The Wrecker

The Wrecker is a 740 km self-supported gravel ultra from Land’s End to Herne Hill Velodrome in London. It crosses southern England rather than circling back to where it started, using old mining tracks, moorland, bridleways, drove roads, chalk ridges, canal paths and quiet lanes to make a line all the way across the country.

Cornwall sets the tone immediately. It is rougher, steeper and slower than the distance suggests. From there the route crosses Bodmin Moor, Exmoor, the Quantocks and the Mendips before joining the Ridgeway and gradually finding faster ground towards the Thames and London. The western half asks most of the questions. The eastern half starts giving a few answers, although by then there are quite a lot of kilometres in your legs.

It is entirely self-supported. Riders decide when to eat, where to sleep and how hard to push, with live GPS tracking throughout. Some will race it, some will bivvy their way across over five or six days, and most will probably do a bit of both.

The Wrecker is deliberately small, capped at 50 riders. The riding can be intimidating enough without the event being so too. The idea is to keep it friendly, slightly scruffy and personal, while still sending everyone off from the far end of Cornwall with 740 km of Britain between them and the finish line.