British Cycling has announced the details of its inaugural National Gravel Championships, which are to be held in Scotland in August.
It's the first time the UK governing body has run its own event, with the race having been organised by Red On Sports since 2021. The events company decided to call time on its own pioneering Championships after BC announced it would run one itself.
The racing will take place in Ae Forest in south-west Scotland on the weekend of August 22-23, with the elite races taking place on the Sunday and youth, junior and masters' events spread across the two days.
The Championships were put out to tender, and will be put on by Scottish company Outsider Events, which also organises trail running and other gravel events.
Ae Forest is one of the 7Stanes MTB hubs and is not far from Galloway Forest, where the Championships were held two years ago after a hasty relocation from their original Kings Forest location.
More details will be released "in due course" says British Cycling.
Outsider Events director Cameron Balfour said it would create a "festival atmosphere" at the finish line that would appeal to families and spectators as well as the racers.
"From an Outsider Events perspective, this is a significant moment for both the region and the discipline," he said, "reflecting the growing momentum behind gravel riding. As with many of our flagship gravel festivals within the GrALBA Series, the focus won’t rest solely on the pointy end of the racing."
BC's head of development Joe Malik said: “We are incredibly excited to welcome gravel to the growing list of British Cycling events. Thanks to the hard work and dedication of the devoted community in its formative years, we know that there is already a strong foundation from which we can help grow the discipline to further heights."
He added: “Achieving our goal of bringing the joy of cycling to everyone means we need to meet people where they are cycling, whether it’s in Ae Forest or a gravel path in Grimsby. We hope that by incorporating gravel into the British Cycling National Championship line-up, we can get more eyes and more interest into a thrilling discipline.”
