General News: Gravel Union Doorstep Challenge is a huge success
Posted By Gravel Union
On 4 June 2021
Everyone loves a challenge, especially when there are prizes to be won! Nearly 7000 Gravel Union members signed up for the inaugural running of our virtual cycling event, The Doorstep Challenge, which was put together in collaboration with Canyon, Shimano GRX and the route planning app, komoot.
Photo by gingerlinstead
The last twelve months has seen quite a shift within the gravel events world. With global travel patterns changing dramatically and an increased desire for “ride local” type events, Gravel Union decided to leap into the world of virtual gravel events and so we launched the Gravel Union Doorstep Challenge back in early May.
Photo by psyotic
Presented by Gravel Union, with support from Canyon bikes, Shimano GRX and komoot, the first edition of the Doorstep Challenge took place over the last weekend in May.
Photo by metheven.photography
The format was simple - plan a route from your doorstep using komoot, head out on the ride and tag photos of landmarks or points of interest by following the guidance of the digital Gravel Union brevet card. It was important to us that we made the event as inclusive as possible, so riders of any age or ability, no matter where their geographical location, or the type of bike they ride, could take part.
Photo by cyclenorthyorkmoors
Rides from literally all over the world have been shared in our komoot collection. Doorstep Challenge participants also shared photos of their adventures on Instagram, tagging #gravelunionchallenge in their posts, further expanding the reach of the event to over 111,000 Instagram users
Photo by r_radford
The star prize, a brand-new Canyon Grizl CF SL 6 gravel bike, loaded with Shimano GRX components, will be drawn out of the Gravel Union hat for one lucky rider by the 15th of June. A veritable smörgåsbord of spot prizes will also be finding new homes with Gravel Union members once our judges finish reviewing the thousands of rides uploaded to the komoot collection.
Photo by picoteeblog
We’ve gone through more than 1000 images that we received via Instagram and have included some of favourites here. There’s some real genius, some dad-jokes, some inspiration and some real joy – we couldn’t have asked for a better selection. We will be in touch soon with everyone featured here to get your details and will send your spot prizes out to you. Congratulations to everyone who submitted images – the standard was super high!
If you missed out this time round, don’t worry - Gravel Union will shortly announce another exciting competition with more incredible prizes on offer. Membership is free and includes a number of great benefits for gravel cycling enthusiasts. You can find out more details here
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