- 3 minutes ago
From pumping up the tires to navigating the peloton, this is a firsthand account of a gravel cycling race. Get a close look at the high-performance Factor Sakana bike and learn if this fast-growing cycling discipline is right for you.
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00:01that is literally 20 psi it feels pretty firm come on bike make up for a serious lack of fitness
00:08please what is gravel racing all about and should you give up a weekend to go and give it a
00:14go well
00:14i'm in a random clearing in some woods in wales to find out
00:34gravel cycling is taking the world by storm everyone seems to have a gravel bike these days
00:39and so what i want to know is is gravel racing worth a go and that's why i've entered myself
00:45into a gravel race it is in fact the welsh champs i don't know if entering a national champs was
00:51a
00:51good idea given my current level of fitness but i do have some very fancy equipment to try and help
00:57me out this is the brand new factor serrana it might just be the most versatile bike in their range
01:04obviously it's a gravel bike it's got super wide clearances up to 57 mil uh you can see that i
01:10haven't quite maxed that out which i probably should have for today's event um i'm running it with full
01:16sram force explore the 13 speed group set um 10 46 tooth cassette at the back it's also got the
01:24lowest
01:24seat stays that i think i've ever seen and the idea behind that is that it acts as a leaf
01:30spring this
01:31whole curved seat tube acts as a leaf spring factor want this to be as fast on hour 20 as
01:38it is on
01:38hour two now i'm hoping it's as quick on hour three as it is in minute three i know some
01:44people used to
01:45they always used to say oh no like don't want to wear a skin suit if it's over three hours
01:51i find
01:53especially this one skin suits perfectly comfortable enough what do you reckon you're not going to miss me
02:00are you matt this is for you rule number one of any race especially gravel racing is uh get in
02:10the
02:10toilet early do it before going and getting your number do it before getting your stuff ready because
02:15there's always a queue just leave any event if you've entered a gravel race then make sure that
02:21you turn up a healthy amount of time before the start gravel races in particular always tend to go off
02:26fast and so you need to leave time for a proper warm up or you will regret it later just
02:32trust me on
02:32this one you'll also need to leave time to register and collect your number which usually shuts around
02:38half an hour before the race start time and sometimes that can be a little distance from the car park
02:45i'd like to think that i've got my pre-race ritual fairly streamlined and so i turned up around an
02:50hour
02:50before my age group would be starting right how many gels do you reckon we need got three little jelly
02:56thing and they might come in handy orange doesn't really go with the with the suit do you think these
03:03goes better oh yeah no i'm going for the yellow yeah also trail lenses so hopefully a bit more light
03:12through them look at that for a match that's pretty good i think we're all going over matt if you're
03:18considering doing a large gravel event with a lot of participants or just want to be at the pointy
03:23end then making sure you find a gridding spot near the front is a must i've done some gravel events
03:28with around a thousand competitors and if you're not on the start line an hour before the event
03:32then you're never going to see the front at most races it will matter a little bit less but what
03:38you
03:38don't want is to be stuck behind slower riders on single track or technical sections as you watch
03:44people that you think you can stick with ride off into the distance many gravel races are split into
03:50age groups but in most cases you'll be on the course at the same time as other categories for
03:55example as a senior in the open category we got set off first but the v40 age group set off
04:01not long
04:01after and so be mindful that you might not be in the same race as everyone who overtakes you
04:06now that doesn't mean you can't accept a cheeky toe though whilst i get towed around the welsh countryside
04:12let me tell you a bit more about my equipment choices because it's fair to say it was getting
04:17a lot of attention some other nice features i've got the absolute black integrated cockpit it's also
04:23got internal storage you can see that i've got a lot of my spares down in there so that i
04:28can keep my
04:29pockets a bit more free for uh for snacks it can take a standard round profile seat post that means
04:38that you can fit a whole range of dropper seat posts which i haven't but it once again just adds
04:46to the
04:46versatility of this bike speaking of which let's see if we can count how many mounting points are up
04:52there's one two three four five six seven eight nine ten eleven twelve thirteen have i missed any
05:06there's probably more there is a hell of a lot and also it's suspension corrected so you can see that
05:12there's a fair bit of space there so if i want to put a suspension fork in it then i
05:17absolutely can and
05:18don't have to change any of the geometry or i don't have to add spacers or anything like that i'm
05:23also
05:23running the look one-sided pedals they've got a much larger platform area which i like for gravel
05:30cycling and then of course the wheels these might just be the deepest gravel wheels currently on the
05:37market so they're the envy ses g pro you can tell they're the pro ones because they've got these super
05:45bling hubs and spokes they're also really really really wide just look at how that 45 mil tire
05:54sits on there the wheel rim is almost as wide as that quite wide tire what that means with their
06:00super wide internal width as well which i believe is 37 and a half it means they're not just compatible
06:06but optimized for super wide rubber these are the brand new continental dubnatals in a 50 mil width
06:15that one's a 50 this one i was in a bit of a hurry and i didn't change it this
06:21one is a pirelli
06:22cinturato gravel rh which means the h stands for hard pack and then the kit what do you reckon it
06:31is
06:31certainly bright gobic have kitted us out this is part of their unity collection as we know grey shorts
06:38are massively in at the moment as are fluoro colors so fluoro color fluoro color fluoro color it's got
06:45all the fluoro colors obviously the benefits of it being a skin suit is it's going to be super aerodynamic
06:51you've got this sort of aero ribbing on the on the sleeves it's nice and breathable which is good
06:56because it's really humid today and because it's a race suit it's sort of two parts so you can see
07:03my belly button but that's not the main appeal it does also mean that you can go to the toilet
07:07as
07:08the bike and the clothing comfort will hopefully make me fast gravel events can vary hugely some are
07:20flat and open often dominated by groups and pacelines others are more techy and break up into smaller
07:26groups this was definitely more of the latter about five kilometers in and the group began to split up
07:32as we hit the first single track section and from there it was all about attrition 67 kilometers with
07:391800 meters of elevation some 16 climbs and plenty of rocky sections to kill momentum i was very grateful
07:46that i'd swapped out my 44 tooth chainring for a 42 tooth one but i do wish that i'd stuck
07:52with my
07:52tried and tested 2.2 inch race kings rather than switching to these 50 mil continental dubnatals
07:58i was muddy dehydrated and exhausted but despite that i'd had good fun but don't just take my word
08:05for it take it from the newly crowned welsh champion congratulations forget all that why do you
08:12like riding gravel it's just got a bit of everything and it's uh i don't know like it's never over
08:17till
08:18it's over like today as an example i've got like a puncture and then you still keep going you can
08:22still
08:22make it back whereas like on the road like the game's over and then also like the finish like here
08:28like in a road race people just tend to leave whereas yeah gravel it's like a bit more of a
08:32community
08:32people stay around chill it's definitely much more of a community vibe which is good no congratulations
08:38wow it's done three hours 15 later and my legs are absolutely shot i think gravel has this interesting
08:48phenomena where it sort of lures you into just working harder and harder and harder you don't
08:55really get a choice otherwise so i've just had a pretty good workout i would say and i've still
09:02enjoyed myself if i was going to go and do an interval session or something like that on the
09:06road i think i'd have not enjoyed myself but with gravel you have the descents to keep you engaged
09:13uh there were some pretty technical bits today there were some boggy bits it was we had all the gravel
09:20we had some fire roads we had loads and loads of climbing and then when you get to the top
09:26and you
09:26you're at threshold and you think four i can't wait for the descent you'd sort of turn off the track
09:32up this 16 rocky incline and you had no choice but to try and turn your easiest gear i wasn't
09:39really
09:39coming here to do the gravel race for any result i was never expecting to win or podium or even
09:45come
09:46in the top 10 or anything like that but i did come here to try and work out why gravel
09:52cycling and why
09:53gravel racing is so popular at the moment and i think the finish line is really everything that's good
10:00about gravel sort of all wrapped up into one even speaking to metham and bond who won the race it
10:08was
10:08less about the result and more about the atmosphere everyone around at the finish were fist bumping
10:15each other everyone was having a chat everyone was looking at the bike obviously and everyone wanted
10:21to know everyone else's stories oh how did you find that really boggy bit oh how did you find that
10:26climb
10:26did you ride that really steep bit and i think that's what gravel is all about so if you haven't
10:32tried it yet then i seriously can not recommend gravel racing gravel events more like i get that
10:41racing isn't going to be for everyone not everyone wants to spend three hours at threshold but i've
10:46experienced the same sort of atmosphere at much less competitive events i did a glorious gravel event on a
10:54brompton for example that was definitely not about the result maybe it's not even an event maybe
11:00it's going bikepacking with your mates because today i had more chats with complete randomers as
11:07we were riding together than i often do with my mates on a weekend road ride i think that is
11:13why
11:13gravel cycling is going to continue to grow and grow if you want to find out anything more about the
11:19setup or the equipment i was using then we'll pop some links down in the description below thank you
11:24very much to factor envy and gobic for sponsoring this video let me know if you'll be trying a gravel
11:29that went down in the comments below and we'll see you next time