The Pan Celtic Gravel Rally is hosted every year in North Wales, and as it's name suggests, is based around the concept adopted by Rally Cars with multiple timed stages or sectors, strewn throughout a long self sufficient route around the incredibly steep Welsh hillside.
I joined 2 former colleagues, both originally from Wales, and with limited proper 'gravel bike' experience, and we set about tackling the 18km night stage then the 94km (which turned out to be quite a bit more) 'Short' route the following day.
The participants rode a variety of bikes, from Gravel bikes, lightweight carbon XC bikes to steel hardtails and even a couple of fixies.
"The Gravel Rally is a micro-adventure that plants your tyres firmly on the earth beneath you over a range of historic terrain. Paying homage to the traditional motor rally scene that has been echoing around the mountains and forests of Eryri National Park for over 80 years, there are 8 timed sectors (6 for short route) along a course that has to be tackled within a single day."
I rode the event on my Fustle Lakelander GRX820-1 and it handled the terrain with ease. A solid mixture of gravel fireroad, steep tarmac hill climbs, rocky 'hike-a-bike' made for an awesome but challenging day out, and I can't wait to return again and try the long route.
Details about the event can be found here: https://pancelticrace.com/gravel/
Details about the bike I rode are here: https://www.ridefustle.com/collection...
Huge thanks to Rob Sherratt and Laurence Crossman-Ems for the company and for making the ride as much craic as possible!
Check out the short vlog video here:
