The Legendary Gravel Race You Need To Know: GCN Vs Paris Ancaster

When we were invited to ride one of the oldest gravel races in the world we couldn’t say no! Paris-Ancaster which takes place in Canada every year and we sent Manon to get involved. A brutal 100km race over mixed terrain, could Manon finish it!?

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Northern europe has been home to some of the most brutal bike races for years we’ve got strada bianchi we’ve got torah flanders milan san remo paris roubaix well today i’m not in northern europe i’m in north america to take part in a race that has been inspired by the brutalness of pariru bay

I’m going to tackle some of the toughest farm lanes trails tracks and grabba roads canada has to offer this is the og of gravel racing this is paris to ancaster down there Literally the best group of people ever oh my god i’ve never felt pain like this that was a brutal 100 kilometers paris ancaster was a gravel race before gravel races even existed a mixture of road gravel and technical sections that attracted nearly 3 000 riders each year

The race is in the heart of ontario canada it runs between the town of paris and ancaster and it has four different lengths to suit all abilities when the lovely people of this event got in touch with us and asked if we wanted to take part we couldn’t say no so tomorrow i’m

Going to be taking part in the 100 kilometer route but before i start let’s find out how this unique race came about well the race came about in 1994 and it was myself and a couple old friends uh decided to put something on a little earlier in the season and we were

Actually uh sort of copying perry bay at the time a tribute race for the first bunch of years we ran it on the same date as perry rip a and then being canada we decided that was actually even colder than in france so we moved it to later in april I think the real reason it works that well is it’s uh you’re racing the same course same day same time as the pros so everybody’s out here and they’re not all equals because some of the riders are really top riders but they all feel like they’re part of the same event um

And everybody has their own experience in it so they all have their own epic ride Okay so night before the event and just got back to the hotel after a day’s filming and it is 10 o’clock 3 a.m in the uk so quite tired quite jet lagged but just gonna get everything ready for the event tomorrow all right it’s time to get some sleep

It’s the morning of the race we were up at the crack of dawn and people were flooding in and the atmosphere it was building okay so number on bike all set up changed ready to go got 20 minutes till the start start to feel a little bit nervous i’m

Off in the first wave so with some of the the proper pros i’m not sure what the start is going to be like but i’ve been told it’s carnage i guess we better better get down There are so many people here it’s gonna be absolutely carnage so i’m kind of excited so let’s get to it It was a super fast start to the race and the first bit was on gravels he had stones flying everywhere and it was pretty cornish but then we hit a nice big wide road section and i was like right this is my chance get near the

Front and stay out of trouble and i mean i was um trying to hold my own within the pro peloton but um it was it was tough going they were going super fast looking forward to hitting the first big gravel All going good so far still in the main bench not sure how long i can stay at though it was really cool that the male and female riders all started together so that doesn’t really happen that often in pro races so it was nice to do something a little bit different

So in 2014 uh paris and cancer was the first professional race i ever won at that point i was new on a professional team and the beginning of my season had been a disaster i kept crashing and breaking bones and getting sick and having no results and then i came here

And there were a few really established professional cyclographs racers from europe that were there and i managed to get a getaway at the at the finish line and just win the race and for me this really flipped the switch and allowed me to have more confidence and

Just then it kind of kick-started my career so i really have good memories of this race I managed to stay with that front group for about 40 minutes and when i was there i was like i’m probably going a little bit too hard i can’t sustain this for 100 kilometers but eventually we went a bit of an incline and i kind of got dropped

It’s annoying because i can see them just up ahead so i’ve got a little grip going we’re gonna try and uh do our best to get back on but my way that was a fast old start After about 35 kilometers of nice big wide open roads and gravel tracks we finally hit our first narrow single track lane so positioning was really crucial going into this bit [Applause] 38 kilometers into the race going good so far looking forward to hitting some of those muddy shoots that everybody’s been chatting about but um haven’t seen any canadian mooses yet a little disappointing but you know i’ll understand they didn’t want to come out today so yeah doing good We then hit some of the more technical parts and it was really wet and boggy And i actually hit one massive bog and i had to get off and walk and the only way through was me getting my feet soaking wet with black mud so that was my feet wet for the rest of the race which was lovely i then had to get off and jump

Over the biggest tree i’ve ever seen it honestly it was about this high i could have done with a ladder to get over it but um got the bike on the shoulder got over did a cycle cross hop onto the bike and got going again this such a great community spirit about

This race like everywhere in the course there’s people cheering on and they they’ll be out there all day watching every single person like close to 3 000 people go past and it was the course was amazing such a variety of roads gravel tracks a forest we even went through like people’s back gardens

Well the course is actually based around some old railway lines originally running from paris paris to ancaster and then we’ve tied in gravel roads and uh farmers lanes and private properties and over the years we’ve uh we’ve used quite a few different landowners over the years uh they’ve been unbelievable uh

Receptive to letting us ride through their properties and that’s really developed a big community of parasite and kesha community over the years feels like kind of like the whole surrounding area stops for this race because this is a big thing in this area All right good three hours in now and i’m running out of gas literally the best group of people ever Okay i’m now at five kilometers to go and oh my god i’ve never felt pain like this i have bonked so hard i’ve just eaten i didn’t stuff my face there was people on the side of the road with candy so i literally just took took some

Shoved it down me and hopefully that’s going to give me some energy to get to the finish but oh it’s hard going so i saw the mud shoots and i saw people go down and they were just crashing so i decided to play it safe and hop off the bike and

Walk down i came this far and i didn’t really want to mess it up just hit one of the famous mud shoots and i mean there’s a few people riding down but i’m not getting too far because it’s pretty deep deep mud but yeah just impossible to ride down

Um without without falling off so go in for the old walking technique but just see how deep this mud is absolutely savage Wow then it was the final brutal climb to the finish but there was so many people on the sides of the climb cheering you on and it was a really good atmosphere it felt like you know finished like a big race and everybody had cowbells and it was an amazing atmosphere so it’s

Really nice to have that encouragement Got to the line and i’ve completed paris to ancaster That was the most brutal finish to a bike race i think i’ve ever done like my my legs up that hill were screaming and so many people having to walk up but thankfully stayed on my bike but that was a brutal 100 kilometers once i got my breath back i decided to

Catch up with the winners of my category mike vanderham and magley rochette firstly congratulations on the wayne how was it out there for you today uh it’s well first off it’s so great to be back racing this event they’ve had to cancel the last couple and like paris and is

Always one of my favorite events to go to just because of the weird sort of mix of road racing gravel racing cross everything out there and also because there’s like 3 000 people here and you know a lot of them are cyclists there’s a

Bunch of pros here but a lot of them are just like people in the community who are like you know what i’m training comparison caster this year like i’m gonna do it and that’s cool i don’t know if it feels just as special to win it again today um it’s really

Cool because i mean it’s always good for the confidence to do a good race and have good results but i think for me this year it’s mostly about reconnecting with the canadian community of cyclists i’m from canada and i know they cheer me on when i race on the world cup and they

Always write me on instagram and on social media but i rarely get to race in canada so doing an event like this with is which is really focused on community with over 2 000 racers it’s really fun for me to chat with everyone and meet

Everyone and yeah when i get to take the win it’s just even better you know it’s just the cherry on the cake there we have it i completed paris to ancaster thank you so much to the event organizers for inviting us out to do this brilliant race and if you’re

Thinking about taking part next year just bite the bullet and do it you will not regret it it’s a brilliant atmosphere here and everybody really does get behind each other so let me know down in that comment section what you thought of my efforts and if you did

Enjoy this video make sure to give it a big thumbs up i’m off to find some maple syrup bye