DUST-UP DOWN UNDER

Adelaide's new RADL GRVL event fires the starting gun on the 2025 gravel racing season

- John Whitney

The morning sun, delicate - for now - rather than devastating, pierces through dense woodland, illuminating the fog of sand and dirt churned up under dozens of tyres barrelling through it. Attempts to breathe in only through my nose and avoid my airways filling with sludge are compromised by the big-ring effort involved, so I resolve to suck it down and cough it up later. Soon enough, we'll exit the wood and move on to the next lucky dip obstacle thrown at us - very much par for the course in the anything-goes world of gravel racing.

I'd begun the day an hour's drive south of Adelaide, in the McLaren Vale wine region, on the start line of the first edition proper of RADL GRVL (after a successful pilot event in 2024). Even this early in its life, it can lay claim to being the biggest and best gravel race in Australia. It's an offshoot of the SBT GRVL event in Steamboat Springs, Colorado - since 2019, one of North America's biggest gravel races - and, at least on the public-facing side, has pro cyclist Tiffany Cromwell and Formula One racer Valtteri Bottas to thank for its existence. Partners in life and now in sport and business, these two devout disciples of gravel have transferred the success of SBT GRVL to their respective home regions - Adelaide for Cromwell and Lahti, Finland for Bottas (FNLD GRVL, which Cycling Plus rode in 2024). Already, both races have become established, prestigious fixtures on the global gravel calendar. A prize purse of AU$7,000 (around £3,500) was split evenly between the men's and women's races this year - good money, which helps explain why gravel's top riders have been able to make a decent living from the sport in recent years.