I’m back at what many call the best gravel race in the UK, The Gritfest and this year I’m chasing a third consecutive win.
In this video I take you behind the scenes of my weekend in Wales as I attempt to defend my title and show you why this race is a stand out favourite in the UK gravel cycling scene.
Ribble Bikes: https://www.ribblecycles.co.uk/
Hunt Wheels: https://www.huntbikewheels.com/
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Sportful: https://sportful.co.uk/
Veloforte Nutrition: https://veloforte.com/
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Hello and welcome. This weekend is arguably one of my favorite gravel races of the whole entire year and what is quickly becoming one of the most popular ones on the UK cycling gravel calendar, the Grits Fest. And there’s a few reasons I love this event so much. Firstly, Matt, the organizer, he never fails to put on an incredible event. Everything runs so amazingly smoothly and yeah the courses are always fantastic and the gritfest follows a quite unique format something similar to that of enduro. So the racing takes part over two days each day you take on about a 50 to 70 km course and then there’s time segments throughout this course. Each day there’s three time segments and effectively the winner is that who has the lowest amount of accumulated time over those time segments. Out of the time segments you can ride as fast or as slow as you want. So it’s a really really nice atmosphere. You basically go and ride as hard as you can for a segment might be 6 km and you got a 20 km ride to the next one where you can just like talk with your mates and yeah just have a bit of a laugh. and I think it’s a really really nice format and I’m surprised not more races follow this. It’s an event I’ve done for the past two years. This will be my third time going to the Grits Fest. So yeah, I mean it is currently Friday morning, so I probably better get ready to drive over to Wales because yeah, it always takes a bit longer than expected. Wales in the sun is absolutely stunning. Where the Gritsfest is, it’s pretty much in the middle of nowhere, it seems. So, I’ve come for a little ride down by the river just to try and spin the legs out after a 5hour drive to get here. There is an optional prologue tonight. And yeah, it’s not compulsory. Like I just said, it’s about 1.2 km long this year, so pretty short and sweet. Um, so yeah, I’m just going for about a half an hour or so spin beforehand and then I might go give it a crack. Um, I did actually win the prologue 2 years ago, I think. Now, see, stunning. Um, so yeah, I mean it’d be rude not to go and give it a blast, get the heart rate fired up, but it is toasty. So, just the key is to try and keep cool, spin the legs out, stay hydrated, and more than anything, just test the bike setup really. All right, we found some gravel, and it is glorious. Um, yeah, we’re literally about 500 m away now from the start of the prologue. Um, as I mentioned, because it’s so short, I’ll probably do one or two laps just like to get an idea of what the course is like, if there are any sharp corners or obstacles to be aware of. And yeah, I’ll give it a hit out. So, let’s see how this goes. This is steep. This climb. We are currently on the sighting lap and good job. I’m doing a sight in because that was a dead hair pin right from the off. And by the looks of it, another one. Um, so yeah, this is normally actually a footpath, but today it’s been opened to be the prologue, so that’s good fun. Um, yeah, this is really nice. Fast rolling gravel through the trees as you can see. So it’s 1.2 km and 35 m of climbing. So yeah, look, just meander up through the trees. I mean, going to take a cheeky shortcut through there. And yeah, very nice. Right, better get on with the rest of this sighting up. And again, another reason why I’m doing a sighting lap. It’s come down here too quickly. Don’t want to take your head off. Um, and that was really, really ry that part there. Good job. I’ve got about 30 PSI in my tires, so it wasn’t too bad. But yeah, certainly have some duck under there. A get that gear going again. That was tough. Um I mean the effort was only about 3 and 1/2 minutes in the end, but it is proper toasty and kind of affected me more than I anticipated even though it was such a short effort. But just back to the event village now and I’m going to get our like a ticket which shows us basically the official time. So yeah, let’s go. There we go. The results are in. Um, in the end I did three runs, a sighting lap, a fast lap, and then an easy recovery cool down lap. And my fastest one in the end was 3 minutes and 28 seconds, which put me seconds. Um, Mac did 326, so 2 seconds faster. Um, so yeah, no, not too bad at all for a warm up ahead of the main race this weekend. And as promised here, I’m going to do a little bike rundown of all the equipment that I’ll be using for this weekend’s race. So, the main frame itself is the Ribble Gravel SL, my own custom colorway. So, it’s this pink marble effect on the frame as you can see, and then the forks are this like pink splattered blue. Um, and basically the reason for that is it matches my kit. So, same color blue and then same pink you see on the top. Um, the wheels that I’ll be running are the Hunt 40 Limitless Aero gravel wheels. And I’ve got these with the carbon spokes and shamic speed bearings, which, yeah, I’ve been running now for a couple of weeks and I’m absolutely loving, especially the carbon spokes. They absorb so much more of the vibrations from the gravel than I was anticipating. So, yeah, if you’re in the market for a new set of wheels, I highly recommend. then paired them with a pair of 45 mil cinerato art seed tires from Pirelli. We’ve also got Pirelli water bottles there. And then the group set that I’m riding is the Shramm Force AXS with a 44 to train chain ring on the front and a 1044 on the rear. Um we’ve got then a the frame for reference is an extra large. I’m 6’2 and yeah I’ve got a 140 stem and 38 cm bars. and then kitted out in a range of sportful pieces that you’ll see over the weekend. Um, depends on the weather conditions will depend on what I will wear. Um, but I’m guessing probably a skin suit for most of the races. Um, yeah, helmet will be from Physique. So are the shoes as you can see. I’ve also got a physique 3D printed saddle on my bike. Um, and yeah, then the finer details. I’ve actually got a sweat monitor on my back. Um it’s going to be really really hot this weekend. So that’ll just give me a better insight into how much sodium and how much water I’m losing during the race um to help me hydrate better on Saturday post event. And then yeah, nutrition will be supplied by Velfor and I’ll be using a range of their chews, gels, hydration, um essentially their whole entire range as well as overnighter oats and also recovery shakes post stages which I’ve actually just had. And then finally, this will all be insured by lacquer. Now do have a 30-day discount code for you to use um to try them out for yourself which will pop up on the screen now. Yeah, I use use lacquer to ensure both my bike and all the accessories that I use such as helmets, glasses, shoes, stuff like that. And yeah, no, they’re absolutely brilliant. And one of the best things about them is there’s no fixed annual contracts. You just pay month by month. So you can pause, cancel anytime you want. And yeah, there’s no excess on any claims either. And yeah, know that I from all my experiences, they’ve been absolutely brilliant with any problems I have had. So, highly recommend checking those out, especially if you’re now getting out on your summer bikes because yeah, you don’t want anything happening to those over the summer months. So, yeah, that was a lot. Um, I guess it’s time to get a shower and probably start thinking about dinner. Good morning. It’s race day number one and as you can tell from my voice, I didn’t have a particularly good night’s sleep. Now, I’m not quite sure why that was the case, but oh well, just one of those things. Um, however, I’m just now tucking into breakfast. And this morning, we have got these Bella Force Complete overnight oats. And fun fact, I’ve had these now the majority of races I’ve done this year. And every time I’ve had this for breakfast, this breakfast, I’ve won the race so far. And actually, I didn’t say earlier, the Grits Fest, I’m the defending champion. I’ve won this race for the past two years now. So, I guess that puts a little bit of pressure on me. Um, but yeah, I mean, we’ll have to see how it goes. I think one of the toughest things about this race is actually getting your fueling strategy right. Um because it’s time segments rather than a time to race. It’s I think super easy to get to fuel really. Um but I’m just making up my bottles for the race and I’m going for this paso flavor. So yeah, mango and passion fruit in both of my bottles and then I will be taking a 2 L hydration pack on my back and I’m just going to have plain water in that. And then yeah, for me I want to try and hit around 90 g of carbohydrates an hour. So yeah, that’ll mainly come through the form of energy gels and also energy tubes, but it’s just trying to time when you take them cuz ideally you don’t want to be taking them during the time segments because taking fuel will slow you down. Um, so yeah, you need to try and cram them in between each of the time segments, but that’s easier said than done. But yeah, just make up my electrolytes right now. So, these have got uh some carbohydrates in as well, but the main focus is electrolytes. So, yeah. All right, I’ll get on with this cuz we’ve got about an hour until the start. So, yeah, loads of time. The skin suit is on and yeah, it’s pretty toasty today. So, I’ve opted for the ventilated helmet rather than the Aero version. And the bike’s all dialed up. I’ve actually switched out the rear wheel for the Sins H, which is a slightly faster rolling tire than the RC which I have on the front, but I want a slightly grippier tire on the front. Um, more for the corners more than anything. Um, just so I have that bit of added control, I guess, cuz apparently there’s some fairly tight ones today. Um, and one of the stages is pretty much all downhill. Um, yeah. skin suit from Sportful, the Fast Not Fun gravel skin suit with pockets on the side, and then three pockets in the rear where I’ve got like my energy shoes and gels. But yeah, the first time segment is about 5 km into the stage today. So, I’m going to roll over to the arena now, which is just over there. But before I do that, I’m going to tuck into a packet of energy shoes just to start the fueling regime right from the off. But yeah, I guess it’s better time to start go racing. Got the number on and yeah. All right, wish us luck. That is uh segment number one done and dusted. Um it was 9 km in length, about 350 m of ascent, so climbing if I remember correctly. And I did it in around 21 minutes. So it’s pretty much all uphill. And then the final 1 km was a really technical descent. I averaged 183 beats per minute. So yeah, that was tough. We’re just now riding around the M reservoir, which is absolutely stunning to the second stage of the day, which is 19 km. So over double the length of the one we’ve just done. So that’s going to be tricky knowing how to pace that. But hopefully it should be good fun. But yeah, you might be able to see Yeah, the views behind me is absolutely stunning. I mean, yeah, it’s probably one of the most beautiful parts of Wales. It’s um it’s really, really nice. But before the second time segment, I’m having a gel, but having a caffeine one cuz it’s such a long probably one of the most decisive stages of the race. So hopefully this will give me a nice little caffeine boost. There we go. That’s the final two time segments done and dusted. the second stage time stage the middle section. Oh, that was really tough. That was about 40 minutes in length in the end. Um about 19 km and then we just finished the last effort which was mostly downhill and we finished on this beautiful reservoir just here. So we basically started somewhere up here and we mayandered all the way down and then the finish is yeah just down there literally right on the corner. Um, so yeah, that was pretty tricky, but it is absolutely roosting. Um, we’ve got about probably a 5 mile ride now back to camp and then yeah, rest up this afternoon, ready to go again tomorrow. We’ve made it back to camp and just had a shower and yeah, packed up the car, the bike back into the car because I thought it was going to rain. Um, the results are starting to come in from all of the stages. And currently, as it stands, I am leading the overall and also set the fastest time on each of the stages, which yeah, I’m pretty chuffed about. I think because you’re racing yourself and not others, it’s really hard to know how you’re comparing to everyone else doing the course. Um, especially the second stage cuz it was so long. I thought I went off far too hard, but apparently I put about a minute and a half into second place. So, yeah, that gives me a bit of a buffer going into tomorrow, which is always a bit of a confidence boost. Um, yeah, we’ve had my recovery shake and now we’re just tucking in to some noodles with like a teriyaki sauce. So, very nice. And then, yeah, it’s only about 1:00, so probably have maybe a nap. And then podiums for today’s stages are happen happening around 5:00 this afternoon. I have just woken up from my nap. And oh wow, it is muggy. Um it is really really hot this afternoon which is obviously rather disgusting. Um just like clings to your skin that hot air. Um which is not nice at all. But there’s a few things I do when it’s really hot especially when I’m trying to recover. Um the first is obviously electrolytes. So, I’ve just poured some of these solo electrolytes from Velaforte into my water bottle and yeah, I’ve got plenty of water. Got 1.2 lers in my Yeti. So, yeah, just little and often as they say, sip on that throughout the afternoon. And then the next big thing is sun cream obviously. And I’ve been using this one from Life Jackets for the last couple of weeks and it’s the Factor 50 which I’m super impressed with. I burn incredibly easy. like it’s not even a joke. Um how easily I burn. But this I’ve been super super impressed by and yeah been using on my face, on my skin, on my arms, legs and yeah, it’s um really really light, not greasy. And I’ve also been using a lip balm as well um cuz obviously you don’t want your lips burning whilst out riding. So yeah, that’s two things I’m doing. And then final thing, so immediately after the race, the focus was on carbohydrates, replenishing the glycogen debt that I was in. And now it’s a couple of hours later. And now I’ll be addressing the protein intake. And for that, I’ll be using this protein bar from Velaforte, which is actually it’s an unreleased product at the moment. It’s launching on the 1st of July. So I’ll be make sure to post this video by once this is live. Um, yeah, it’s 20 grams of protein with five of those coming from collagen and it’s an incredibly clean ingredients list unlike all the other protein bars out there on the market. And yeah, they are incredibly tasty. Um, there’s three different flavors to choose from, but on a hot day, I think this one is my favorite. So, this is the lime and coconuts. As you can see, there’s some really nice coconut pieces in there. There’s also like a chocolate and stem ginger one and then also peanut butter and sea salt flavor. So yeah, they taste incredible. This is about 20 grams of protein, like I said, and 250 calories. So yeah, a really nice snack mid afternoon, mid morning once you get back from the gym. Just a little pickme up in the evening. So yeah, I’m going to snack on that right now and yeah, just probably pass few hours this afternoon. Good morning and welcome to day two of Gritsfest. It is currently raining. I mean, we are in Wales after all. But yeah, currently taking shelter underneath my tent box. It’s not raining too hard at the moment, which is nice, but I think the forecast is rain for the majority of the day. As I say that, it’s just gets harder. Um, yeah, it’s actually pretty chilly. Um, I didn’t bring really any waterproof stuff cuz the forecast was meant to be sun, so I guess that’s my fault. But yeah, don’t know how well you can tell, but it’s raining pretty hard. Um, yes, that’s certainly going to make it really interesting today. Yesterday it was quite dusty in places, whereas the rain would have dampens that a lot, so it could be quite slippery out there. So, yeah, I think tire choice is going to be a key factor today. I’m still going to run my mullet setup. So, the Pirelli Currat are C on the front. So, a grippier tire on the front and H on the back. So, a slightly faster rolling tread. But we have to wait and see. But yeah, I think for now I’ll just just sit this one out for a little bit as it gets harder, even harder. Lovely. There we go. We have just made it back to HQ and as you can probably tell, so I’m a little bit muddy. Um, unfortunately, I didn’t manage to get any footage out there on the course because it rained for pretty much the whole duration that we were out. The bike is, yeah, pretty caked in mud. So the legs and shoes. Um, yeah, a successful day out, which is always a good sign. Um, yeah, the nice thing about this race is cuz it’s over two days, you do get a leader jersey. So this was the jersey that I got given yesterday for being assisting the fastest time and effectively today was all about trying to defend that. Um it was quite tactical. So a few of the stages um like we were racing as a little group as some we did it all like individually. Um yeah like tactics played a key role in that. Times have come in. got slip of paper for the official times and the first stage currently the um the time segment four. So the first one on today I think I set the fastest time. Someone might come in later and have set a fast faster time than me. The second stage I was 2 seconds off the leader but we did race that one as a group and basically just got out sprinted at the end. And the final stage currently I have set the fastest time so that puts me first overall. um as it stands. Did have a three and a half minute lead from yesterday. So yeah, fingers crossed I’ve defended that. Um but we just now need to wait and see for wait until everyone else has come back in effectively. Um yeah, the setup was absolutely flawless this weekend. So the main frame is the Ribble Gravel SL like I mentioned earlier. Got a number board on there. And then yeah, the Wahoo elements that had all the navigation, all my stats. So yeah, this is from today. 184 beats per minuteoo. Obviously having to work hard there. Um yeah, in the end I did keep with the mullet setup. So, as it rained, I kept a grippier tire on the front for the corners and then a slightly faster rolling tire on the rear, which works really, really well. Um, and then yeah, the wheels are the limitless. On the front, we have one with the Shamic Speed bearings and carbon spokes. Then on the rear, we’ve just got the standard. Um, so yeah, I mean, I can’t fault that setup at all. And yeah, especially this the 3D printed saddle from Physique, which I’ve been using for a couple of years, um, a couple of months now. And can’t lie, I am super super impressed. If you noticed, I did actually wear an arrow helmet as well today. So, for all those extra little gains, but now done and dusted, I think I need to go and get a shower, give my bike a little bit of a clean if possible, and then yeah, time to pack away the tent box, which is where I’ll stay in the last two nights. So, yeah, this was my nice little setup. Got ladder and then, yeah, a big tent with a mattress and stuff built in there. So, yeah, really cool. And that’s where I like made my dinner and stuff at night under the trees over there. So yeah. Um I mean if you made it this far, thank you so much for watching. Um and if you’re ever thinking about coming to the Grits Fest, I would highly recommend it. It’s probably one of my favorite gravel races on the calendar and I couldn’t recommend it anymore. So yeah, thank you so much for watching and I’m hoping to document more of my races for the remainder of the season and give a behind the scenes glimpse of more how I get up what I get up to in my training and yeah, everyday life. So if you want to see more of that, make sure you give this video a like and a subscribe. And thank you so much to all the brands who support me. Um yeah, there’ll be some discount codes in the link below if you want to check out some of those. So yes, thank you once again and ciao.