FlanRou Ribinoù

Ribinoù is FlanRou's rough-stuff challenge ride across the Somerset Levels, a Paris-Roubaix style day where dirt droves and gravel sectors count down one by one, stitched together by quiet tarmac lanes. The organisers are clear that this is far rougher than polished 'champagne gravel': forgotten droves, back lanes and byways, with no serious climbing beyond the odd little local berg.

FlanRou describe themselves as riders rather than an events company, and the crew is now in its second decade of running Ribinoù from Sweets Tea Rooms near Wedmore, a well known meeting point for local club rides. There are no timing chips and no published results; the route is tweaked each year and kept secret until a few days before, and riders carry a brevet card to get stamped at the checkpoint and the finish. Cyclocross, gravel and cross-country bikes all work here, and numbers are kept deliberately small.