L'Échappée

L’Échappée is a 550 km self-supported gravel ultra from Paris to London, starting at the Vélodrome Jacques Anquetil and finishing at Herne Hill Velodrome. In between are forest roads, riverside trails, the open gravel of Picardy, a Channel crossing under sail and a final run across Kent and the North Downs into south London.

The French leg is fast and flowing, with long sections where riders can settle into a rhythm and let the kilometres disappear. Riders have to manage their own food, sleep, navigation, weather and mechanicals, while also keeping one eye on the clock. Somewhere ahead is a sailing from Boulogne that they need to catch.

At Boulogne-sur-Mer, riders and bikes board SailLink for the crossing to Dover under sail. Time at sea is neutralised, so riding time stops at check-in and starts again when riders leave Dover. From there the route crosses Kent, climbs onto the North Downs and gradually gets swallowed back into London before finishing inside Herne Hill Velodrome.

The event is deliberately small, with just 24 riders. The fastest may treat it as one very long breakaway, while others will split the ride across three or four days. Either way, the idea is simple: start at one velodrome, finish at another, and take a rather unnecessarily adventurous route between the two.