2023 Gravel Race Calendar

[Shwetty]

RideTheKaroo 100 miler  - https://100miler.ridethekaroo.co.za/ (3-5 March) 

Looks like the Eastern Cape is severely under-represented here relative to the huge potential for gravel races there.. Grahamstown and the surrounds are a treasure-trove of epic gravel roads. Maybe I should put something together - I've got a few routes in mind... 🤷‍♂️

 

 

[betaboy]

Underberg Gran Fondo looks good, international event?…🤔

[Gravalist]

500 Series entries are open and are considered bucket list rides. Events have been updated 😎

June, KZN https://bikehub.co.za/events/races/view/446/burra-500

September, Western Cape https://bikehub.co.za/events/races/view/501/sedgefield-500

December, Western Cape https://bikehub.co.za/events/races/view/502/franschhoek-500

[Jbr]

Isn't there any demand for gravel races that aren't 100 milers, 200km or 5 days races ? Isn't a simple 100-120km option a good idea too ?

[Skubarra]

35 minutes ago, Jbr said:

Isn't there any demand for gravel races that aren't 100 milers, 200km or 5 days races ? Isn't a simple 100-120km option a good idea too ?

Just out of interest - helping with organising the Durbie Dash this year - we are looking to add a gravel race this year in addition to the usual mtb and road races. Should be somewhere between 80km and 100km

Its a flippen nightmare though to come up with a route that has less than 50% tar if your starting point is Durbanville 🤣

Very curious to see how big the demand for the gravel race will be compared to the others

[Jbr]

13 minutes ago, Skubarra said:

Just out of interest - helping with organising the Durbie Dash this year - we are looking to add a gravel race this year in addition to the usual mtb and road races. Should be somewhere between 80km and 100km

Its a flippen nightmare though to come up with a route that has less than 50% tar if your starting point is Durbanville 🤣

Very curious to see how big the demand for the gravel race will be compared to the others

I don’t think it is a problem if there’s some road on the route, I ride that side all the time connecting spes bonna/faircape/capaia/occultdale…., the problem is that the road is the same as the road used for the road event (crossing from malans to fair cape on aderley for example), I also see there’s some gravels roads along wellington road ? Also note that you can use crappy roads that you couldn’t use for the road event (marne road ?)

For me the main problem is that Durbie Dash this year is the best seeding event for CTCT (although it doesn’t give the supposed sub 2 index to its winner 😜😜) so many might prefer the road event to the alternatives if it’s all the same day. In a perfect world with a friday or monday public holiday if would be nice to ride all three events on separate days and have an overall ranking 😜😜😜

[dave303e]

1 hour ago, Jbr said:

Isn't there any demand for gravel races that aren't 100 milers, 200km or 5 days races ? Isn't a simple 100-120km option a good idea too ?

there are lots of 100-160km events popping up. Cow and bull from Pretoria last month. There is 145km out harties way this month. Keep an eye out

[Skubarra]

34 minutes ago, Jbr said:

I don’t think it is a problem if there’s some road on the route, I ride that side all the time connecting spes bonna/faircape/capaia/occultdale…., the problem is that the road is the same as the road used for the road event (crossing from malans to fair cape on aderley for example), I also see there’s some gravels roads along wellington road ? Also note that you can use crappy roads that you couldn’t use for the road event (marne road ?)

For me the main problem is that Durbie Dash this year is the best seeding event for CTCT (although it doesn’t give the supposed sub 2 index to its winner 😜😜) so many might prefer the road event to the alternatives if it’s all the same day. In a perfect world with a friday or monday public holiday if would be nice to ride all three events on separate days and have an overall ranking 😜😜😜

We should be able to keep the roadies and gravel riders apart for most of the race (at least the fast ones, the social pace riders will probably share a few kilometers on the day). Depending on what access we can get on private property the gravel route could be up to 70% gravel.

If we can get this off the ground then it might be an option in future to host on seperate days 🙂 but that would need a lot of entries to be viable with the increased costs involved - who knows...