Gravel & Grape 2018

Racemiere finishing Day 1

Gravel & Grape is a fairly new stage race (The first event was in 2015) hosted at Goudini Spa in the beautiful Breede River Valley. I have some family roots in the valley and good memories of spending December holidays in the area so I was always keen to do this race and finally this year I got my chance.

 Team Racemiere was resurrected as I was reunited with my brother Pieter again, both our families were booked into camping spots in Goudini making this a proper family weekend.

Gravel & Grape has a reputation for having tough technical & rocky singletrack and a few sandy spots between the vineyards, so proper preperation would have helped but between work commitments & dirtroadie events this dirtroadie managed to train a sum total of zero kilometers of singletrack in the 3 months leading up to the event. Not exactly ideal preparation.

But the plan was to just take it easy and not ride too hard but even so other than being fit I was very unprepared for a proper mtb race. As the event went on I realised I was doing almost everything wrong, my tires were too hard, my shock too stiff and the little technical skills I had were completely missing.

Day 1 - Botha Wine cellar to Goudini via Boesmanskop - 66km with 1250m of climbing

Look who sneaked into the right of the picture

Team Racemiere rocked up at Botha Wine Cellar early on Friday morning expecting a relatively easy day. There was only a small field of about 80 riders. As we started it was clear very few in this small field had any intention of taking it easy like us. As we took off Team Racemiere almost immediately found themselves right at the back of the field.

We turned on the pace to avoid being dead last but even then only caught a few riders. Within the first few kilometers we had our first big climb and immediately the race lived up to his reputation. The going got tough, rocky and technical and you had to work for every kilometer.


We saw the famous Jan Braai at the first waterpoint at Bergsig estate asking for wine, at least he and his team mate were also not racing that day! The first few kilos after Bergsig were on tar and fairly easy but ominously we were riding towards some big mountains! When we reached the Boesmanskop area things got tough again as we hit the climbs & trails also used in past Cape Epics. There were only a few riders around us which meant no congestion on the climbs & singletrack - making the race feel very exclusive.

Stunning scenery in the valley

After 20km of tough trails & tough climbs the singletrack spit us out at the final waterpoint. Thankfully it was now a flat & easy 15km to Goudini. My biggest worry was that a sadistic route designer would throw in a final nasty surprise but luckily that was not the case. After almost 4h30 (can't remember the last time I took this long to ride 60kms!) we finally reached Goudini. The race was certainly living up to his reputation of being tough & technical. We were lying 30th out of 40 teams, clearly most riders in this small field were either stronger or more serious than us!

Day 2 - Stettynskloof valley - 68km & 830m climbing

This day turned out to be my favourite day. The route took us south from Goudini past the Du Toitskloof cellar up into the Stettynskloof valley. Initially the singletrack was rocky & technical like day 1, then there was sand but this was followed by fast & flowing singletrack (at least relative to the other singletrack in this area)

The faster half of the Racemiere caught by the cameraman

The first waterpoint had the option of gin tasting - we opted to pass up on the opportunity but Jan Braai and his partner did not, this was also the last time we would see them at the event...

After the waterpoint we turned south again deeper into the valley to the Dwarsberg Trout Resort where a nasty climb and the second water point awaited us. After that it was a long downhill section next to the water pipeline from the Stettynskloof dam until we were out of the little valley again.

Thereafter the kilometers were flat and fast, we reached the first waterpoint again and this time I did not opt out of the gin tasting. The gin was delicious but right after the waterpoint we hit a single track climb again which made me deeply regret that decision!

Then it was only a few kilometers back to Goudini past Du Toitskloof cellars which also offered wine tasting to riders!

Day 3 - Slanghoek valley - 45km & 672m climbing

Start of Day 3

The shortest day of the 3 but certainly not easy. Leaving Goudini we turned north and soon climbed up the slopes of the Slanghoek mountains. Again as we have gotten used to, the singletrack was technical & rocky ending off with a long narrow singletrack riding along the contours of the mountains - this part reminded me of the iconic Sani2C Day 2 descent into the Umkomaas.

After 17km we reached the waterpoint, did a loop on some rocky & sandy technical terrain (again) north of the waterpoint to reach the same waterpoint again on 30kms. The last 15km home suited this dirtroadie just fine, mostly wide gravel roads to finish the race.

Overall, awesome 3 days of proper mtb'ing. The distances & meters climbing certainly gave no indication of how tough this event was. The food & hospitality were awesome. I enjoyed the fact there were fewer riders around than at the higher profile stage races but I expect the numbers need to grow for this event to be sustainable in the long run.

Our families also enjoyed the camping & warm swimming pools at Goudini - with the low event entry fee & accomodation specials this was great value for money for a mtb weekend away.

(All the nice photos on this post was taken by the amazingly talented Chris Hitchcock, the rest are mine)