L'Échappée: Paris to London Gravel Ultra

L'Échappée borrows cycling's word for the breakaway and stretches it over several days: leave a historic Paris velodrome, slip out through the Bois de Vincennes and head north on farm tracks and forgotten byways toward the Channel. It is a self-supported, timed ultra rather than a bunch race, so how hard you push, where you sleep and whether you make your boat are your call. The organiser describes the French trails as faster and more open than the rough ground of his UK events, though the night riding, navigation and logistics are still serious work.

The unusual part is the middle. At Boulogne-sur-Mer riders hand their bikes to the crew of a sail-powered catamaran and cross the Channel under sail, with the option of helping hoist the sails or take the helm, while the clock stops on the quay. Back on land, the route crosses Kent and the North Downs before finishing at Herne Hill Velodrome in south London, with friends and family following every rider's dot on a live tracking map.

The event comes from Hidden Tracks Cycling, the London gravel outfit of Charlie Codrington: a British Cycling coach, cyclocross organiser and self-confessed map and history nerd who leads off-road coaching at Herne Hill. His idea is that a proper adventure should not need a flight or a van, only a route, a date and a start line, and the field is kept deliberately small.