It always seemed inevitable, and now it has finally happened – in the space of a few frustrated business meetings, the course of what is arguably the most important gravel race in the UK has taken a major and irrevocable steer.
You may have seen the news earlier this week that the British Gravel Championships will be run, or at least overseen, by British Cycling from now on. The original organiser, Red On Sports, has walked away from the event after failing to agree terms with BC, and while it could continue to run its own separate championships, Red On understandably decided that having two competing events (and champions) is not in anyone's best interests.
Contracts, tendering processes, money – this wasn't what gravel was supposed to be about, was it?
The unfortunate truth is that it's not easy to run any major event without money poking its ugly nose in. Even at club level you'll need to pay levees to cover insurance, while for those who work for events companies such as Red On Sports or Life Time, which runs Unbound and the Life Time Grand Prix series in the US, it's how they put food on the table.
So does this mean the so-called spirit of gravel is on its way out, if indeed it ever really existed? I would argue not – although when it comes to racing, that spirit tends to dissipate on a par with how big the event is. Take the UCI World Championships, with its road WorldTour protagonists universally riding bikes with five figure swing-tags around courses designed to satisfy any number of business concerns.
Then again, take the Tour Divide. This ultra-bikepacking event, which bisects the USA from north to south, is a completely different offering to the UCI Worlds. No entry fees or qualifications, no prizes, no support, no fancy jersey for the winner and no specific bike requirement. And yet, if you exist in the gravel sphere, you might even consider this the event with more cachet.
When it comes to what most of us think of as the spirit of gravel, Tour Divide's 'come one, come-all' approach ticks almost every box.
Tour Divide is still a race though, with winners, losers and an extremely arduous 4,400km parcours. Perhaps gravel's true spirit lies well away from finish lines and bib numbers, and can instead be found in the world of group rides, solo rides, and phone pictures of landscapes and friends with bikes leaning against gates, trees and bridges.
The onlookers who argue that Britain has no 'real gravel', or that gravel bikes are just glorified 90s mountain bikes, or a cyclo-cross bike badged differently, are missing the point, because this is the beauty of the 'discipline'. A gravel ride can encompass any surface, from tarmac, to muddy singletrack, canal towpaths to the one we all see in our dreams – that famous 'champagne gravel'.
What's more, it can be undertaken on any kind of bike. Whether it's a brand new, fully fledged gravel machine, your old CX bike, or indeed a Nineties mountain bike. Turn up to the group gravel ride on any of these and nobody will look at you funny – and that, I'd say, is the spirit of gravel.
