Laba Gravel

Laba takes its name from the initials of four valleys, Leitzaran, Artikutza, Bidasoa and Aralar, and it grew out of Andoain, where a group of local gravel riders put the event together in auzolan, the Basque tradition of community work. It is not a race and there is no ranking: the tracker is there only for safety, the routes carry no markings, and riders navigate by GPS, semi-self-supported between the feed points, with the organisers around before the start and back in town at the finish.

The country is green, steep and often wet. Riders pass the protected riverside woods of the Leitzaran, where the old Plazaola mining railway is now a greenway, the beech and oak forests of Artikutza, once mined and logged and now a conservation area, the meadows of the Bidasoa basin with its long history of border crossings and smuggling, and the Aralar natural park, known for its megalithic monuments and centuries of shepherding.

The organisers pitch Laba as a good first step into ultra-distance riding, with routes that let riders progress one level at a time, and as a late-May test before the summer gravel season. Two of the shorter routes are reserved for women, the shortest ridden as a guided group. Places are limited to protect the valleys, and the team says recent editions filled within about a week.