UCI Gravel World Series
Craean Cymru - 6th September 2025
I’m very late getting into gravel racing but after watching YouTube videos of the Gralloch earlier this year I got quite inspired to have a go and when my brother offered to sell me his old race bike I thought I would do some rides and see if I liked it. The big thing for me was being able to string together routes that were A) interesting and B) almost traffic free which has been a bit of a revelation, I really enjoyed it!
I decided to enter my first race in Wales, mainly as I had some coached riders doing it so a good opportunity to catch up and say hello and also I liked that the route looked challenging in terms of distance and elevation but not crazy technical. I did my openers on the gravel bike on the trainer on Friday morning and then travelled up with Grant which was a fair old hike. We got to the race venue with plenty of time on Saturday morning, got signed on and went to reece the first 5 km as I’d heard the first climb and single track descent could be quite crucial.
The one factor I hadn’t really thought too much about in gravel race was the start pens and how early you need to get there to make sure you are lining up near to the front (I’m more used to a neutralised starts to races and it being a bit more relaxed). The race started fast, especially up the first climb and it seemed constantly lined out from there. I was surprised how quickly the group whittled down with selections being made on each climb with riders loosing contact rather than going off the front.
About 3/4s of the way around the opening lap there were about 20 riders in the lead group heading into a muddy slippy single track section that climbed at first then levelled out - gaps were opening and exiting this section onto a gravel climb a rider I was watching (Rob Jeb) had a gap so I countered and bridged across with one other - after the descent we had a nice gap and rolled turns.
As we approached the end of the lap 1 and the start / finish area I looked under my arm and saw I had a 10m gap so decided to really press on for a minute or so and see what happened - with half the race still to go this definitely hadn’t been my original plan but just thought why not go for it. The gap went out and the second lap was a bit like riding a TT especially in to a strong headwind around the lake. After that section it was all about trying to hit the climbs hard and get tucked and aero on the descents and make sure to fuel constantly and apart from messing up one corner off a descent in having to extract myself from the under growth I felt I held it well. Once into the last few kms, I knew as long as I avoided any mechanicals I would get the win and it was a buzz descending down to the lake for the final KM of flat to the finish and then trying to do a wobbly hands up celebration as the cross winds caught me a bit off guard.
My big takeaways are that A) gravel races are hard on your body - my lower back / arms / wrists and hands ached as much as my legs. And B) fuelling is absolutely key and this can be challenging with the terrain and surface!
CMPC BLOG
South Downs Way Double
20th June 2025
In 2020 I rode the South Downs Way with Connor Murphy and Luke Kennard, this is 100 miles off road and runs from Winchester to Eastbourne with around 11,000ft elevation, we had a great day out. They mentioned a goal of their’s was to attempt the double and in 2023 they did, earning their place on the South Downs Double hall of fame by completing it in less than 24 hours. This really inspired me to have a crack myself at some point but kept putting it off with other trips and races.
Roll on to 2025 and with my brother Simon riding Badlands Gravel again this year, and it being the year of our 50th birthdays I suggested we do it together as a big training ride and kit check for him, we pencilled a date of Friday 20th in the diary so that we would actually commit to it. Unfortunately Simon has been having some issues with his back which resulted in a spasm that locked him up completely so he had to pull the pin on the ride the day before which was gutting as we had put a fair bit of planning in and we’re really up for!
I decided I might as well crack on and have a go solo so set out at 10.20pm on Thursday night. I was starting from Heart attack hill below Chanctonbury Ring, I rode through the night and got to Eastbourne for around 4.00am. I found this leg of the ride the hardest by someway - there was quite a strong headwind all the way and I kept taking wrong turns - it’s hard to focus on a small beam of headlight when your off road and also the Garmin for directions.
I went to tighten my shoe just after starting back West and the Boa lace snapped which is less than ideal. Worse still, I crashed just after Devils Dyke with one hand reaching into my pack for Jelly babies and went over a piece of plastic pipe diagonally across the trail - despite this, mentally once the Sun was up and you can see all these amazing views across the Downs I was in a much better place and started to really enjoy the ride. It was a really nice surprise to see Connor on the trails just before Shoreham and he rode with me to Chantry where I was meeting Semone for a pit stop refuel.
On my way again the sun was shining - nice tailwind and cracking along nicely when about an hour past Amberley my front tyre blew out - it was a big slash and I didn’t have a tyre boot with me so remembering something Simon had said I popped a gel down and used the wrapper on the inside of the tyre and put a tube in.
I had a plan of no caffeine until the final leg back so that I would get a real boost and I had also saved headphones and a playlist for the final 5 hrs home and this worked well - tunes on the go meant I was no longer bored with my own company and then a couple of SiS Beta fuel Noo tropic gels meant I actually felt really good and was just loving life! The sun was shining, the views amazing and once up and over Amberley I stopped to take a few pics of the sun low in the sky and take it all in on what had been an epic day. Semone and Connor were there to meet me at Washington for a celebratory pint to finish what will be a day I’ll remember!
A few Stats from the ride:
206miles / 332km with 22,283ft / 2,792m of elevation. An elapsed time of 21hrs 11 mins and a riding time of 18hrs 18 mins
A massive thank you as always to Semone for the support and the loan of her bike (and Claire Frecknell for the loan of her wheels - ill replace that tyre) and to Connor and Megan for coming out on the day - good times / socks!
