Introduction to Gravel Cycling with Matt Stephens | Sigma Sports

Matt Stephens joined experienced gravel cyclist Phoebe Sneddon for an off-road ride and to pick up some useful tips when it comes to riding on the rough stuff.

From learning how best to corner on a gravel bike to advice when it comes to descending on steep and challenging terrain, this video is intended to help you get the most out of your time on the trails.

Shop gravel bikes at Sigma Sports: https://www.sigmasports.com/bikes/gravel

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See that look at that i come here to the pete this week to see what my gravel bite can do all i need now is somebody with some expertise please don’t use the term expertise and some and some local knowledge to show me the ropes and teach me some skills

Maybe somebody who lives locally with a background in cyclocross racing has also taken up gravel events too maybe someone with medical qualifications who deals with children just in case i have one of my temper tantrums maybe someone like nhs hero and cyclocross gravel badass phoebe sneddon oh man sorry to laugh

Have you finished your intro now yeah thanks for being with them with me man that was uh that’s quite good was it i’d be scared as well excellent skip mark i’m so keen to get going i’m going to clip yourself in and let’s just crack on me well wait before

We go we need to make sure you’ve got everything you need okay okay so we’re going off the beaten track so we need to make sure that we’re self-sufficient so have you got everything you need to fix puncture for example well i’ve got i’ve got a coat

And i’ve also got some biscuits what else do i need right have you got a spare tube yeah i’ve got a tube yeah um that’s magic wasn’t it is it the right size for your wheel size it’s a 650 yes it is good excellent same with me so we can share

So that’s good have you got a pump i’ve got a pump excellent um and are you running tubeless now yes have you got any plugs yes i have always handy just in here so basically if you if you’re running tubeless tires which you’ve got the sealant within the tire should plug

Most holes yep little holes small punctures but if you’ve got a bigger hole um what you can do is you unscrew this and they’re quite handy because they fit in your pocket nice and easy you see there’s a pointy end here yeah and this little soft bit or relatively

Soft bit on the end so the idea is that you load it up pop that in there plug in the end where the hole is you poke that through pull it out and it will leave that bit sticking out and it should fill the hole like a little plug right okay like a

Plug and and the thing is the little carrying case itself that’s pretty aerodynamic as well which is great excellent so if you want to just strap it to your front indeed i’ve got some allen keys i’ve got some allen keys i’ve got a chain link extractor as well awesome uh and i’ve

Got some patches just in case worst case scenario but probably won’t be using patches that’s a bit old-school the other thing that’s handy to have is a split link right so if you’ve got a chain tool and a split length then any major mechanicals with your you know if you rip your rear

Mech off or you break your chain or whatever we can fix that we can single speed it and i’ve got a few snacks in there as well so snacks excellent and you mentioned you’ve got a coat i’ve got a coat in there yeah because sometimes

You know if the weather gets cold and we get stuck somewhere i’m gonna keep you nice and warm i’ve got a couple of bottles on so plenty of water plenty of snacks right finally yeah let’s go here we go yep i’ll follow you i’ll take your lead Well phoebe technically yeah we are now actually graveling we’re on the gravel we’re struggling so now we’re graveling what’s tip number one tip number one is ride with your friends we kind of already do really isn’t it that’s what we’re doing so it’s always good to have a mate when

You’re riding on gravel because you’re often out in the middle of nowhere yep and also it’s very more sociable on the gravel bike because you can ride side by side without any cars you need to get out of the way it’s actually very nice isn’t it there’s definitely a social side to

Gravel it’s kind of it clearly is a hybrid isn’t it between mountain biking and road yeah but the thing that remains for me it’s fun because you do get to chat and you’re not thinking about like you said extraneous things like traffic and stuff

Yeah and also for i guess for a lot of people who want to get confident in riding yeah that lack of traffic it kind of hey straight that that’s this is real that was gravel right there right let’s get stuck in to some graveling montage riding with friends got the half wheel

On already about one k into a ride So we’ve done a bit of gravel we did a bit of grass back then and now we’ve come on to another surface it’s more like mountain biking so what’s next like you mentioned we’ve done grass and gravel we’re doing a mixture of terrain yeah okay this is a bit rougher

So we’re going to just look at it because it gets quite rocky at the bottom so we just want to make sure that you’re comfortable on your bike you’re controlling your speed before we hit the rough stuff at the bottom right so position for descending how would you

Descend on your road bike i’d be sat down but so if this is going to be bumper i’d probably get out the saddle a little bit on this one yeah so on the drops you’ve got your nice splayed bars for lots of balance and control okay

Bum up out the saddle in the ready position which is what they call it a mountain biking and that way you can absorb all the bumps so most gravel bikes don’t have any suspension so they’re starting to come mine’s got a nice 20 ml of travel in the front 20 mils right there

But you don’t need suspension because you’ve got arms and legs yeah which you’ve got hinges so you’re going to use your arms and laser suspension and the bike will roll and move underneath you so trust the bike look where you’re going it’s always good so look ahead and

Look at what’s coming up isn’t it so rather than steer gently guide around anything and just let the bike do the work basically i mentioned you guys a bit rock at the bottom okay you’re going to choose your line choice carefully otherwise you’re going to lose your

Jammies i’m going to have to completely activate my full body suspension to protect my jammy dodgers exactly all right yeah okay let’s do this how did you find that matt that’s good fun first and foremost but yeah pretty much a straight line and let the bike do

The work but i was pretty much out of the saddle for the whole way down on the drops just using my body as a suspension system and thank goodness my jammy dodgers were saved as well yeah all you need to do is just trust the bike and look where you’re going definitely [Applause]

Come on So phoebe graveling in a straight line relatively straightforward but graveling on corners it’s a different kettle fish yeah and it can be a tricky skill to master so we’re going to come and look at a couple of corners here we’ve got some nice loose gravelly s-bends yep

Um but you know how to corner on a road bike yep yeah reasonably well yep so on a gravel bike slightly different okay so on your road bike i guess you’d if you’re going to come in if this was a nice smooth tarmac you’d crank the bike round wouldn’t you

Keeping the weight through your outside foot yep a little bit of braking and you could go quite fast yep not the case on your gravel bike okay so you can see it’s quite loose when to get our braking done nice and early so whilst the bike is in a nice

Upright straight straight line okay okay if you brake with your bike angled over you’re probably going to skid a little bit on that right okay you’re going to wash out yeah which is fine with the back wheel but when the front wheel goes it gets a little a little sketchy okay

So early braking brakes off smooth around the corner you can get back on the brakes for the next one you got normally tires so you should have a fair bit of grip but in the same way as you would really angle the road bike round in order to go

Around a hairpin you probably don’t want to angle the bike quite so much because as we discussed we don’t want to wash out okay let’s give this a go yeah you want to follow me down sort of yeah so i’m going to take this one nice and

Wide just a little bit bumpier but it’s a nice wide one and you can cut a bit tighter in okay so on the brakes breaking down nice and early looking where i’m going i’m going to take this nice smooth round around the outside just let the bike roll round

And then look up to the trap below that was good some good tips there i think a lot of takeaways but one thing that i didn’t really think about but realized that i did afterwards was that i was descending out the saddle on the corners because i’ve

Done a bit of mountain biking a little bit of cycle across and um again there’s no kind of hard and fast rule i i guess a lot of it would depend on your experience and also how rough the surface is on the corner as well yeah so

It’s nice smooth hero gravel like we’re on at the moment you could definitely sit down like you would do on a road bike and i think if you come from road riding you’re probably more comfortable sitting on the saddle but if you come from mountain biking you’d be much more

Used to getting into what we call the ready position so pedals level up on the upper i like up on your arms on the bars um i think it’s it is personal preference but if it’s bumpy i would definitely recommend standing up out the saddle because you just take and absorb

A little bit more of the trail and it gives you a bit more movement with the bike you can angle the bike a little bit underneath you not too much as we discussed but um yeah Two things have happened the sun’s come out which is great yeah but also the gradient has just started to rise as well so um what’s the best technique then on especially on this sort of pretty loose rocky surface for climbing yeah so this is pretty rough we use a similar

Technique for the descending in that you want to pick a nice line choice nice smooth bit yep you’re gonna keep your weight the center of the bike you can sit down in the saddle right just keep going that’s real life that’s real i’m going without you

This is quite uh rough isn’t it yeah you want to think about having nice smooth pedal strokes so you can gain that traction through the more loose sandy stuff yep think about pulling around with your foot or maybe just doing right in the gutter right i’m back on

Do you know what though as well as people there’s no shame in walking is there there’s no shame in walking yeah how about getting out the saddle you can try it and it works sometimes yeah but when you want that traction through the back wheel yep sometimes a little tricky

If you’re out the saddle sure you’re better off feeling nice and planted on the front of the seat especially if it’s steep yeah like it is here you might need to talk the pedals a little bit give it a bit of oh have a little rush oh i just did be knackered [Applause]

She better not be filming this you better not be filming right are you there oh what [Applause] stop riding away from me just keep pedaling thanks for your tips on that one blimey it might take a little bit of practice definitely i think i need a bit more practice on

These wonky bits yeah but i’m getting there you know what phoebe yeah i think about the hang of this oh good So i’m gonna stop here man we’ll just have a look at this bit it’s pretty loose it is pretty steep as well yeah and it’s also very sandy and deep i think given how steep it is and you know it’s my first time taking you out

On the gravel bike we might be better at walking down here i think that’s a really good point though isn’t it because there’s no point especially if you’re kind of relatively new to it to put ever putting yourself out of a comfort zone either on a really

Steep section or a descent yeah if you’re feeling outside your comfort zone it is time to stop isn’t it yeah there’s no shame in that is there no not at all and that’s that’s one of the beauties of the gravel bite you know it will you know pretty much do everything but if

You don’t fancy something it’s absolutely fine to get off and walk i raced the grandeur a couple of weeks back and some of the descents on that were pretty sketchy and there were quite a few of them where we were all walking down shuffling down a few rocky bits

Specifically when it was like really really loose and slippy yeah and which is how it is here so let’s just walk down this little bit and then we can get back on when it evens out sounds good to me might be a good time to point out this is why you wear spd’s Well that was a lot of fun yeah it was great that was a blast actually i swear this did you enjoy it first and foremost it’s just relaxed isn’t it very relaxing i i like the fact and more and more my bike riding is all about going as fast

Or as slow as i want and that’s what these bikes need to do whatever the terrain the gearing is ridiculously low so whatever your kind of level and however hard or slow you want to go you can you can just enjoy yourself and that’s that’s my really big

Takeaway from this i’ve had an absolute blast here what about you i think the best thing about the gravel riding is you know you’re off the road you’re away from the traffic you can explore new places places you’ve never been before and it is it’s super relaxed you can do

Whatever you can make it as hard as you like as easy as you like you can ride from pub to pub you can ride all day and do hundreds of miles it’s it’s up to you you can make it what you want and also without knowing it the

Thing that’s good about riding gravel is the fact you’re building up the skill set as well without even knowing it you’re having fun building up skills there’s a kind of nuanced way the bike moves on gravel and you can tran you can kind of take that across to the road or

Cross or whatever so i think whilst having fun you’re actually learning how to handle the bike better which is a massively important takeaway as well isn’t it yeah there are some great skills to be had from the gravel bike and like you say it makes your road

Riding better it can make your mountain biking better it could be a nice easy intro to cycle across racing if that’s the way you want to go but you don’t have to push yourself you don’t have to do everything super fast you can just relax ride enjoy yourself and although

We’re both cloud like roadies yeah yeah you can wear what you want we’ve opted for this you can wear anything that is such a relaxed vibe isn’t it it is i’m i am disappointed that you didn’t turn up in some you know denim hot pants in a

Flannel show it’s all about aero for me today it’s all about air you’re trying to keep up obviously exactly yeah just to wrap things up i always bring a cheeky surprise back in the day when i used to do hostel runs in the peak district

Cubes of jelly was a treat i love cumin that’s my ultimate one of my mates always used to bring some chocolate get that down there beer chocolate grassy knoll mate gravel grass big house sheep’s poo who cares that’s what it’s all about nice one nice one i have a taste of that

Not as delicate but it’s got a little bit more of punch i prefer to see jammie dodgers i’ll be honest yeah well god bless them it’s it’s a it’s a mid class of biscuits yeah i’m a bit worried about that i think i’d have thought better of you if

You’d bought fox’s crunch creams maybe next time maybe next time for a longer ride