Big Bear Bikes supported rider and Team Boompods road racer Ellen McDermott has qualified for the 2023 UCI World Gravel Championships in Italy in October. In this blog she writes about how she got into this emerging discipline, what she loves about it and why you might love it too.
I’ve been lucky enough to be supported by Big Bear Bikes for almost five years now. And at the beginning of this year I received a bike which I would happily pedal for the rest of my pedalling days. There are a bunch of reasons I am so addicted to my Trek Checkpoint SL6 so I'll take you through my top five.
Photo courtesy of Darren Athersmith.
Photo courstesy of Suvi Loponen
I discovered the joy of gravel riding during lockdown when my partner Will took me and my winter road bike at the time around the forest tracks of the North York Moors. It was the Trek Emonda AL 6 and I was able to fit 32mm tyres on it and blast around the beautiful gravel tracks. Living in Whitby, the roads here are consistently STEEP: Lyth Bank, Limber Hill, Blakey Ridge... even the short Stonegate are within a 60 minute ride and you have to go up them 9/10 times you ride out my front door. The forest tracks actually flatten the terrain around here, criss-crossing up the valleys instead of going straight up them, which makes steady riding a lot more enjoyable!
Unless you meet a park ranger up on the moors, or some logging trucks, you are pretty much guaranteed to have zero car interference. It’s pretty magical and I can spend as long as I want between the five or six different forestries around here, spending at least 80% of the time off-road.
Obviously the Checkpoint is a million times more comfortable than the aluminum road bike with 32mm tyres I was riding off road initially. But not only does the carbon frame allow for 40-45mm tyres, it also comes rigged up with IsoSpeed built into the seat and steerer tube, which dampens the vibrations to the rider. It's a bit like riding around on a couch in comparison! At a recent gravel event up in Scotland - the Muck n Mack Fest - there was some terrain where I was actually overtaking some riders who were on MTBs.
Internal cabling, 1x12 SRAM Rival eTap AXS wireless electronic drivetrain with a wide-range cassette - so only one chain ring up front - you’d think you’d run out of gears. It hasn’t happened yet and it’s the easiest thing to maintain. All I need to do is remember to charge the battery.
Photos courtesy of Darren Athersmith.
Obviously, as a road bike racer, the first thing i’m going to do is check out how to compete. I entered the Trek World Gravel Series, part of which was a one-day race called the Gralloch, a fully self supported 132km gravel race purely off road in the Galloway Forest in Scotland (see photos above). All I needed to do was finish in the top 20% of my race to qualify for the World Championships in Italy later this year. In the first 6km, I thought 'Oh no, this is so much harder than any gravel event I’ve done'. I was a little unprepared but luckily it’s a long event and I rode back to the front of the race throughout the four hours and ended up 2nd in my age category and 7th overall. Worlds, here I come!
You can read and see more about the bike set up I had at the Gralloch here.
If you haven’t experienced the joys of gravel riding yet - or are just looking for some new adventure or challenge - I urge you to simply google “gravel events UK” and you’ll be inundated with options. That’s honestly how I started - the scene is so friendly, the sportive style events are full of banter, music and food. And if you live near the North York Moors then check out some of the adventures that are on your doorstep.
The following links will take you to my Strava activities which you can use for inspiration. Bearing in mind they are personal creations so please exercise caution when plotting your own routes. No-one wants to get stranded out in the moors where reception would be hard to find!
If you'd to learn more about adapting your road bike for gravel riding or take a look at the Trek Checkpoint, come and see us in store in Southgate, Pickering.
