With all the attention gravel racing is getting these days I was keen to see what all the fuss was about. Thankfully, the final round of the UCI Gravel World Series for the 2024 qualification races was in North Wales and was taking place while I was in the UK. We managed to make getting to this race work in our holiday plans, thanks to a very understanding/forgiving wife (thanks Em!) and my wonderful family. I would even get to see and race with Cameron for the first time in ages (possibly ever?).
Emily and I were staying with my sister (Katy) in Liverpool, who is a lecturer in Earth Sciences there (I may have copied her), and we had a great day walking around Liverpool site-seeing the day before the Graean Cymru race. Rain was forecast for the weekend, and we just about made it inside before the rain started pouring the day before the race. The next morning the rain was still falling, but it was due to stop, or be light during the race: as long as I finished in a reasonable time.
The race itself was about 113km over two laps of mostly gravel forest roads, with a small amount of double track and tar-seal. I made the mistake of not reading the instructions until too late and not preparing for the restrictions on feeding. In hindsight I should have taken another bottle or a bladder as I ended up dehydrated and under fueled, despite the wet and not warm conditions.
Despite it being my first gravel race, I had decided to enter the elite race. I didn’t expect to be able to qualify for world champs (top 25% qualify), but I wanted to just see what elite gravel racing was like. Again in hindsight, had I wanted to opportunity to get my first GB jersey, I could probably have qualified in my age group fairly comfortably, but that wasn’t the point!
The elite field was quite small, with only about 25 entrants, but it did include some high quality riders including Connor and Ben Swift (Ineos, Connor is the current GB gravel national champ and came 6th at gravel world this year), Ben Thomas (old team mate and very strong endurance rider) and Cameron Mason (cousin, cyclocross superstar and gravel smasher) among others who I didn’t know but were obviously good riders!
The course started with a loop around a reservoir, which was mostly flat on a nice wide, well surfaced road for about 7km until the first pinch point where we entered a short uphill singletrack section that then turned into a nice winding singletrack descent: all very easy, but narrow enough that it would be single-file. After that we continued around the reservoir, over a few cattlegrids and then into the first main climb at around 10km into the lap. From there on the course was up and down all the time, without any real technicality. The climbs were mostly under 10 minutes in length and should have suited my fitness fairly well.
From the start I was pleased to see how laid back the pace was! This was no CX race, and the small field probably meant that no one was that worried about position from the off. We all rode together as a bunch until riders started to jostle for position before the first pinch. I knew this was coming, but also knew that I didn’t want to get involved in the race to the singletrack and was quite content to watch as Cameron got to the front and drove the pace.
I was pleased to see that I could hold on fairly well up the pinch, but gaps did start to open, and being close to the back meant that if I wanted to benefit from the draft I needed to move up. Sadly I didn’t have it in my legs to get past anyone, particularly on the singletrack when there wasn’t much room. Then when we got out of the singletrack I just didn’t have the legs to close the gaps.
At the first cattlegrid though I was happy to be off the back, as someone had clearly had a nasty crash on it and was holding their shoulder. Wet cattlegrids in the middle or corners are a stupid thing to include in a bike race in my opinion, even in a gravel race where you might expect some technical features.
I could see the main pack about 20s ahead of me before the start of the first climb but was happy to just ride my own pace from there. I caught a few riders up the climb who had likely gone a bit too hard staying with the bunch. Then on the descent I saw two riders stopped by the side of the road - the second one was Cameron! I slowed to see if he was okay or needed anything, but he told me to carry on. It turned out that he had torn his tire on a rock and had a bit of a nightmare fixing it.
I carried on and got into a group of about five (including me) where we worked fairly well for a while, but I felt like we were going too slowly on the descents, so I deliberately got on the front on one descent and, without putting in much effort, rode off the front of the group. I didn’t want to be alone though, so I sat up and waited until two of the group caught up, then we started working together. The three of us did fairly well at sharing the work: the other two riders clearly knew each other and were happy chatting away while I sat behind, or sometimes on the front.
I was probably pushing too hard on the climbs for my level of fitness, but I was enjoying myself and really felt like I was in the race. I think I was doing my fair share of the work on the front, without doing too much, but I never really know. One thing I do know is that I was not eating and drinking enough. I was concerned about running out and was really rationing myself. I know from Karapoti and other longer events that I can push pretty hard deep into races if I keep fuelling.
Coming around to start the second lap I was starting to feel like I had blown my doors off. I thought at the time that it was just that I had gone to hard, but in hindsight I think my main issue was dehydration: once I crossed the line and stopped I lay down and had a headache and could not see, despite drinking a lot in the last 20km after a feed-station.
As we rode off the dam and onto the reservoir loop for the second time we could see Cameron coming back up to us having made up almost 9 minutes after his puncture. I was happy to see him, and hoped that we would be able to ride together for a bit, but I knew that I wouldn’t be able to keep up if he kept going at the pace that had brought him back to us! Cameron caught us and got straight onto the front. The other two riders accelerated and got onto his wheel, but I had nothing and just had to watch them ride away into the headwind…
The rest of the race was painful: running out of energy and being underwatered for 50km was really hard. From about 30km to go every climb was a struggle: I couldn’t maintain power much above 280W and my HR wasn’t doing much either, but it was a lot higher than usual for any given power, which usually seems to be related to dehydration with me (possibly lower blood plasma volume?). A few riders came past me late in the race like I was standing still and there was nothing I could do to try and stay with them.
When I finally got to the finish I was greeted by a high-five from Cameron, which absolutely made my day. Seeing my family at the finish was wonderful and hearing Emily say that she was proud of me will stay with me for a long time. After the line I lay down and I think I worried them all a bit by going silent: I was pooped.
I came home in 17th place, having been up around 12th before blowing up. Unfortunately I was too slow to catch up with Ben who ended up coming an awesome third behind the Swift duo, but it was great to be part of the racing in the UK again.
I can’t say that I enjoyed the gravel racing: the first lap was great and I really enjoyed being in a race, but the second lap on my own, struggling, was not fun in the slightest. Nevertheless, I’m pretty certain I will do another gravel race at some point (and I have signed up to Edition Zero in NZ: a ~240km gravel monster).
All in all, it was a pretty good bit of racing in the UK, made so much better by being with my family. It was definitely very selfish, and I might not get to do it again, but I’m very grateful that I was able to get those races in. I was also very glad to be going into a full break from riding for a week in the south of France!
Banner photo: Dead - credit Emily Warren-Smith.