Paul and Matt go Gravel Racing
Badlands Gravelcross Event – my first ride on a Gravel Bike by Paul Hone
I bought my first gravel bike on Friday as I fancied mixing up my cycling by doing some off road riding. My first test ride was going to be Ian’s club ride on Wednesday, but Matt Halvatzis convinced me to enter the Badlands 70km event in the Chilterns on the Sunday.
The first thing I needed to do was setup the bike as I am very particular with my fit. As I haven’t told the wife about my purchase, I had to wait for her to go to bed before I started. This ended up in a late night Friday and not going to bed until 1:30am – not ideal preparation for the regular Saturday Club ride.
Longer stem, bars slammed, seat height & setback set, indexing adjusted etc done and quick check on Saturday so all good to go.
On the day, Matt brought his friend Scott from the Chilterns to ride with us. Matt described Scott as “like Kash” which was pretty accurate – a big unit with loads of power.
The course was described as mixed terrain and hilly with unmade roads, forest tracks, gravel & dirt bridleways and some technical sections more suitable for a Mountain Bike.
The first few miles were pretty easy farm tracks which was then followed by some tough climbs with sections over 20% which ate into our average speed.
The next section was a couple of miles of solidified mud which made me realise my tyre pressure was way too high as the bike felt like a bucking bronco especially when a CX rider we overtook earlier came floating past us.
As the path turned to gravel we caught the CX rider up who sat on the back of us until we hit a road section where “Chilterns Kash” was sent to the front and he was quickly dispatched. The rest of the ride was a repeat of the above through the lovely Chilterns countryside.
All this fun was completed in a time of 2hrs 48m with 910m of climbing. 2 people beat us by 25s which is frustrating as we missed a couple of turns and stopped to check the route which cost us far more time than that, but its not a race is it!
A tough days riding especially after a Saturday Club run but very enjoyable and I’m happy with my new purchase.
Paul’s Strava file is here: https://www.strava.com/activities/5461953900
