[ad_1]
‘Tis the season — registration season that is! If you haven’t planned out your 2025 cycling season yet, you’d best get to it because the biggest gravel events are selling out fast.
To make things a little easier on you, you can find some of the biggest events of the gravel calendar, their event dates and registration details below.
Get ready, set, register!
Events in North America
Unbound Gravel
Registration: Unbound is a lottery-only event. The lottery for all distances opens November 1 and remains open through the 15th. The lottery winners will be notified on November 21.
Event date: May 29 – June 1, 2025
Location: Emporia, Kansas
Unbound Gravel is a mass-start event that takes place in the Tallgrass Prairie and Flint Hills around Emporia, Kansas, in the middle of the United States. With five race distances on offer and thousands of attendees, Unbound has become the world’s marquee gravel event.
The famous 200-mile course is a true test of endurance, self-sufficiency and equipment. In addition to needing to fuel oneself for 11+ hours of riding, the sharp flint rocks are notorious for slicing tires and dashing podium aspirations. Along the way, riders also need to contend with the undulating terrain, exposed sun-baked roads, headwinds and, if at all wet, tire-sucking mud.
For those seeking the ultimate challenge, there’s the 350-mile option called the XL. There are also 25-mile, 50-mile, and 100-mile options.
The latest race content, interviews, features, reviews and expert buying guides, direct to your inbox!
Due to high demand, the event organisers cannot accommodate everyone who wishes to participate. Therefore, a random selection process determines who will be allowed to participate in the 2025 event. When registration opens, you’re entered into a lottery. Those selected to participate in Unbound 2025 will be notified on November 21.
SBT GRVL
Registration: To open January 1, 2025
Event Date: June 28-29, 2025
Location: Steamboat Springs, Colorado
It was rocky there for a bit, but SBT GRVL will be back in 2025, having secured the necessary permits for a completely redesigned event.
The 2025 edition will now be split into two distinct events: a non-competitive ride around Steamboat Springs on Saturday and a UCI-style circuit race on Sunday. The latter will take place in Hayden and feature controlled roads, course marshals from USAC, and a rolling police enclosure to ensure a safe and competitive environment for participants.
Having been moved from August to June, the two-day event will now start with a non-competitive ride on Saturday, offering participants three courses of varying lengths similar to the routes of past editions of SBT GRVL. It will not feature results, podiums or prizes for any of the distances or categories. Those who cross the finish line first will have bragging rights alone.
The competitive portion of the race will start Sunday morning in nearby Hayden, Colorado. The race will have three categories – pro men, pro women and amateur races – each with their own start times and their own rolling enclosures.
The race will take place on a 37-mile loop with many of the roads featured on the 2024 SBT GRVL course’s southwest portion. The pro men and pro women will complete the loop three times, and the amateur racers twice.
(Image credit: Specialized)
The Belgian Waffle Ride Series
BWR Arizona: Registration open
Event date: March 1, 2025
Location: Scottsdale, AZ
BWR California: Registration open
Event date: April 26-27, 2025
Location: San Marcos, CA
BWR Utah: Registration open
Event date: May 24, 2025
Location: Cedar City, UT
BWR Montana: Registration open
Event date: June 29, 205
Location: Bozeman, MT
BWR Monterey: Registration open
Event date: August 2, 2025
Location: Monterey, CA
The Belgian Waffle Ride is now entering its 13th season, and is more popular than ever before with six events across North America.
When Michael Marckx created the original Belgian Waffle Ride in 2011 in San Diego, California, he never aimed for it to be a gravel race. He modeled the race after the spirit of the Belgian Spring monuments, meaning long distances and tough, technical terrain. In lieu of cobblestones, however, Marckx routed his participants over dirt sectors.
As the years went on, Marckx and his participants embraced increasingly technical and off-road terrain. Today, BWR is a series consisting of 5 events and is fiercely contested by pro road and gravel racers alike.
There are several race distances on offer, but all promise plenty of “suffering over sinuous, bone grinding roads fraught with arduous climbs, mud, choking dust, leg-numbing sleet or heat and winds.”
Mid South
Registration: Registration open
Event Date: March 14-15, 2025
Location: Stillwater, Oklahoma
Mid South, formerly known as Land Run, Is getting ready for its 13th edition, and is by many considered to be the gravel season opener.
Thousands of racers make the trek to the remote location of Stillwater, Oklahoma, to contest the infamous red clay roads in either the 50-mile or 100-mile race.
While the racing within the peloton is fierce, perhaps the biggest competition, however, comes from the weather and the consequent road conditions. Every year, the race is defined by the state of Oklahoma’s red dirt. If dry, the red roads are hard packed and fast. If wet, the clay turns to thick, soul-sucking mud that’s barely rideable and is known to destroy many a drivetrain.
The gravel races is held in conjunction with a 50K ultra trail running event and those with energy to burn can sign up to do “the double”: a 50K running race followed by a 100-mile gravel bike race the following day.
(Image credit: 241 Photography)
Rebecca’s Private Idaho
Registration: Open
Event Date: Labor Day Weekend, starting Thursday, August 28, 2025
Location: Ketchum, Idaho
Rebecca’s Private Idaho is the brainchild of celebrated endurance racer Rebecca Rusch. Nicknamed “The Queen of Pain”, Rusch a professional athlete, entrepreneur, filmmaker, author, philanthropist and firefighter. She’s got seven world champion mountain bike titles to her name along with a long list of national and world titles in whitewater rafting, adventure racing, orienteering and cross-country skiing.
Yet, despite being a racer at heart, Rusch’s main reason behind launching her Rebecca’s Private Idaho gravel event in 2013 is showcasing her chosen home in central Idaho many, many miles of scenic, unpaved roads.
A challenging event, RPI is a race for some, a ride for others and a great party for everyone. It’s well-recognized as one of the world’s largest and most popular gravel cycling races.
The event consists of a four-day Gravel stage race and several one-day gravel grinders ranging between 18 and 100 miles.
Barry Roubaix
Registration: Open November 9, 2024
Event Date: April 12, 2025
Location: Barry County, Hastings, MI
The Barry Roubaix is one of the oldest gravel races in America and was started long before the gravel name had even taken hold.
“There’s a lot of hypotheticals out there as far as what really started ‘gravel’ racing in the area,” Scott TenCate, Barry Roubaix Co-Race Director, told Cycling Weekly.
“But here in Michigan we have very cold winters and coming into the spring, a lot of the mountain bikers couldn’t ride the local trails, because we had the freeze thaw that was going on. And so they were finding alternatives to being able to ride single track and from the stories that I’ve heard, it kind of started to migrate towards ‘Let’s ride some dirt, gravel, seasonal roads’…that kind of stuff.”
Nowadays, the Barry Roubaix is among the biggest gravel races in the world with 4,000 cyclists traversing the rolling Michigan terrain every year.
The Barry Roubaix offers four course options ranging between 18 and 100 miles, $40,000 in awards cash and prizes and a big afterparty for all.
GRASSHOPPER ADVENTURE SERIES
Low Gap: registration is open
Event date: Jan. 26, 2025
Location: Ukiah, California
Huffmaster: registration is open
Event date: Feb. 24, 2025
Location: Maxwell, California
Ukiah-Mendo Gravel Epic: registration is open
Event date: April 27, 2025
Location: Ukiah, California
King Ridge: registration is open
Event Date: May 10, 2025
Location: Duncans Mills, California
The Grasshopper Adventure Series in 2024 will mark the 26th year of this California-based series’ existence. The organization describes its “races” as less racing, more challenging yourself on some tough courses in foothills and mountains of Northern California. Still, though, there are podiums for age group categories and competition is encouraged.
While you can sign up for any of these races as a one-off adventure, if you’re feeling competitive, you can race the whole series for points and see who earns the title of Hopper Super Hero King of the Universe (yes, that’s really the title) at the end of it all.
GRAVEL LOCOS
Registration: registration is open
Event Date: May 17, 2025
Location: Hico, Texas
The official slogan of Hico, Texas is “Where everybody is somebody!” And Gravel Locos could be your very own chance to become a “somebody” in the Lone Star State. Gravel Locos boasts 30-, 60-, 100- and 150-mile routes – and for those who think Texas is flat, think again. The 30-mile route has 1,500 feet of climbing and the 150-mile course has a whopping 7,000 feet of gain.
There are no cutoff times at Gravel Locos, but the event site reminds athletes that if you don’t think you can return before sunset, it is your job to carry lights and supplies needed for nighttime riding.
Events outside North America
(Image credit: Gravel Earth Series)
THE TRAKA
Registration: registration is open but filling up fast
Event Date: April 30, 2025
Location: Girona, Spain
In 2025, Spain’s premier gravel race, The Traka, will offer a 100k, 200k and 360k route option. The event may be promoted on its website as ‘a non-competitive bike ride whose values are ethics, camaraderie and respect for the environment,’ but with the attendance of top racers, there’s no doubt that Traka is Europe’s leading gravel race.
Girona, known for its pro cyclist residents and picturesque landscapes, is an ideal backdrop for this event. It has grown steadily in popularity due to its challenging courses and top-tier competitors.
DIRTY REIVER
Registration: Opens December 1, 2024
Event Date: April 25-27, 2025
Location: Kielder Forest, UK
UK’s answer to American gravel racing comes in the form of the Dirty Reiver. Now in its 10th year, the Dirty Reiver is the biggest gravel event in the UK and held in the Kielder and Wark Forest on the border of England and Scotland.
Big forests, lots of hills and endless k’s of unpaved trails make the perfect location for a gravel event, which takes its participants to new vistas and areas of the wooded region year after year.
The mass-start event offers challenges of three lengths, 65km, 130km or 200km —all held exclusively off-pavement.
Grinduro – Worldwide
Grinduro Germany: registration is not yet open
Event date: May 22-25, 2025
Location: Hellenthal, Eifel
Grinduro California: registration is not yet open
Event date: September 11-14, 2025
Location: Quincy, CA
Grinduro Pennsylvania: registration is not yet open
Event date: June 6-8, 2025
Location: Forksville, Sullivan County
Grinduro France: registration is not yet open
Event date: June 27-29
Location: Xonrupt-Longemer
Grinduro Italy: registration is not yet open
Event date: Sept 26-28
Location: Tuscany
Grinduro Japan: registration not yet open
Event Date: October 17
Location: Hakuba, Japan
Started in Quincy, California, in 2015, Grinduro is one of the most unique racing formats one can do on a (gravel) bike.
In short, Grinduro takes its format from the enduro racing of the mountain world. In this racing format, the race is made up of several timed downhill sectors. The transfer and uphill section in between the stages do not count towards your time.
And so, Grinduro is one long loop of pavement and dirt, where finishing times aren’t based on overall loop time, but on four timed segments.
While the racing can be taken seriously by some, an equally big part of the Grinduro experience takes place off the bike. Camping, live music, food, and bike festivals are all part of the weekend — a formula that is caught on globally. There have been Grinduro events in Japan, Canada, Scotland, Wales, and Germany. In 2025, Grinduro will celebrate its 10th anniversary with a return to Quincy, California in September.
This gravel ribbon is part of the FNLD gravel course
(Image credit: Thomas Maheux)
FNLD GRVL
Registration: Coming in January 2025
Event date: “Summer” 2025
Location: Lahti, Finland
In 2022, we had the chance to go explore some of Finland’s gravel offerings with none other than Formula 1 star Valtteri Bottas, and now you can too!
Bottas, Tiffany Cromwell, Amy Charity and the team behind SBT GRVL are taking over the world, one gravel event at a time. Now approaching its second year, FNLD GRVL event will return on June 15, 2023.
FNLD GRVL is held in and around Lahti on the edge of Finnish Lake Region, just an hour’s drive north from Helsinki. The region is defined by more than 55,000 lakes that dot a forest-covered plateau and also houses the highest point of Southern Finland, Tiirismaa, which tops out at just 223 meters (732 feet), meaning that breathing comes easily and hard efforts can be sustained.
[ad_2]
Source link