Amy's Great Ocean Road Gran Fondo
Run on closed sections of the Great Ocean Road between Lorne and Apollo Bay — one of the few chances to ride that coastline without traffic. A timed 122 km gran fondo sits alongside shorter recreational options and a 3 km family ride, in memory of Amy Gillett.
Sea Otter Europe Girona Gravel World Series
A UCI Gravel World Series qualifier on the Costa Brava gravel that made Girona a cycling town, run as part of the Sea Otter Europe festival. Distances are published in the technical guide each year rather than on the front page.
Cape to Cape MTB
Four days and roughly 200 km of coastal singletrack, farm tracks and forest through the Margaret River region, with daily stages of 34–59 km. Not especially technical, and the format deliberately builds in the breweries and wineries the region is known for.
Big Sugar Gravel
The gravel season's closer, on the loose, sharp limestone roads of the Ozarks north of Bentonville. The 100-mile route carries about 6,200 feet of climbing and often decides the Life Time Grand Prix standings.
DerbyFest — Tas Gravity Enduro
A community mountain-bike festival at Blue Derby built around a public enduro round of timed stages across the trail network, with a non-competitive Come & Try category alongside the graded fields. A downhill time trial and a billycart race run the same weekend. This is the one anyone can enter, as distinct from the professional World Cup rounds Derby has hosted.
Around the Bay
A ride around Port Phillip Bay from Melbourne, with six options from a short family ride up to the full 220 km circuit. Flat, coastal and aimed at every level of rider — for many Victorians it is the first big day they ever ride.
Cycling Shimanami
The one day the Shimanami Kaido expressway itself closes to cars so riders can use the main carriageway across the islands between Onomichi and Imabari. Several course options are offered; the bridges are the reason to come.
Pokhara Enduro
Six timed gravity stages over two race days in the Arba Hills above Pokhara, with a shuttle-assisted practice day first. The trails mix technical forest singletrack with flowing corners, and the Annapurna range sits in the background the whole way. It is one of the few organised enduro events in Nepal and draws an international field.
Chiang Mai Gran Fondo
The established mass-participation gran fondo in northern Thailand, part of the Gran Fondo World Series, starting from PAO Park with four distances. December puts it in the cool, dry season, which is why it works.
Peaks Challenge Falls Creek
The ride Australians just call Three Peaks: 235 km from Falls Creek over Tawonga Gap, Mt Hotham and back up Falls Creek itself, with a 13-hour cutoff. It is the longest, hardest one-day mass-participation road ride on the Australian calendar, and the last climb starts when you have already ridden 200 km.
Gran Fondo Strade Bianche
The white gravel roads of the Crete Senesi, on the same course the professionals race, finishing in the Piazza del Campo in Siena. Mixed gravel and tarmac with a firm seven-hour cutoff on the long route.
Cape Town Cycle Tour
A fully closed 109 km loop of the Cape Peninsula, run every year since 1978 and the largest timed individual cycling event in the world. A 42 km option covers part of the same coastline.
Absa Cape Epic
Eight days and roughly 650 km through the Western Cape, ridden in pairs who must finish together. UCI hors catégorie, and generally treated as the hardest mountain bike stage race in the world.
We Ride Flanders
The cobbled bergs of the Tour of Flanders — the Oude Kwaremont, the Paterberg — ridden the day before the professionals race the same roads. Every route finishes in Oudenaarde; the longest starts in Antwerp.
Sea Otter Classic
Part bike festival, part race meeting: an enormous industry expo at Laguna Seca alongside road, cross-country, downhill, enduro and gravel racing plus two gran fondos. The trade sees it as the season's product launch; riders see it as a weekend of racing anything they own.
Beechworth Granite Classic
A deliberately podium-free gravel weekend around Beechworth, mixing sealed roads with granite gravel through farmland and around Mount Pilot. The 115 km route carries up to 60 km of gravel, and the routes interlink so you can step up or down on the day. People come for the riding and the weekend rather than a result.
Mallorca 312
A closed-road day around much of the island, with three distances starting together from Playa de Muro — the 312 km option rolls out before dawn. Around 8,500 riders, mostly international, and it sells out quickly.
Levi's GranFondo
Sonoma wine country and the coastal ridgelines above it — King Ridge and Meyers Grade — with five distances from a family ride to the 119-mile Growler. Founded by Levi Leipheimer and still one of the harder one-day road routes in the United States.
GFNY World Championship New York
A timed mass-start road race that begins on the George Washington Bridge and heads into Bergen and Rockland counties before finishing in Fort Lee. It is the final of GFNY's global qualifying series, and riders come from more than ninety countries.
Unbound Gravel
Gravel racing's biggest day, on the flint-studded roads of the Kansas Flint Hills, with the 200-mile distance as the one everyone means. Entry is by lottery, drawn the November before, and the rock is famous for destroying tyres.
SBT GRVL
High-altitude ranchland gravel out of the ski town of Steamboat Springs, graded from a 25-mile green ride to the 108-mile black course. Places are allocated by random draw in an open registration window rather than first come, first served.
Maratona dles Dolomites
Seven Dolomite passes — Sella, Gardena, Campolongo, Pordoi, Falzarego, Giau among them — on roads closed to traffic for the day. Entry is by public ballot and heavily oversubscribed, so plan a year ahead rather than a month.
Belgian Waffle Ride California
The original Belgian Waffle Ride: tarmac, dirt, sand and singletrack stitched into one deliberately awkward day out of the Del Mar Polo Fields. The headline Waffle route runs about 106 miles with 7,500 feet of climbing.
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Come! BikeDay Sun Moon Lake
A government-run cycling programme around the 30 km lake loop rather than a single race, with an annual carnival and a cross-lake ferry return. Worth knowing about if you are planning the ride rather than chasing a number.
Haute Route Alps
Seven timed stages across the Alps with a race convoy, mechanical and medical support and controlled roads — closer to a stage race than a sportive. Around 800 km and 19,000 m of climbing over some of the biggest passes in the range.
L'Étape du Tour de France
Ride a genuine Tour de France mountain stage on closed roads, weeks before the professionals race it, with the race village and full support. The route changes every year, so check the official site for the current edition.
La Marmotte Granfondo Alpes
177 km and 5,000 m from Bourg-d'Oisans over the Glandon, Télégraphe and Galibier, finishing up the 21 hairpins of Alpe d'Huez. Shorter companion rides run the same weekend for anyone not ready to commit to the full day.
Leadville Trail 100 MTB
An out-and-back between Leadville and Twin Lakes entirely above 9,200 feet, topping out at 12,600 on the Columbine Mine climb. Entry is by lottery, and finishing inside the cutoff earns the belt buckle the race is built around.
Mazda Signature Ride
A gran fondo through the mountains north-east of Medellín, climbing through Barbosa, Girardota, Santo Domingo and Cisneros with three timed mountain primes on the long route. The 127 km option carries 2,600 m of Andean climbing and some fast technical descending. It first ran in March 2026, so it is not yet an established annual fixture.
Santos Tour Down Under Group Rides
The public riding programme that runs alongside the professional Tour Down Under — guided social rides out of the Tour Village in Victoria Square, a carpark climb and a family ride, on the Adelaide Hills roads the race uses. Successor to the old Bupa Challenge Tour. Routes and distances for 2027 have not been published yet.
Sunny Coast Century
A timed gran fondo from Eudlo in the Sunshine Coast hinterland, about 45 km south of Noosa, on a course laid out by former professional Henk Vogels that takes in the Montville and Postmans Track climbs. Open entry, with part of the fee going to its charity partner.
Taiwan KOM Challenge
From sea level at Qixingtan Beach to 3,275 m at Wuling, Taiwan's highest paved road, climbing the whole way through Taroko Gorge. Around 7% for 90 km, then ramps past 20% at the top — one of the hardest single climbs anywhere.
Tour de Bintan
A three-day road weekend on Bintan with five formats from a 17 km time trial to a 150 km gran fondo, carrying UCI Gran Fondo World Series status. An easy ferry from Singapore, which is much of its appeal.