Gravel is arguably one of the fastest-growing sectors of cycling, and the inaugural UCI Gravel World Championships take place this weekend (8-9 October) in Veneto, Italy.
In June, over 4,000 riders lined up for the 17th edition of Unbound Gravel in America. Quite apart from this event which has been held since 2006, more and more races are selling out around the world and the UCI Gravel World Series launched in 2022 has been a huge popular success. It begs the question, where has gravel riding come from? We give you the answer – it’s modern and old, its lineage reaching back to the roots of cycling…
European roots
The bicycle was invented in the 19th century. It stimulated mass mobility and then forged competition, soon giving rise to legendary events like Liège-Bastogne-Liège or Paris-Roubaix. When these races were first staged, in 1892 and 1896 respectively, most roads were cobbled or covered in gravel. A quick internet search and you’ll also find numerous black-and-white images of cyclists at the Tour de France, ascending some gargantuan mountain upon gearless, heavy bikes, riding rough shod over gravel. In the days before asphalt dominated, cycling might not have been called ‘gravel riding’ but, by any definition, it was.
So cycling’s forebearers were arguably the founders of gravel riding. But that doesn’t explain the modern history of gravel riding and racing. It’s generally accepted that North America and Canada is the home of gravel as we know it. But again, that’s correct and incorrect. It’s certainly true that in 1994, the maiden Paris-Ancaster took place in Ontario, Canada. The event featured a mix of paved and unpaved roads, including gravel dirt paths and trails, and paid homage to Paris-Roubaix, taking place on the same day. Many see this as the first modern-day gravel event and it still runs to this day, over three distances: 100km, the original 70km and 45km.
However, much earlier in 1955 in the United Kingdom, a group of cyclists set up the Rough-Stuff Fellowship in what they claim was a world first. “Forty members who, in pursuit of their pastime, traverse the rougher and less beaten ways attended the inaugural meeting of the Rough-Stuff Fellowship held at the Black Swan pub, Leominster,” their website reads (rsf.org.uk) as the off-road cycle club exists to this day.
Around the same time as the Paris-Ancaster race, gravel (when it wasn’t called gravel) began to gain popularity in the United States of America. Why, is down to myriad reasons. It’s thought to have evolved from the country’s bike-camping culture of the 1980s; freezing-cold mid-Western winters meant cyclists were forced to find alternatives to freezing tracks; and the fact that the US has over 1.4 million miles of unpaved roads where cyclists can seek freedom away from automobiles.
Unbound adventure
An increasing number of groups heading off-road for drop-barred adventures inevitably caught the eye of race organisers, though it wasn’t until the mid-2000s that the foundations were laid for gravel as we know it today. In 2006, inspired by some of the early “gravel-grinder events”, Jim Cummins, with the assistance of fellow cycling enthusiast Joel Dyke, founded Dirty Kansas in the Flint Hills of Kansas. The Flint Hills are known for their gravelly, hilly roads, providing the perfect terrain for this growing sport of gravel.
The distance was 200 miles and attracted 34 riders. In 2022, that number had grown to a staggering 4,000 with distance options stretching from 25 miles for juniors to the 350-mile XL offering. Entry-wise, the race has grown beyond recognition. It’s also changed its name. In 2020, it was rebranded Unbound Gravel (full name Garmin Unbound Gravel presented by Craft Sportswear) after a petition was filed encouraging the name change because it was offensive to the indigenous people of the area.
Other gravel events that sprung up around the same time and continue to this day include Barry-Roubaix, like Paris-Ancaster a race that pays homage to Paris-Roubaix. The event, held in Michigan from 2009, is another classic US race that delights in the tagline, ‘The World’s Largest Gravel Road’. Again, this event offers participants the choice of racing over several different distances.
Gravel was taking off – a fact noted by bike manufacturers. Again, there’s much conjecture about who created the first gravel-specific bike, but many credit Minnesota-based Salsa Cycles as the forerunners, creating their ‘Warbird’ bike in 2012. The team had spotted that gravel riders needed something more off-road-friendly than road bikes and something more comfortable and storage-friendly than cyclo-cross bikes, which generally are designed for one hour of hard racing. The Warbird featured a longer wheelbase, more relaxed geometry and space for bigger tyres. Mounts were loaded onto forks and stays for bike-packing adventures. A new bike genre had been born.
Since then, the number of gravel races, riders and bikes has exploded, not only meaning many riders are now professional, like Australia’s Nathan Haas, but also leading to the first-ever UCI Gravel World Championships this weekend. It’s been one hell of a journey and one that’s far from over.