Mapping out a gravel route

First up, let’s take a look at the most comfortable gravel-riding terrains. As it’s name suggests, gravel involves riding on gravel tracks and paths covered in stones, but it also encompasses riding on looser surfaces such as forest trails and on tarmac, cobbles, and mud. You need to watch out, though, when riding on dirt tracks in the countryside. When the mud dries out, it can make things pretty uncomfortable.

This info can help you decide which type of trail you want to ride on when creating your gravel route.

If you're not keen on creating your own route, there are a lot of tourist trails in France that are clearly marked with green signs. You'll find them all at francevelo-tourisme.com. 

Most of the time, these routes will take you down pleasant country roads, but the site does list some MTB routes that are a whole lot closer to gravel. And in Belgium, the Netherlands and northern France, you can also make use of a system based on intersection marker points called points-noeuds. At each intersection stands numbered signs that help you find your way around by simply noting down the numbers of the marker points you want to follow on a small piece of paper that you stick to your handlebars.

If you'd rather follow a gravel route that's already marked out, then use a route planning app like Komoot. With the paid membership option, you can follow routes created by other users using GPS navigation integration, which means all you have to do is choose your riding activity, starting point, ride duration and level of difficulty and then save the route for later or go straight to navigation. Riding a gravel route couldn't be easier. If you want to create your own route and get off the beaten track in search of new locations, Komoot can also help you. Let me explain, step by step, how I create my own gravel routes.

Tip no. 1: Make sure you're sitting comfortably at your PC. Creating a route can take time, but it's much easier and more practical to do it on a big screen, where you can have several windows open at the same time with several different base maps. You can use Google Maps, Strava Global Heatmap, or another base map on Komoot.

To help you create your gravel route, ask yourself these four questions:

1. Which types of surface am I prepared to ride on?

2. Are there any places I need to be on my route? (such as popping round to mum's to pick up some jam, finding a spot to watch the sun go down, or a baker's where I can find a nice sandwich).

3. What's my destination or am I doing a round trip?

4. How far am I willing to ride? You should know that riding a 70km route on a gravel bike takes twice as long as a road ride over the same distance because you can't go as fast. Once that you've mapped out the basics, you can move on to the next step. There's no need to be too fixed in your ways. I often start with a very clear idea in my head and end up with a totally different route because I wasn't happy with what I saw or found something else much more appealing. It's just a question of knowing where to start.

If you're a purist, you can create your route the old-fashioned way using an Ordnance Survey map you picked up from your local bookshop. That’s not necessarily the most practical option, though, because you can’t zoom in or zoom out on a paper map, they get wet when it rains, you need to have space to unfold them, and you also have to work out the distance of your route. 

Paper maps are nice and all and they add to the sense of adventure, but let's face it: they're not exactly very practical. A better option in my eyes is Komoot, a cycling route app you can use to map out routes free of charge. I prefer to pay for membership, though, because it gives you a whole lot of features like GPS navigation and maps for each type of riding, like MTB base maps. You can also create collections. I went for a Premium account, which gives me access to all the app's features. I use Komoot like a GPS navigation device when I'm out for a half-day ride, by attaching my phone to my handlebar with a smartphone mount. If I'm out for a longer ride or it's raining, I use a dedicated GPS device to make sure I have enough battery for the day. 

The app is compatible with Garmin and Wahoo GPS devices. Alternatively, you can always extract the GPX file. If you don't have a GPS device, you can download routes offline, put your phone in flight mode and use voice guidance. This will let your battery last longer. Komoot is a pretty easy app to use but it does take a little while to get used to all its different features. When you first open it, it can seem a little complex.

Now that you’ve got an idea of where you want to ride and all the options open to you, all you have to do is make your choice. Gravel riding isn't the same as road cycling so you should generally try to select as many unpaved roads as possible. This will leave you with all the dirt, gravel, forest and farmland tracks. On a Komoot map, the routes we're interested in are tracks, which are indicated with a solid, dashed or dotted brown line (the smaller the dots, the trickier the track is to negotiate), paths (a black line), and cycleways (a green line). Try to avoid yellow routes as much as you can and the big white routes. Quick tip: Click "M" on your keyboard/keypad to make your route disappear. It's very useful for finding out which road you're on.

The cycleway route option: When there are no gravel alternatives, it's sometimes worth checking out routes using the cycleways marked out in green in Komoot, especially when you have to cross major roads. The green lines also provide useful information for spotting cycleways such as les voies vertes ("green routes").

Option 1: I know where I want to go
If you know your destination, Komoot will automatically create a route for the riding mode you choose (MTB, bike ride, road bike, etc). You can then customise it by making it longer or choosing points of interest, etc.

Option 2: I don't know where I want to go
When you don't have a clear idea of where you're headed, the best thing to do before you create a route is to check out a tourist map of the area. I often start with the Komoot map and then change the background to show up as many things as possible, such as les voies vertes, tourist attractions, beauty spots, woodland, highest points, and points of interest suggested by other Komoot users. Once I've got an overview of my options, I can start to create a route by linking my points of interest. I can then develop the route by picking out the paths, trails and tracks that interest me, either by creating waypoints or by dragging the route line with the cursor to the routes selected. If Komoot stops you from taking a certain route, it may be because it's a one-way street or because access is blocked. In this case, you can either trust Komoot or check it (see Step 4). It may sometimes be the case that there are very few or no gravel routes in the area you've chosen, in which case you might want to change your starting point.

You don't really need to do this for road routes and it's not essential for gravel ones, but it can be really useful. It can make all the difference between a great route and a beginner's route. We've all been there! We've all cursed someone who came up with a route that takes you through banks of stinging nettles only to come to an end at a wall, with no other way out than to go back through the nettles. And if you're the one who created a route taking your friends for a ride through the nettles, then that's not any better. So once you've created your draft route, the best thing you can do is check all the gravel sections, i.e. the dotted tracks and black trails.

GOOGLE MAPS
Street View in Google Maps is a good tool for checking out paths. However, the gravel tracks that we're interested in aren't always visible in Street View. It's still useful, though, for getting an idea of what the start of a track is like and the signage. You might, for example, be tempted to add a walking or hiking trail to your route only to find out in Street View that cycling is not allowed or that the trail's too narrow for a cyclist to overtake a hiker. Note: Using Google Maps to create a route is a surefire way of getting lost. It will always take you on the most direct route and is sure to lead you down private and A roads. Take it or leave it.