Road to Desolation

June 14 2025

GraffReinet Eastern Cape

Date Confirmed

Distances: 65, 178 km

Difficulty: Moderate terrain with rolling short steep hills or moderate, sustained climbs

The Road to Desolation is a one day gravel cycling race through the semi-desert area of the Karoo in South Africa. It is part of the Gravel Earth Series in 2025.

Rocky columns extend their crooked fingers heavenwards as we stare out over the Valley Of Desolation. A vast eden nestled on the edge of the dry expanse of the Karoo in South Africa. The little town of Graaff-Reinet sits neatly on a bend in The Sunday’s River. Shafts of light spear down and illuminate puddles dotted across the scrubland while small black dots on green hint towards shapes of wild animals. The skies seem endless, vast and mighty as distant thunderstorms litter the scene. This inspired the founders of the cape epic to launch their gravel stage race gravel burn on our home soil. No exact definition of what constitutes the Karoo is available, so its extent is also not precisely defined. So too, our Race is slightly ambiguous and its rigours speak to the area itself. With two options available to test your mettle against the environment and other riders, The Road To Desolation is no mean feat.

Two unique Stages face interested participants, Road to Desolation (178km) and A Taste Of Desolation (65km), to choose your course and your approach. They can be raced on anything, as long as it doesn’t have a motor! No matter which you choose, the last 7km’s will be a reminder that you have taken on The Road To Desolation.

Road to Desolation