THE SPIRIT OF GRAVELwilderness of this beautiful corner of the island.
This ride, curated by Gareth and Peter from
Blue Metal Cycling, is their premier offering.
Starting and finishing in the historic Georgian
town of Evandale, near Launceston Airport,
the ride offers four glorious days, 400 remote
kilometres of backcountry gravel roads and
over 8000 meters of every flavour of climb and
descent imaginable, including the two major
peaks of the region.
The elevator pitch for the tour is as follows:
'In the four days and three nights it takes to
complete this tour you will experience some of
North Eastern Tasmania’s very best.
'It will mean some solid days in the saddle,
however we believe this tour is an amazing,
unique experience, and worth every kilometre
and metre of climbing.'
This ride would be a shakedown cruise, to
scout the route, test the support equipment
and sample the accommodation and
catering prior to this ride being offered to
the public as a commercial venture. The test
crew were all accomplished riders from the
local region -- Pete and Gareth joined Ryan
De La Rue, Alan Miller and myself with Justin
driving the Blue Metal ute and its trailer filled
with spares, extra layers of clothing and two
enormous ice cream tubs of homemade
biscuits. The route had been scouted by Pete
nearly a year prior in challenging weather
conditions so with four days of sunshine
forecast this trip was to be a fresh experience
even for him.
This reconnaissance ride had a feeling of
refining a fine spirit, a good Tassie whisky if you
will. The key high-quality components of a four
day ride through the wilds of North EasternTasmania were selected, fermented, distilled,
extracted and aged 12 months. We were now
sampling the first barrel of 'The Spirit of Gravel'
as seasoned connoisseurs, providing tasting
notes that would be used to further refine the
final product before bottling. This ride was
barrel proof strength; from the smooth strade
bianche quartz gravel of coastal St Helens to
20% gradient gravel gnar through Huntsmans
Cap. All served up against a backdrop of
temperate rain forest, misty highland plains
and coastal bush with wombats, black
cockatoos and sea eagles along for the ride.
Cycling through this region is an immersive
experience that not only allows you to
experience some of the best riding of your
life on remote gravel roads but also to
sample some of the region’s best boutique
accommodation and fine produce.Main: Nothing like a bit of
wilderness adventure to
remind us of our place in
the world.Above: Tassie or the Alps?Left: The natural beauty
of Tassie.