15 OF THE BEST ADVENTURES

Featuring Yorkshire, the USA, Sri Lanka and more, here are our picks of the world's greatest gravel races and routes

- Matt Baird

01 Struggle Borderlands GRVL

Billed as an epic test of fitness, Borderlands Gravel takes in a variety of Yorkshire trails, with plenty of gnarly climbs, descents, abandoned mines, moorland tracks, and closer to Swaledale and Wensleydale. The Dales Bike Centre near Reeth is the starting point, with 50 and 100km routes, on 15 September 2024. ridethestruggle.​com.

02 Dirty Reiver

It claims to be the UK's largest gravel event and takes place every April in Northumberland, regularly attracting over 1,600 riders to the English/Scottish border region. There are three distances - 65, 130 and the full 200km and the event offers the riders the chance to experience some of the UK's best gravel tracks. 2025's date is 25-27 April, with entries opening 1 December 2024.dirtyreiver.co.uk.

03 New Forest

With its pristine tracks, part of a dense 100-mile network, the New Forest feels like UK gravel riding at its finest. Britain's smallest national park, at 219 square miles, is best digested at bike speed. Many of the tracks originated during World War II, when the forest, with its vast expanse of flat countryside ideal for aircraft, was seconded as a training base for the troops. thenewforest.co.uk.

04 The Cantii Way

The multi-day, mixed-terrain route from Cycling UK (creator of the King Alfred's and West Kernow Ways) starts in Wye in the Kent Downs and hugs the coast before reaching lovely Rye in East Sussex. It then turns inland through the Kent countryside to Ashford and Canterbury and finishes back in Wye, just 40 minutes on the train from London.cyclinguk.org

05 Great North Trail