WC Gravel Race recommendations

[Kylie]

There is also this that I put together annually - https://bikehub.co.za/news/2023-gravel-race-calendar-r8519/

 

We rely on events organisers to be proactive and list their events in the Events Calendar (it's free), and I use that as a guideline for the article, there are events that have come up subsequently that need to be added

[bleedToWin]

15 hours ago, Bub Marley said:

Some of these races really need to up their marketing game. I’ve never heard of Road to desolation till I saw this thread. Also Greyton Pie Run. Never heard of it before. 

If you followed their Insta pages you'd get all their marketing, so really that's on you...
/s

[Jbr]

3 minutes ago, bleedToWin said:

If you followed their Insta pages you'd get all their marketing, so really that's on you...
/s

I only found out of Pie run a couple of days before when all the madmacs riders shared it on their stories

[Bub Marley]

4 minutes ago, bleedToWin said:

If you followed their Insta pages you'd get all their marketing, so really that's on you...
/s

That’s not really how it works mate. You can’t follow something if you have no idea it even exists.  And just logging onto the website, I do not see any links to any instagram page. It’s upto the organisers to make the event more noticeable. 

[Jewbacca]

13 minutes ago, bleedToWin said:

If you followed their Insta pages you'd get all their marketing, so really that's on you...
/s

The problem with this is that the Insta/Socials marketing is going to the people who ALREADY know about the races and are in all the right fish bowl circles.

That sort of 'marketing' is selling the product to people who would already buy it.

As an outlier who doesn't do socials but loves riding bikes, I also have no idea what is coming up and when. 

There is very little to no effort to get the races and events out of the 'circles' and into the world. The racers will race, they pass on info to each other and then wonder why the numbers never grow.

Inclusion is not something this sport is good at because everyone assumes it's 'out there' because they and their friends all know.

Nobody realises just how small those circles are until they want to

[bleedToWin]

16 minutes ago, Bub Marley said:

That’s not really how it works mate. You can’t follow something if you have no idea it even exists.  And just logging onto the website, I do not see any links to any instagram page. It’s upto the organisers to make the event more noticeable. 

'/s' is shorthand for 'end of sarcasm'. I share your frustration with events posting on social media to their 83 followers and calling that marketing, then being confused when nobody knows about them or enters.

Edited September 27, 2023 by bleedToWin

[Rowl]

13 hours ago, Shebeen said:

There's this too

https://bikehub.co.za/events

Needs to go further into the future but can filter for gravel

 

Which reminded me of this event, can't imagine that it will go ahead...

https://bikehub.co.za/events/races/view/629/dirty-dc

[KieserJ]

@Bub Marley Hey Bub. Understandable, Road To Desolation is quite hard to find online. The race is organized by Community Connect x Standert and all race related posts are shared on their Instagram page.

https://instagram.com/cc_x_standert?igshid=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==

I did the route with some friends earlier this year. It’s one of the best routes I’ve seen. Graaf-Reneit is bloody far but we’ll worth the mission.

[Kylie]

2 minutes ago, KieserJ said:

@Bub Marley Hey Bub. Understandable, Road To Desolation is quite hard to find online. The race is organized by Community Connect x Standert and all race related posts are shared on their Instagram page.

https://instagram.com/cc_x_standert?igshid=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==

I did the route with some friends earlier this year. It’s one of the best routes I’ve seen. Graaf-Reneit is bloody far but we’ll worth the mission.

They also added it to the Events Calendar here, which is how I found out about it: https://bikehub.co.za/events/races/view/586/road-to-desolation

[Bub Marley]

2 minutes ago, KieserJ said:

@Bub Marley Hey Bub. Understandable, Road To Desolation is quite hard to find online. The race is organized by Community Connect x Standert and all race related posts are shared on their Instagram page.

https://instagram.com/cc_x_standert?igshid=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==

I did the route with some friends earlier this year. It’s one of the best routes I’ve seen. Graaf-Reneit is bloody far but we’ll worth the mission.

Cool. I’ve followed them now.

 

Yeah looks like a fantastic route. Wont manage this year as it’s too close by now but perhaps next year I can plan this in advance. What sort of numbers will an event like this pull? I also wouldn’t want to drive 8 hours and then only like 30 people rock up. Graaff-Reinet is pretty isolated so that would be my only concern.

[Kylie]

1 hour ago, Bub Marley said:

Cool. I’ve followed them now.

 

Yeah looks like a fantastic route. Wont manage this year as it’s too close by now but perhaps next year I can plan this in advance. What sort of numbers will an event like this pull? I also wouldn’t want to drive 8 hours and then only like 30 people rock up. Graaff-Reinet is pretty isolated so that would be my only concern.

It's close to my folks, and the riding out there is awe-inspiring, so I'm hoping to give it a go and will report back.