[Event] Old Hermon Gravel Ride

[Abby.F]

Event Name: Old Hermon Gravel Ride
When: 04/10/2025
Where: Welbedacht Wine Estate/Schalk Burger & Sons, Western Cape
Category: Gravel

The 2025 Old Hermon Gravel Ride will take place on Saturday, 4 October, with a choice of 22km, 44km routes and an 80km adventure on the cards. All three start and finish at the Welbedacht Wine Estate, just outside Wellington.

The two shorter options follow district and farm roads nearby, gaining 195m on the 22km, but a more testing 390m on the 44km. Both routes are tests of fitness, rather than skills, ideal for an introduction to gravel if you are crossing over from the road.

SEEDING EVENT STATUS

The 80km option is a Premier Seeding Event for the 2026 Cape Town Cycle Tour and will offer a sterner test. It has been laid out to challenge the speedsters, and the adventurers; with 990m of ascent, also on glorious backroads and farm tracks and with a Tour-de-France-esque road climb, but with a little bit of washboard and some sandy stretches thrown in to wake up the tech skills, especially at gravel-bike speeds.

Entries for the Old Hermon Gravel Ride are now open, and range from R256 to R550, with all entrants standing a chance of winning prizes from Garmin, Oakley and Thule. Expect quiet roads, world class organisation, refreshment stations you might not want to leave, and a great day out.

Go to Event Page.

[Rouxenator]

Entered - always wanted to do this. 

[BuffsVintageBikes]

Gonna give it a crack as well, hopefully it goes better than my Filthy Fondo attempt 🙄

Starting with a climb up Bains is generally never a good thing for a heavy weight 😊

[PappaWatTrap]

Hi Everyone,

I have entered, anyone who has done it before. 

What would work better a hardtail MTB with tyres pumped for speed, or a gravel bike but that is possibly a bit heavier than the HT? 

 

[Milosh]

I am voting hardtail, see you there.

Edited October 3, 2025 by Milosh

[B20]

On 9/29/2025 at 11:49 AM, PappaWatTrap said:

Hi Everyone,

I have entered, anyone who has done it before. 

What would work better a hardtail MTB with tyres pumped for speed, or a gravel bike but that is possibly a bit heavier than the HT? 

 

The roads are mostly smooth ...... like a private school roads. 

Bring the fast one, there is going to some wind....

[Rouxenator]

My first time, loved it!

I wanted to look extra poor, so I rode my cheap bike amongst all the fancy gravel bikes and dual-sus MTBs. I also made sure to forget my water bottles in the fridge at home, so I had a 1.5L tucked into the back pocket of my cycle shirt. 

I think I saw Pieter Van Wyk in a bakkie, like I always seem to do on gravel races (Cederberg, Transkaroo). 

This event gets a 5-star rating from me. 

[Sid the Sloth]

Doolhof descent was super nice and smooth, and the left right up down after that was enjoyable. The head wind was tolerable on the way out, I found the corrugations after the 50ish km water point more challenging. It was a fun day out. Pity about the timing overlapping with Pioneer leading to a less competitive front end of the race. 

[PappaWatTrap]

What a fun ride and great weather. Will definitely be back again. I started in the B bunch but soon found myself alone between the A and the B bunch. Must say the only advantage I had on the HT was coming down the downhill section at the Bainskloof turnoff. Just not fast enough to close gaps to gravel bikes so spent the first 35km alone. Was finally caught and could finish the race in a group. My endurance definitely ran out from about 65kms and was just holding on for dear life. 
 

Next year will hope to start in the A bunch and just hold on😅

[B20]

I enjoyed the race as well except the corrigations on the farm, but the rest of the road was really in pristine condition for rural farm roads.

Being a local I was a shocked to see all the traffic on Bains, but it was as a result of the Tunnel issues on Du Toits kloof.

The organisation was also good (apart from my race time not been recorded) which I will take up with the organisers.

At least I have my Strava time 3H13.

[BuffsVintageBikes]

I also really enjoyed this route, it had a bit of everything going for it, some smooth tar of the climb up Bains, a steep gravel descent, quite a few twists and turns along the railway track, long open gravel roads, sinkplaat and lots of rollers that chowed the legs towards the end 🤙

My only gripe was some confusion at the start when the announcer wasn't clear that only A batch was too start and a lot of the riders assumed it was a mass start and left at the first release. The result was my batch, which was C, only had a few riders in it so no bunch riding was to be had until much later in the ride when we started catching riders that had popped.

I also got to meet Hayley Preens dad on the ride, a man with great taste I should add, riding the same bike as mine 😊 Spent most of the ride rotating with him into the headwind. I can see where she gets her talent from, he's in his 60's and strong as an Ox. She'll be representing at Gravel Burn at the end of the month.

Other than that, it was an awesome day out on the Revolt at a great venue, well done PPA 👍

Edited October 6, 2025 by BuffsVintageBikes

[Conrad Hughes]

I also had a lovely day out. Started in group A, finished 15th. We were a chunk of time behind the top 5, but felt good to do so well even considering the small elite field present. Would definitely do it again. The hardest part was for sure the corrugations, made for some interesting racing. 

[DrPayne]

On 10/4/2025 at 7:52 PM, Sid the Sloth said:

Doolhof descent was super nice and smooth, and the left right up down after that was enjoyable. The head wind was tolerable on the way out, I found the corrugations after the 50ish km water point more challenging. It was a fun day out. Pity about the timing overlapping with Pioneer leading to a less competitive front end of the race. 

Hey don't say it wasn't competitive! I was super proud of myself holding you wheel for the first few minutes at the start! 🤣

Jokes aside I happy to finish 10 mins behind you, was expecting to be further back. Up Bains I got caught by the riders who ended up on the podium and then there was a nice little group of 4 of us that worked together. I lost both bottles coming down Bains but luckily the guys in the group helped me out and shared their drinks. If you are reading this thank you 🙏

Had a fun sprint for 4th at the end which I just lost. Overall a very fun day out and I thought the organizers did a really good job. Will definitely come back again next year.

[Zebra]

On 10/6/2025 at 9:57 AM, BuffsVintageBikes said:

I also got to meet Hayley Preens dad on the ride, a man with great taste I should add, riding the same bike as mine 😊 Spent most of the ride rotating with him into the headwind. I can see where she gets her talent from, he's in his 60's and strong as an Ox. She'll be representing at Gravel Burn at the end of the month.

 👍

 

 

 

Unsure if you are aware, but Mark Preen, apart from being a serious paddling athlete, both canoe & Surfski, won the Tuffer Puffer, as well as the Puffer trail race many times, including 3 years back-to-back, IIRC;

….start at Ferryman's Tavern in the V&A Waterfront, run off-road for 160km to Cape Point and back (along the Table Mountain chain), and then back to Ferryman's tavern.

A running,paddling and cycling legend.

Chris

[bleedToWin]

Would like to do this one year, but it's a bit frustrating having so many weekends with no events and then this weekend had 2 gravel races, and a road race to pick from (and Cape Pioneer also for those so inclined)

[BuffsVintageBikes]

I wasn't aware of that Chris, that certainly elevates him to Legendary status in my books.

Myself and a friend were the backup crew for Willie Kotze in 2003 when he set the Tuffer Puffer course record at 23:51:01. At the time he was the first guy to go Sub 24hrs so it was quite a big deal... except it wasn't. He finished the race at midnight in the Waterfront and there wasn't a sole in sight to witness it. Just Willie, Henning and myself, standing at a point somewhere in the Waterfront that they deemed to be the finish line. We sat down, cracked a beer and celebrated it between the 3 of us. It was a surreal moment and at the time I couldn't understand why anyone would do that to themselves for absolutely zero glory or fame. He literally run 2 x sub 12hr Comrades back to back... over Table Mountain 😲

Those ultra trail runner are just next level, they have my utmost result for what they do simply to challenge themselves.

 

@Zebra

 

Edited October 8, 2025 by BuffsVintageBikes