➡️ Gravel Calendar is a website that aims to provide a hub for finding information about gravel events. With descriptions, routes, registration information, and photos, it makes finding the perfect race easy.
In this special edition of the newsletter, we caught up with the site’s founder, Connor Driscoll, in writing over email to learn about the story behind this resource. Here are excerpts of his answers.
❓How has the site evolved and grown since it was established in 2020?
I first started Gravel Calendar when I was looking for events and races in my local area but found that they were spread out across BikeReg, USA Cycling, Facebook events, and event websites. I wanted to create a gravel-specific site that would have events of all sizes ranging from the large events to small, grassroots rides.
❓ How has uptake been from events?
I built a fairly rudimentary site at first to gauge the response from the gravel community. After just the first few months, the site had already gained traction and had events from around the world.
❓How have racers and riders taken to the new resource?
After seeing the tremendous response with the initial site, I wanted to build a cleaner and more user-friendly site based on feedback from event organizers and riders. Now, smaller races/events are able to get the word out to a worldwide audience. I’ve heard from a number of riders that they’ve discovered new rides/events in their local area.
❓What gaps do you still see in gravel event coverage or information?
Gravel, as a discipline, tends to fall outside of the standard governing bodies (many riders seem to be drawn to gravel because of this). The event coverage is decent right now but there is some room for improvement.
❓What are the next steps for the site? Where do you see it in 10 years? Do you have any partnerships planned with organizations like BikeReg or media companies?
Now that the new version of the site is live, there are a number of features that will be rolling out like better search/filter, regional spotlights, and event analytics among others. In 10 years, Gravel Calendar will be the definitive list of gravel events throughout the world, whether it’s your local group ride or part of the UCI Gravel World Series. We’ve currently partnered with Gravel Cyclist and Pure Gravel to power their event calendars. We’re actively looking for additional partners and supporters!
❓Are you planning to expand the site to include MTB events or other disciplines?
Right now, we’re just focused on gravel but could expand to other disciplines (we’d probably need a new domain though ).
❓Where do you see the discipline of gravel in 10 years?
Over the past few years, we’ve all seen the gravel discipline evolve and it will continue to grow on both ends of the spectrum (recreational to professional). While not everyone may like gravel being in the spotlight and becoming a more formal discipline, the grassroots spirit will continue to live on in events around the world.
🔗 Check out the Gravel Calendar site here.