Gravel Earth Series 2024 | A flying start at Santa Vall

The Gravel Earth Series has earned a reputation as a growing international gravel circuit that continues to go from strength to strength. The 2023 edition certainly left a lasting impression. Races such as The Traka (ES), The Rift (IS), and Migration Race (KE) have become mythical. Klassmark put them together with the singular challenge of crowning the best female and male competitors across all races.

The events promoted by the Gravel Earth Series have remained authentic, rooted in the DNA of gravel, embodying a universal cycling spirit that pushes each individual to the limits of personal effort amidst breathtaking landscapes. Café du Cycliste has fielded its women’s team in these races for two years now, with Annabel Fisher clinching the overall victory last year. In 2024, Café du Cycliste deemed it fitting, natural even, to become the main sponsor and will therefore be associated with this exceptional challenge throughout the season.

Gravel Earth Series 2024 | A flying start at Santa Vall

A new season brings new ambitions for Café du Cycliste. The eight member team (four women and four men) will compete across the series, with the men making their debut at Traka in May. The women meanwhile kicked off proceedings at Santa Vall, building on the achievements of the previous two years with an almost entirely new line-up: Maria, Heura, Fanny, and Maria take up the mantle of a team that is recognised and eagerly anticipated on the circuit.

Santa Vall is a three-day race with a unique format, three successive days that are anything but similar to each other. On Friday afternoon participants must tackle a 7-kilometre prologue resembling Pikes Peak leading to Ermita de Sant Grau perched atop a hill whose difficulty is not to be underestimated — some riders put on the afterburners right from the start, setting the tone. At the top, once everything is said and done, the same end-of-race atmosphere returns with the ritual of debriefs, laughter, and accolades.

Day 2 sees a new format introduced by the organisers and inspired by enduro races: a 70-kilometre route with two timed sections, with a transition in between which is not timed. This allows riders to rest their bodies and also sows some confusion into strategies that are usually well-established. Will the format be retained for future races? It’s uncertain, but its originality is commendable. 70 kilometres fly by and spending the second half of the day in the streets of old Girona is rather welcome. Sunday will see a return to a more classic and longer format.

On Sunday morning, the women start an hour ahead of the men. A lovely way to highlight the high level of women’s competition, making it a separate race and dispelling any doubts about the assistance that male riders could provide to certain competitors. The distances and difficulties remain the same which highlights the specificity and beauty of gravel — women and men competing in the same arena on equal terms. 115 kilometres are punctuated by two significant climbs in the heights of Girona for this final stage. Santa Vall offered a spectacle of great intensity. Not everyone was at the peak of their physical preparation just yet, but evidently the majority wanted to be present for the kickoff of the 2024 Gravel Earth Series, which promises to be highly competitive.

For the Café team, this race marked the first rendezvous. An opportunity to get to know each other and ride together. Maria, Heura, Fanny, and Maria reached the finish line of all three stages without incident.

The Traka is still far off; two months of preparation will be necessary to tackle this race of a whole different level of endurance, as some of the formats they opt for will be 200 km or even 360 km. The tone has been set!