Forbidden Gravel Experiance

Forbidden Gravel Race is my personal favorite. Out of all the gravel races I have entered Forbidden sets itself out to be the gnarliest. This race has the most climbing and the most single track. However, what I think everyone walks away remembering is the loose, long and fast decents. For me this race has always been about reducing mechanicals and moving efficentently. This years edition had an entirely new route which cut out the out and back on the north side of Comox Lake and added forbidden plateau.

We started as we always have in this race as a neutral start. We followed an E-bike through the town of Cumberland and then when we hit the gravel the race was on. The first pinch point of the race would be a right turn into some fast single track. I aimed to be on the heels of the “pros” going into this section. There were a couple of attacks that were easily squashed by the lead group and I stayed glued to Cory Wallace’s wheel confident that he would be into the single track in the first few positions. We entered the single track with Craig Richey leading John Vanderveen, then Cory and myself. There was a gap behind me and I put my head down to try and stay on Cory’s wheel. I made a small mistake which opened a gap ahead and closed the gap behind. Graham Cocksedge and Sam Whittingham immediately closed on me and I let them slide by on my left side as soon as I was able.

When We exited the single track and hit the bottom of the first climb there was the lead group of 5 followed by my group which now consisted of Dave Nowak and his teammate whom I didn’t know. The three of us climbed up to the back of the lead group and made contact just in time for their speed to increase and drop us again. We fractured a bit on the climb with Dave and me on the back foot. Dave and I descended the first descent together where Dave showed his local knowledge. I was giving 110% and slowly falling back until I hit a rock awkwardly and was tossed around having to slow the pace. Dave was just a dust cloud for the next 10 minutes but I kept chasing. I caught back up to him in the next section of flat gravel and stayed in contact throughout the single track that transitioned us to the Cumberland forest area.

The second climb of the day was by far the most outrageous climb I have done in a gravel race. With Dave, his teammate and I starting the over 1000m climb together I knew it was going to be a real struggle. Dave’s teammate got a puncture and then it was just two. We got to a steep and loose section and both had to dismount resulting in an awkward walking race. I wasn’t racing Dave or anyone else at this point I was in a fight with myself to suffer and to ride as much as possible and just keep pacing and eating. I must have gotten off my bike a dozen times during the climb however when I reached the crest I was alone and Dave was no longer in sight.

Onto the decent it start as the craziest loosest scarriest decent I have ever done. At the speed I was going I was sliding all over the place and it felt more like surfing the riding. That first section lasted about a km and a half then it was onto the fast long gravel decent. This is some goosebump, hair raising stuff with speeds from 60kph to peaks in the high 80kph. It’s fun for sure but the margin for error is small and the risk is high. The hardest part of these type of sections for me is coming up on the medium distance competitors who are having a great day out and here I am racing down this hill. I always call out well ahead to people and I always take the less desirable line when passing but it is a bit scary not knowing how they will react as I approach sometimes double the speed they are travelling at.

Safely down at the bottom, we cross a river there are shallow options if you go on either side of the crossing and tip-toe around, I prefer the direct approach straight through the center. From there it is head down and pedal as you’re less than 15 minutes to the finish and you need to let out whatever else you have left in your legs. I crossed the finish in 6th place roughly 20 minutes behind Sam who was a further 20 minutes behind the lead group. Dave followed me by 8 minutes and young guy Orien Massey on his debut gravel race was 8 minutes behind Dave.