British Gravel Championships add free live coverage to its list of firsts

The famous North Yorkshire riding venue that is Dalby Forest is set to host more than one historic first this weekend, with the announcement that fans will be able to stream the British Gravel Championship live for the first time – for free.

The event, organised by Red On Sports and this year sponsored by Ribble, has never been held at Dalby before; it has never featured a time trial before; and the elite races have never been streamed live in their entirety either.

Taking place this Sunday 14 September, the elite races begin with the men's event at 9am, with the women's race following at 1pm. Both ride the same 120km course – made up of four 30km laps and featuring a challenging 2,000m of climbing in total.

Cycling Weekly travelled up to Dalby earlier this year to preview the course and chat to the organisers, and we can report that it should be a hard-fought and exciting battle for the red, white and blue jerseys.

Riders signed up for the men's race so far include Ben Swift and Connor Swift of Ineos Grenadiers, former champion Jacob Vaughan (JV Racing) and Harry Tanfield (Ribble Outliers). In the women's event the start list includes former champions Ruth Astle and Danni Shrosbree (Argon18 / Castelli SOG), as well as round-Britiain record holder Molly Weaver (Epic Cycles-Orbea) and former European XC champ Sophie Wright (Ribble Outliers).

The YouTube coverage will feature seasoned commentator David Reeve and former pro rider James McCallum – "a world-class commentary team", says Red On Sports.

It adds: "This milestone marks a major step forward in live coverage for the British Gravel Championships presented by Ribble, shining a spotlight on the sport’s rapid growth and the thriving UK gravel scene.

"This will be the first time a production of this quality has been put together for any gravel race."

While it is only the elite races which get the live coverage, they are far from the only races at the Championships. Things kick off on Friday evening (12 September) with the inaugural British Gravel Championship time trial, held over 13.8km of largely flat forest roads with a tough tarmac climb to finish.

Saturday (13 September) sees the masters and junior events, which run from 10am, as well as a non-competitive Sundowner charity ride in the evening, in aid of Prostate Cancer UK, where riders get two hours to ride as many laps they like of a 4.8km gravel course.

Cycling Weekly's Steve Shrubsall is riding both the time trial and the masters race this weekend, and we'll be chatting about the event and his experiences of it in a forthcoming episode of our Going Long podcast.

The live coverage of the British Gravel Championship elite races will be available here on YouTube.