The Gralloch
Report by Ian Wilkinson
Lesley Wilkinson, Paul Hone and I raced The Gralloch yesterday, the UK edition of the UCI Gravel race series, near Dumfries in Scotland.
Over 113km and 2000m elevation, 1200 participants started but only 800 finished a relentless parcours of gravel, shale and an awful lot of dust! Long draggy climbs, technical rocky descents took their toll on riders, tyres and water bottles.
An awesome ride from Lesley saw her finish an hour ahead of her nearest competition in her age group. Paul finished 6th and I was 29th. Consequently Lesley and Paul have qualified for the UCI World Championships in Italy in October!
The men’s Elite race was won by Conor Swift of INEOS Grenadiers, the women’s Elite race by Tiffany Cromwell of Canyon-SRAM.
The race was superbly organised by Red:on who also organise The Kings Cup Gravel Festival in September.
Several people came up to tell us stories about ACC including the David Duffield Appreciation Society. If you want to find out more about gravel riding, contact Ian via offroad@addiscombe.org
