After seeing the Strava upload from last year’s gravel event by an old friend from Cologne I subsequently contacted him to meet up at this year’s edition of the Dirty Reiver. Initially I had every intention in treating the weekend as a social event to catch up and ride our bikes sedately but it turned out that the gang coming over from Germany entered the middle distance, 130km and I entered the full fat 200km so it changed my perspective on the event somewhat.
As I was now going to be riding it solo I thought that I may as well ride it hard and given the weather forecast was cold and wet even more reason to stay warm. However, warm I wasn’t as the rain came, as forecast, after the first hour and as I was in various groups early on I was reluctant to stop to faff around with a rain jacket. Initially I was fine but from 80k to the feed stop at 100k I was soaked through and really feeling the cold, particularly in my hands which was giving me some issues to shift and more importantly modulate braking on the fast gravel descents! The food stop couldn’t come soon enough as I was fast becoming mentally broken, I had a longer stop than planned but it was worthwhile as I left there a new man! Fresh dry gloves, rain jacket on and reloaded with fuel paid dividends in the second half of the race, the rain also stopped / slowed to a drizzle, so it was game on! I really enjoyed the second half, felt quite strong and even managed to take in the stunning scenery of the Kielder Forest albeit it was a grey and gloomy day. After the split for the 130k/200k I was very much alone at the pointy end of the field which allowed me to experience the remoteness of the vast forest, I loved it!
I did have a brief encounter with a well known Gravel Youtuber / Influencer, Josh Reid, at the last splash and dash feed station at 150km. I mentioned that he had filmed me earlier in the day when I passed him and was hoping to see it on his video afterwards. I then left the stop ahead of him knowing that he would soon be chasing me down, which he eventually did in the last 100m to take the sprint up to the finish line…..the little shit! He captured both encounters on his video of the event which is well worth a look if you’re not familiar with the growing trend of gravel racing….. https://youtu.be/H0kBKM2VKeI
Stats :
- 195km actual distance
- 3,625m elevation gain
- 8hrs 17mins ride time (8hrs 30 overall time)
- 61/478 overall position
- 18/155 M40-49
As I’ve now got the gravel bug, I have entered my next race, ‘The Gralloch’ in The Galloway Forest Park (South West Scotland) which is UCI Gravel World Champs qualifier on 20th May. Looking forward to a competitive race for that UCI medal and hopefully a rematch with Josh!
Author: Andy Owen
Date: 22nd April 2023
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