Centretown Gravel Rides is Back!

Hey Folks! Long time, no chat.

I'm really excited to be back for another wonderful riding season. While we wait out the last few cold days, I've been discussing with my fellow ride leaders what the plan should be for this year, and I'd like to share that now.

Regular Rides

Firstly, one thing we really want to improve upon this year is consistency. Over the last few years, we've only really run rides when we felt like it, or had the energy to map out a new route. This year, we want to provide a consistent base of rides that you folks can rely upon. So to that end, we'll be running a weekly ride on a rotating set of consistent routes that vary from relaxed gravel exploration to rowdy ascents into Gatineau Park. We'll rotate through a set of courses, riding one each chosen day with a consistent start location (Dominion Arboretum) and start time.

We'd love your feedback on which weekdays work best for you, and what start/end times we should aim for with this regular ride.

Ottawa Gravel Rides Availability

Fill out the day(s) you would attend a regular gravel ride leaving from centretown!

Google Docs

Exploration Rides

That being said, we also don't want to get stuck in the same set of routes every single time. Part of what makes these rides fun for us is exploring different parts of our city, and experimenting with unconventional, less-traveled and downright stupid routes. So in addition to the regular rides, we'll try and have at least one ride a week on a unique route. No guarantees we won't do repeats from previous seasons, but we'll try and keep it fresh.

Exploration rides will also have significantly more variance in terms of start time, duration and start location. These rides might start further outside of the city, at rail stops (e.g. Leitrim), or the same starts as usual.

We're also going to schedule a ride at least once a month that aims for more ambitious routes. These rides are going to be a lot longer, usually happening on weekends, and provide folks with a chance to push themselves. The same rules as usual will apply - we won't drop or ditch you, but they'll be a significant step up in length and difficulty. Some of these might start further out of the city, giving you the option to make the rides even longer, or to drive/carpool to the start.

There's plenty of gravel just outside the reasonable bike range of the city, and we'll explore some of it!

Season Opener Social

To start the season, we plan to run a short social ride - a small, easy loop that will end at Beyond the Pale for a post-ride social and meet-and-greet. We're closely monitoring the forecast, so stay tuned! We'll try and give at least a week's warning for that.

Terry Fox Ride of Hope

For the third year, I'll be leading a ride in mid-June to benefit the Terry Fox Foundation and their work on cancer research. The 2026 Ride of Hope is a 119.5 km long bike route with 838 meters of elevation gain.

Questions? Comments? Concerns?

Reply to this newsletter! We monitor the inbox. You can also join our Discord and ask questions there. We also have a google calendar with our rides posted there, too. To subscribe to our Google Calendar, just reply to this email!

I'm really looking forward to this season. I hope it'll be the best one yet!

Thanks, Matt