General News: Grevet gravel series
Posted By Gravel Union
On 16 June 2021
The name brevet comes from the French word for "certificate" and is normally used to describe a small printed piece of paper/card that you get stamped at each checkpoint during long-distance cycling events such as Audax. Once you know that fact, a long distance gravel cycling event series called Grevet makes perfect sense (gravel-brevet, obviously!).
The email that we received from the organisers of the Grevet series said “Grevet brings together contemporary gravel riding and the century-old tradition of randonneuring. It revives the pioneer spirit of early long distance cycling around at the start of the 20th century that actually still took place on unpaved roads. This inaugural series will feature a total of eight events around Berlin and Dresden, where riders will follow a list of checkpoints (“controls”) at their own pace to complete. The four routes in Berlin and Dresden are the slightly shorter off-road counterparts to standard Brevet distances and cover mostly rolling gravel and compacted dirt roads with some paved cycleways and quiet back roads mixed in. Due to Covid19 restrictions there will not be a set start date but rather a two-week window for each of the events so riders can tackle the challenges as a duo team or solo.”
In a world still sadly impacted by Covid19, we are seeing increasing numbers of DIY/arm’s length/remote style events (not the least of which of course was the recent Gravel Union Doorstep Challenge) and the Grevet series looks like a great addition to this list.
You can find out more about the event, including details of how to enter and the rules of the event of their website.