The organisers describe Utopia Gravel as “Europe’s Most Breathtaking Gravel Race.” Set in the spectacular landscapes of the Spanish Badlands, Utopia offers a weekend of fast-paced racing, but with a chilled-out atmosphere, good food and slick organisation. Reigning Scottish Gravel Champion Caroline Livesey was completely hooked on this region of Spain, having previously raced there back in 2023 and 2024, so she jumped at the chance to race in this year’s event.
Image courtesy of @Mark Livesey
I first visited the Gorafe Desert in 2023 as I prepared for Badlands, spending a week there doing some reccies and starting to understand the nature of this unforgiving landscape. Since then, I have returned many times. It is funny how a place can get under your skin and draw you back.
But this is not a place for the faint-hearted. It demands commitment, resilience and small gears. Perhaps that is what I love about it so much.
This year, I am preparing for a very different kind of challenge from the gravel races I have been doing. In June, I will attempt to break the world record for the fastest female (solo/supported) on the North Coast 500 in Scotland, raising money for a charity I co-founded - Peak Education Nepal. It is a road effort and I will spend most of it on the TT bike. But even in the final weeks building towards that attempt, I am finding it hard to leave behind my love of gravel. Utopia felt like the perfect final race to do before the shutters come down for my final training block. I raced here in 2024 and it was a long, hard day demanding mental and physical strength, all good things to be practising. At least that is what I told myself. The reality is, I did not need an excuse to go back.
Epicos, the organisers of Utopia, now have a fully fledged gravel series with races in Morocco (Sahara), Rwanda (Gorilla), Switzerland (Octopus) and here in Spain. Each has its own distinct character and I like how they are working to keep their events authentic and rooted in place. That said, I would still like to see them adopting a separate start for female riders at Utopia to allow safe and fair racing.
Utopia is defined by the Gorafe desert, a landscape so strange and raw that it is hard to comprehend until you are in it. Even with all the fantastic imagery the organisers share, nothing quite prepares you for the scale of it. The terrain seems to move you around at will, dropping you into riverbeds before forcing you back out via climbs as steep and brutal as they come. I was riding the Orbea Terra Race 1x with T30 and a 10/46 cassette, but at times I did wish for a couple of extra gears. It is definitely not a race to do without an appropriately sized cassette.
There were two course distances on offer: the bold 165 km with 2800 m+ and a still fairly punchy 110 km with 1600 m+. This year, on the 165 km route, we covered a long stretch of the course before reaching Gorafe, and I began to wonder if my Garmin was even reading kilometres correctly. The via verdes (disused railway lines turned into gravel bike motorways) felt like an extended prelude to what was coming and probably gave a few riders some false confidence. Despite how the Via Verdes sound, I recommend the chunkiest, widest tyres you can fit on your set-up for this race (I was riding 45mm wide Pirelli Cinturato Gravel Ms). Although they may sound like the work of a champagne gravel maestro, these tracks can be unforgiving in places with deep layers of chunky rocks. Like all good gravel races, it became a game of nerves following lines through the dust and stones and onto much faster, more technical sections of chunky, sharp rocks sticking out of fast-rolling dirt. But this is gravel racing and even with the knowledge of the day ahead, riders were still busy emptying their legs on those early fast sections.
Leaving the relative flat behind, we wound through beautiful villages, climbed steep cobbles through whitewashed streets with music blaring and my favourite — rode around a bullring in the village of Gor. The locals in Gor have a reputation for embracing the bike races that pass through and they turn out in force with food, music and encouragement. I was grinning as I rode through, part of me wishing I could stop and sit down with them and soak it all in. It is somewhere I will return to properly, not just pass through at speed.
Image courtesy of @Mark Livesey
As riders ebbed and surged around me through the long, demanding day, I stayed steady, reminding myself that 100 miles is only a fifth of what I will undertake in June. The final major climb is on smooth tarmac was a nice respite from the bone juddering day, winding through a natural park with pine trees lining the road all the way to the summit. It was one of my favourite sections of the course and it flowed into the most incredible, sustained gravel descent. I felt genuinely grateful to be out there, doing what I love in a place like this. That said, the finish line at the local running track was still a welcome sight.
The organisers had provided free campervan parking at the finish and as relatively new converts to campervan life, Mark and I appreciated the simplicity of it all. Hot showers, plenty of food and a relaxed, friendly atmosphere among tired riders reflecting on the day.
Sadly, we could not stay for the Sunday hill climb and hot springs outing, which are a feature of this event. My legs would likely have protested at the idea of another hard effort anyway. Hats off to those who took it on. Personally, I was more tempted by a cold dip and as we wound our way through the sierra towards Denia to catch the ferry home, I found my opportunity in Embalse de Fuensanta. Spain has some absolutely breathtaking natural environments.
Baza and the surrounding area is a location I would highly recommend as a gravel destination, even outside of the race. There are endless routes to explore and if you need another reason to visit, the cost of living in rural Spain is hard to ignore. We stopped in the small village of Calasparra on Sunday morning to get some work done in a café, and paid just €9 for two coffees, two teas and two croissants. That definitely appeals to the Scot in me!
For now, though, it is time to put the gravel bike (mostly) away and focus fully on what comes next. The North Coast 500 is looming and with it a very different kind of challenge. If you would like to follow the attempt or support the fundraising for Peak Education Nepal, you can find more details here.
Images courtesy of Epicos/DVRJphoto/Pataspts, except where credited.