Harry Tanfield enjoying steep learning curve after switching to gravel challenge
A WEEK that began with him riding to London alongside his Olympic-medal-winning brother Charlie to raise awareness about regional cancer inequalities, ends with two chances to win a British title in his native North Yorkshire for Harry Tanfield, on a surface that is quickly growing a cult following.
Tanfield contests the British Gravel Championships in Dalby Forest this weekend, with his favoured time-trial first up on Friday, and the mass gravel race on Sunday.
Traditionally a road cyclist – he is a former Tour de Yorkshire stage winner, a world championship and Commonwealth Games medallist – the 30-year-old has switched his focus this year to the up-and-coming surface.
Gravel might evoke images of rubble you chuck on the garden but it is becoming a popular surface for the exciting racing it throws up.
“It depends on the course, they’re all very different,” explains Tanfield. “Dalby is closer to a road race, it’s all well paved and well managed, so it’s very consistent and pretty smooth as gravel goes.
“It’s a bit like this champagne gravel that you have in Girona in Spain, which they make in Holland. It’s a man-made bike path.”
Tanfield ditched the road bike at the turn of the year, his last-minute attempt to save a British road team from folding, another sign that he needed a new challenge.
He found it by moving to the Ribble Outliers Pro Gravel team and embarking on the gravel season across Europe.
“I decided to just go fully on the gravel,” he says. “You learn so much in a short period of time, but I feel like I’ve taken it in my stride.”
Enhancing his knowledge of what makes a good gravel bike, and specifically the tyres required, has added to the enjoyment.
“In Wales recently we were on pretty durable tyres with big mud treads on them because in the forest there was slate and a lot of loose surfaces,” he explains.
“Dalby Forest has loose pine cones, but as long as you have tread on the side of the tyre, because it’s a fast, hard, compacted surface, it almost rolls a bit like tarmac.
“I’ll probably run a mountain bike tyre on the front with a little bit more tread and the slicker tyre in the back.”
Despite growing up round the corner in Great Ayton, he has very little local knowledge to put to call upon. Sunday’s gravel race is contested over four laps of a 30km route for men in the morning, women in the afternoon.
“It would have been nice if they’d have included some of the mountain bike trails, there’s no flat either, it’s either uphill or downhill and very open forest tracks,” says Tanfield of a national championship that is only in its fifth year.
“The time-trial is my best shot to get on the podium. The gravel race itself is too hilly for me. Having just ridden to London in two days for charity, I’m hoping my legs aren’t destroyed.”
Next month he heads to the world gravel championships, and next year he will stay on the surface.
He adds: “The gravel scene is changing so quickly with what’s available, different surfaces, different types of races. We’ll see the calendar growing as the years go on. I’m really keen to get stuck into it.”