entrants to make staging the event worthwhile.

 

Infrastructure, safety and logistics at these events are the major challenges facing the race organiser. The costs are prohibitive and to run the event successfully requires a large team of dedicated personnel.

 

These phenomena tend to exclude remote inaccessible places where many of us would love to ride our bikes, unhindered by vehicles and crowds of other riders. Riding with a selected group of your friends and colleagues where there is a "crowd" but not so many that it becomes impersonal.

 

And yes, you want at times to be a little competitive, after all that's part of the fun, it's why we train and try to improve our fitness, it's what motivates us to ride. What if we could race each other in a virtual sense? What if we could decide what time of year we do it and choose who you are going to experience it with?

 

What if we could explore wide open spaces and different terrain each day fully supported by a dedicated team? Racing each other on a stage race, yet overnighting a central place in luxury accommodation with great local cuisine and wines.

 

The Karoo GravelGrinder is your answer, an adventure stage race which runs on a regular basis throughout the year and has an annual leaderboard logged on Strava. It's not just a race, it's a social, cycling and culinary experience you can share with a group of colleagues or friends. The routes are designed to accommodate gravel and cyclocross bikes as well, so you can choose to ride it on anything from a full suspension mountain bike to a hardcore endurance road bike.

 

We've settled on around 80km per day for the adventure race, it's long enough to be a challenge but short enough to race really hard each day if you so choose. In addition we have 40km options for social riders on the same routes. E-Bikes are welcome for social riders as long as Strava segments are not logged on them.

 

Spouses and Spectators Welcome - special packages will be arranged

 

 

Choose your weapon - get your gravel grind on

Go to Event Page

[TALUS]

I am SO jealous! Good luck and please report back on the Swartberg Pass's condition for us Hell and Back riders.