Cyclist journeys to the Red Centre for the Shimano Gravel Muster, a four-day gravel stage race set in the deep outback of the Northern Territory’s East MacDonnell Ranges
Words Imogen Smith Photography Forktail
The desert’s rugged beauty stretches endlessly in every direction from Alice Springs.
Out here, the landscape is a dramatic mix of red earth, towering rock formations and open skies. And rock. Rock in various stages of decomposition.
Uluru at one end of the spectrum, a grain of sand at the other.
And in the middle? Gravel. Whether you’re drawn to the challenge of riding across sand and stone or the allure of hidden gorges and wildflower meadows, Alice Springs’ gravel is raw, remote and ready to test your limits.
Debuting in 2024, Rapid Ascent’s Shimano Gravel Muster brings a fresh concept.
It’s one thing to race the best gravel the Red Centre has to offer, taking riders from Alice Springs into the outback, but stage racing is about more than pushing your personal limits.
It’s also about adventure, making friends, seeing new places and enjoying great food.
This ethos has been woven into the race format itself: rather than racing each stage from start to finish, the Shimano Gravel Muster blends timed and untimed sections, allowing riders to throw themselves into the challenge of the toughest terrain when it counts, then relax, soak in the scenery, and embrace the experience when the clock’s not ticking.
The first thing I do when I get off the plane is take off my jumper and stuff it in my backpack.
After check-in, I head poolside for Rapid Ascent’s pre-race drinks and learn that there’s a heatwave coming.
In my room, I build up my bike, then gather my down jacket, thermal undershirts, PrimaLoft camp booties, arm warmers and riding jacket into an exothermic ball that I stuff in the bottom of my bike bag, ready to pick up when we return in a few days.
The usual minimum temperatures of five degrees have been revised to around 17, and daily maximums will be touching 40, not the usual 28.
At the supermarket, I buy bags of salty veggie chips, two tubes of electrolyte tablets, gallons of pineapple juice (on sale) and a Gaytime for the walk home.
Racing kicks off tomorrow. It’s already hot. I’m as ready as I’ll get.
The adventure begins
The first stage of the Shimano Gravel Muster starts with about 28km of neutral riding, covering some of the rougher surfaces of the whole event.
With a 1:30pm rollout and a record-breaking heatwave, it was always going to be warm, and when we line up someone points out that their Garmin is registering 37 degrees.
Shimano ambassador Richie Porte, the most decorated of the 77 participants in the ride, is also the first to crash, fooled by a dodgy sand trap as riders at the front switch lines to avoid the deepest sections.
As the sandy trail narrows to double track that gets rockier and ruttier, riders at the front push to thin the trails out, and riders at the back accelerate to avoid being dropped.
In short, it kinda feels like we’re racing. And I’m definitely part of the problem.
When we hit the highway, I make the mistake of grabbing a wheel in the front group of men for a dragging 8km climb all the way to the Gap. I get dropped, but not before my heart rate hits 190 bpm. That’s my max. Oops.
Needless to say, by the time we arrive at the feed zone at Simpsons Gap, I have a pounding headache and quite significant nausea.
Most people dismount to go and check out the Gap, one of the most beautiful near Alice Springs, but I limp to the start of the timed Simpsons Gap bike path, which twists alarmingly around hundreds of pea gravel corners for 17km.
After the first seven or eight corners trying to hit race pace, I accept that I have, untactically, cooked myself in the neutral segment, and flunked out of today’s ‘race’. Never mind!
At the top of the final deadly pinch to the finish line, I’m handed a cold can of Coke and a bag of chips.
We sit in camp chairs with a 360 view of the desert and cheer for riders as they curse their way up to the finish line.
Then it’s an easy spin back to town, with plenty of time for rest, rehydration and recovery, and one last night to appreciate crisp hotel sheets before we disappear into the outback.
Epic gravel
With race start at first light, we head out to the Alice Springs Telegraph Station in darkness.
Today’s stage is a roll along the Stuart Highway, then 48km of desert racing, a quick cruise, then a 46km final push, totalling 153km.
As the sun rises, so does the heat, and after nearly two hours we reach our first aid station.
I fill my bidons and jump in with a strong bunch to tackle the sandy, sometimes corrugated timed segment with a stiff cross wind.
By the time that’s behind us, it’s nearing the middle of the day and really, properly hot.
Skratch Labs has stocked the feed zones, and every aid station is equipped with water, electrolyte and carb mix, Skratch’s excellent bars and chews, plus lollies, fruit, cakes – you name it.
Riders can start with pockets pretty much empty and stay fuelled and watered in the most gruelling conditions.
After a series of unfortunate events in the neutral section, I find myself sitting on my top tube in the middle of the desert at the start of the last, long timed section.
I’m hoping a huge bunch will scoop me up and glide me through the next 46km, all the way to the finish.
Eventually, aware that my skin is burning and my bidons draining every time I take a sip, I sigh and cross the timing mat on my own, and after a few kilometres start to enjoy it. A lot.
Everything is glowing and the red dirt mixed with sunscreen gives me an amazing tan! Never mind that I keep racing the neutral bits and cruising the timed sections. Never mind that it is blazingly, dizzyingly hot.
This is what I came for. I can see every angle of the horizon and all around is red domed with blue.
There is nobody in front, and nobody behind me. It is alien and uplifting in equal measure.
At Hale River Homestead I pitch my tent in a secluded spot behind the old stone homestead then head to the bar to grab several drinks to attempt rehydration.
For a remote cattle station, the bar at Hale River Homestead is incredibly well stocked, and they never run out of hot chips.
That night we eat dinner under an umbrella of stars and wander off to bed as the temperature drops and the breeze lifts.
We wake to the sound of butcherbirds.
Gorges and gaps
If day two was about vast distances in a flat, expansive landscape, day three is all about drama: the drama in the race, and that of the massive landmarks and dramatic views.
It starts with a couple of crashes in the front bunch, everyone fighting over a much shorter race segment of 17km, raced from the gun.
Once that’s behind us, we flick the switch to ‘off’ and head into the Arltunga pub for a quick morning tea.
Unbeknownst to all, the next timed segment turns out to be the hardest and roughest of the event, leaving many hands blistered by sharp, immensely corrugated pinches, and hearts a little bit broken by headwinds.
It’s also the stage of epic views in an incredibly changing landscape weaving up to Trephina Gorge, its towering red cliffs either side.
Cruising into Ross River Station where our camp awaits us, we find ourselves surrounded by equally epic red rock formations – ancient mountains worn down to weird monolithic shapes that hang above the horizon.
After an afternoon poolside, we share stories over dinner under fairy lights, watching the sun sink behind those crazy cliff lines, then disperse into cabins and tents for some rest.
The final push
With anticipation and already no small amount of nostalgia, we set off loaded with respect for what had promised to be the most difficult stage yet, physically, with news that Numery Road had been so corrugated a couple of weeks ago that a few hardened locals had been brought to tears.
We start neutral with a stint along Binns Track, dipping us in and out of sandy creek beds, many of which require a dismount and run.
Have you learned nothing, you ask? Why are you running the neutral bits? Hear me out.
The trick of riding sand is to get just the right cadence, just the right torque, just the right pressure on your back wheel, and above all, to hope that nobody in front of you stuffs it up.
So we jockey for position, slide sideways, fall over, and run. By the time we reach the first aid station and the beginning of the only race segment of the day, I’m with the front bunch, but make the mistake of trying to stay with Porte, who completes the stage at nearly 40kmh, riding every single other racer off his wheel.
By now I’m accustomed to ‘death by tempo individual time trial’ race segments, and once dropped, happily pump the pedals for the 20km it takes me to catch the guy in front.
In good news, a surprise grader has been through, and Numery Road’s epic corrugations are almost nowhere to be seen, apart from a few sections.
So it’s possible to sit, spin and enjoy the best wildflower season for decades, the landscape awash with purple, yellow and blue.
After aid station two, I set off alone again for several kilometres of tricky new singletrack littered with jagged rocks of the type that always cause punctures, leaving me few opportunities to take in the immense views of Emily Gap, as well as back to Alice itself, its sea of rooftops looking so foreign after just a couple of days in the outback.
I cruise the last few kilometres into the outskirts of town and ride through the finish arch right into the beer garden at the Alice Springs Brewery, where it’s always time for a beer.
Back at the hotel, we clean up, pack our bikes, and gather for our last meal under the stars.
We sing along to ‘The Gambler’ by Kenny Rogers, and country and western favourites.
Songs that might seem corny in the city seem so right just now, a cooler breeze stirring, fairy lights, the sense of completion and the memories that come with doing something nobody but us has ever done.
The route we took
Follow the red, red roads of the Shimano Gravel Muster’s four stages
To see each individual stage click the links below. All up our four-day journey took in
385km with just 2,410 metres vert. Our ride was divided into four stages with, timed and untimed segments.
Our first day took us on a combination of trails and road to Simpsons Gap followed by a stint on the Simpsons Gap bike path. Next we headed 152km north and west to Hale River Homestead using Gardens Road.
Our third day took us south-east through Arltunga then on a short out and back visit to Trephina Gorge before finishing at Ross River Homestead.
Our final day was a combination of rough trails on Binns Track, then the blessedly smooth Numery Road, before taking in the excellent, if rocky, singletrack to Emily Gap, and a final bitumen spin right into the beer garden at Alice Springs Brewery.
Click here for :
By the numbers
When the dust settled
›385 total distance in kilometres
›2,410 total vert in metres
›960 Skratch Labs bars and chews consumed in the feed zones
›77 participating riders
›15 punctures in the field – mostly on the final day singletrack
›8 bidons your writer consumed on the 153km Queen Stage
›0 camels spotted – but they were there, we’re told!
Prepping for the Shimano Gravel Muster
What to ride, what to bring, how to train and where to register
A gravel bike with wide tyres is essential for this adventure. Imogen used a Cervélo Áspero with a 12-speed Shimano GRX Di2 groupset and Maxxis 40mm Rambler/Ravager tyres, equipped with liners and plenty of sealant.
Wider tyres could have helped in the sand, and running lower pressures made a huge difference. A mountain bike will also do fine, but you lose your licence to complain about the corrugations!
As for what to carry, essentials include a first aid kit, flashing rear light, and plenty of spares. Run your darkest lenses, as the sun is intense.
Feed zones are stocked, but pack extra nutrition. Imogen carried lollies and gels, plus two large bidons. She also carried a small sun screen and chain lube, just in case.
The 2024 event was unseasonably hot. You can safely expect temperatures between about 5 overnight and 28 during the day. Training-wise, it’s as simple as getting on your gravel bike and building endurance.
For higher intensity racing, you could mix in criteriums or indoor sessions. As long as you can handle a few long days in the saddle, you’ll have a great time.
For more information or to register for next year’s event, head to gravelmuster.rapidascent.com.au
How we did it
Travel
We flew to Alice Springs and took a shuttle to The Mercure, race central for the Alice Springs stages of the event. From here, Rapid Ascent took care of everything: storing bike bags, transferring luggage, nutrition on course and three delicious, hearty meals a day.
Accommodation depends on what package you choose, and we had a mix of camping and cabin accommodation, which was perfect. For camping, we brought a sleeping bag, liner, pillow, and relied on Rapid Ascent’s camping package, which included a 10cm mat, tent and extra pillow.
Food
If you want snacks, last-minute supplies or a great coffee, Alice Springs has a Coles and a Woolworths, as well as a Kmart, bike shops and all amenities you’d expect from a large regional centre. There’s a great cafe just off the Todd Mall called Page 27, where racers congregated before and after the event.
Thanks
A huge thanks to Rapid Ascent and Shimano for making this special event a reality. Keep an eye out for next year’s event at gravelmuster.rapidascent.com.au
