The wildest gravel challenge in Europe

Nothing is open on a Sunday in Europe. Having lived in Germany for four years of my adult life I should have known nothing, absolutely nothing, is open on a Sunday.

Sunday 1st September 2024, Granada, Spain. Start line of Badlands 2024. Badlands is a 800km unsupported off-road gravel race coined ‘The wildest gravel race in Europe’. Four hundred cyclists gathered, some riding in pairs, the rest, like me, riding solo across Andalucía in aim of reaching the finish line by the 4pm cut off the following Friday afternoon.

Police escorted us out of the city and headlong into a brutal, yet paved, climb that continued for the next 20km. The streets were so packed a few riders came down due to inertia and running out of space. The sound of a fully laden bike hitting the deck was fairly disconcerting but it definitely landed the fact early on that no one is going to win the race on the first climb.

“Play your own game.” “It’s a marathon not a sprint”. “hare and the tortoise”. All of the above.

I didn’t have a ‘plan’ per se but I quickly realised the race was built around the ability or inability to resupply. How far to the next water fountain? Is there a shop? Will it be open? This ranged from the village round the corner, to expanses of up to 150km.

Anyone who has ridden off road knows distance is not a reliable gauge of time. Terrain, surface, weather and of course elevation were all variables that moved the goal posts. And with 16,000m of elevation over an 800km race passing through the only official desert in Europe, Badlands had it all. 15km to the next fountain was just as easily three hours as it was 30 minutes. And when you got there, there was no guarantee the shop would be open or the fountain working. What was guaranteed though is that nothing is open on Sunday.