Polkadot Gravel Cup Gludsted Plantage

Polkadot Gravel Cup is a winter gravel race series in Jutland built on a simple format: about an hour and a half of racing on a short circuit, so riders learn every bend, every change of surface and every rise as the laps go by. The third of four rounds moves the racing to Gludsted Plantage, and every round uses a different course.

It is run by Polkadot Cycling, a Danish cycling outfit with its own online newspaper, brevets and gravel rides. The organiser describes the cup as a reason to get out when the sofa calls in the darkest months, borrowing the intensity of cyclocross without its technical obstacles and running sections, with coffee and conversation once the racing is over.

Age group riders race for places and points toward the overall classification, while the open class is still timed but aimed at riders who come mainly for the challenge and the company. A Young Guns category lets children and teens ride the same circuit once the adults have finished.