Bike-riding on gravel is taking off in Western Australia

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I’ve written before about the small towns in Western Australia that are slowly dying and how many try to host special events to entice tourists to their area. A new sport is taking off which is bringing new life to some of these towns and it’s ‘gravel riding’. This involves competitive cycle events (pushbikes, not motor cycles) held on gravel roads in country areas. Riders enjoy travelling the back roads where there is little or no traffic. The scenery can vary from canola fields to rugged coastlines or bush tracks lined with wildflowers. Nabawa, 480 kms north of Perth, recently hosted the Backroads Gravel event which was run over 160 kms. The winner did the distance in roughly 4 ½ hours. The event attracted 737 participants with about half of these travelling from other states to compete. Next year, Nannup will host the Gravel World Championships. The town has less than 1,000 residents but they’re expecting 3,000 competitors and perhaps 10,000 visitors to the town. That should boost the local economy somewhat. Twenty-five years ago, Ballidu, with 58 residents, ran a bike race as a school fundraiser. This event has grown to the point where they’re expecting 700 visitors for their Bike it to Ballidu event in September. The photo is of two American couch-surfers who rode across Australia and stayed with us in Donnybrook.