Gravel
Stage Race
Event Guide 2026
28–30 August 2026 · Banchory, Royal Deeside
Gravel sport. Outdoor culture. One festival.
Organised by Red On Sports · explorr.co.uk
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Getting here, staying here, and everything to sort before you leave the house.
Welcome to Banchory, and to the first edition of the explorr Gravel Stage Race.
For years this town has hosted Run Banchory — a race built by local people who wanted to show off the ground they run on. We’re growing that into something bigger: three days, a Festival Village and 120km of Royal Deeside gravel. Same instinct, more room.
The racing itself is a new format. We wanted a one-day gravel stage race that brings the best of multi-day racing into a single action-packed day — timed stages against the clock, transitions to eat and recover, and three classifications running at once.
What you'll ride on Saturday is the real thing: forest tracks above Scolty, wind-exposed gravel highways on the tops, quiet backroads through farmland, and a run-in along the Dee with the Festival Village waiting at the end of it. Four timed stages. Five sprints. Five climbs. One day to put it all together.
Off the bike, there's a village that runs from Friday lunchtime to Sunday evening — music, food, talks, an expo and a bar that stays open late. Bring the people who came to watch. They won't be short of things to do.
Our ambition is straightforward: to make explorr a fixture in the Scottish sporting calendar. That starts with this weekend, and with you.
We’re looking forward to your feedback, and to seeing how the racing unfolds.
Ride well. Look after each other out there. We'll see you at the finish.
The Gravel Stage Race is Saturday. The festival runs all three days — music, talks, food and racing from Friday lunchtime through to Sunday evening. Here is how the weekend falls.
| 12:00 | Festival Village opens |
| 12:00–20:00 | Registration & Info Desk |
| 12:00–21:00 | Food village, bar and coffee — bar open late |
16:00
Scolty Shakeout RideRide
16km through Scolty Woodlands, taking in sections of Stage 4 and finishing on the trails along the River Dee. Loosen the legs, meet the field.
| |
17:30–18:15
No Single PathPanel talk
Where a bike takes you, and how you got on it. Round the world, Audax, the daily commute, the professional peloton — with Markus Stitz, Iza Murtagh and James McCallum.
| |
18:45–20:30
PoteenLive music
Together since 1984. Ray Moore, Gordon Ledingham and Alistair Sey play Scottish and Irish folk that slides into ceilidh, country and rock without warning.
| |
| 21:30 | Festival Village closes |
| 08:00 | Festival Village opens |
| 08:00 | Registration & Info Desk opens |
| 08:00–22:00 | Food village, bar and coffee — bar open late |
| 09:00 | Race briefing |
| 09:30 | Registration closes |
| 09:30 | Start pens open |
10:00
Gravel Stage Race startRace day
Neutralised roll-out from the heart of the Festival Village. Riders leave together, through Banchory and out towards the first stage.
| |
| 11:00 | Kids Dirt Crit — coached lap All three age groups ride the course together with Deeside Thistle coaches. Every corner seen, a few tips picked up, nerves settled before the first start. |
11:30 · 12:00 · 12:30
RacesKids Dirt Crit
Racing for Under 8s, Under 10s and Under 12s.
| |
| 13:45 | First finisher expected — Gravel Stage Race |
15:00–17:00
Podium presentationsPodiums
General Classification podiums. The fastest across all four timed stages, called up in front of the Festival Village.
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17:15–17:30
Fuel for the DistancePanel talk
What to eat, when, and how much — on the bike and on your feet. With Steve Marson, founder of Veloforte, and James McCallum.
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18:00
Medal sessionsMedals
Sprint and Mountain Classification podiums. The fastest on the flat and the fastest up the climbs, honoured separately.
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| 18:30 | Charity Night Hike |
19:15–21:15
KasbahLive music
A Scottish three-piece playing classic rock and pop from the sixties to now. Known for getting the reluctant onto the dance floor.
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| 20:00 | Info Desk closes |
| 23:00 | Festival Village closes |
| 08:00 | Festival Village opens |
| 08:00 | Registration & Info Desk opens |
| 08:00–17:00 | Food village, bar and coffee |
09:00
Kids running eventsexplorr Running
Deeside Dash and Wee Dash, on the park loop.
| |
| 09:30 | Race briefing and guided warm-up — running events |
| 09:40 | Start pens open — running events |
| 10:00 | Registration closes — running events |
From 10:00
Running race startsRace day
Marathon, half marathon, 10km and 5km.
| |
| 10:45 | First finishers expected |
12:00–14:45
Podium presentationsPodiums
Running podiums, by age group.
| |
| 17:00 | Info Desk closes |
| 18:00 | Festival Village closes |
The Festival Village is in King George V Park, in the middle of Banchory — 18 miles west of Aberdeen on the A93, on the northern edge of the Cairngorms.
Banchory sits on the A93 between Aberdeen and Ballater. From the south, come up the A90 to Stonehaven and across on the B979, or take the A957 Slug Road. Sat nav to the car park, not to the park — the two are on opposite banks of the river.
The nearest mainline station is Aberdeen, about 18 miles east, with direct services from Edinburgh, Glasgow, Dundee and the south. Bikes travel free on ScotRail but reservations are compulsory on most long-distance services — book the bike space at the same time as the seat, well ahead of a bank holiday weekend.
Banchory is on the Deeside bus corridor from Aberdeen city centre, running along the A93 and taking roughly an hour. Buses drop in Banchory town centre, a few minutes’ walk from King George V Park. Coming from the central belt, Ember runs electric coaches into Aberdeen and Dundee — check their routes and bike policy when you book.
If you’re within riding distance, the Deeside Way runs traffic-free from Aberdeen to Banchory and delivers you almost to the Festival Village gate. It’s a good way to arrive and a very good way to get home on Sunday.
The official event car park is a field on the south bank of the Dee, a 500m walk from the Festival Village.
This is private land and it’s pay and display, booked online in advance. Either print your ticket and display it, or enter your vehicle registration when you buy and skip the printing.
Book your parking — explorr.co.uk/parkingCamp on site and you wake up a few minutes’ walk from the start pens. The official campsite sits alongside the Festival Village, with showers, toilets and water taps.
Banchory and Royal Deeside are well set up for visitors. If you’re still looking for somewhere to stay, visitabdn.com/businesses/category/stay lists what’s available across the area.
This is the fastest way to hear anything from us. Scan the code, join the channel, and the weekend comes to you — route and timing updates, weather calls, start-line reminders, results as they land, and things we’re not putting anywhere else.
It’s a broadcast channel, not a group chat. We post, you read. Nobody sees your number, nobody gets 200 notifications about someone’s lost saddlebag, and you can leave whenever you like.
A 120km day with 1,489m of climbing inside the timed stages alone is a long one. Come rested, come healthy, and be honest with yourself the week before. If you’re unwell on race morning — chest infection, fever, anything viral — don’t start. There’s another one next year.
By starting the race you’re confirming that you’re fit and well enough to take part.
The official GPX is at explorr.co.uk/routes/gravel-stage-race. Download the latest version — it includes the start and finish of every timed stage, plus all five sprint and five mountain segments — and load it onto your head unit before you travel. Signal in the forest is patchy. Don’t plan on downloading it in the car park.
Gravel is hard on drivetrains and harder on bottom brackets. Get a service in the week before, not the night before. Banchory Cycles, REM Bikes and Total Endurance Cycles are both at the expo if something needs attention on the day.
Get in touch at info@explorr.co.uk and we’ll talk through your options.
Your pack, your number, your morning.
Head to the Registration & Info Desk tent in the Festival Village. It’s signposted from every entrance to King George V Park.
| Day | Open |
|---|---|
| Friday 28 August | 12:00–20:00 |
| Saturday 29 August | 08:00–09:30 |
Every rider must bring photo ID — passport or driving licence — to collect a pack. No ID, no pack.
They need your photo ID, or a photocopy of it, and your written permission. Both. A text message doesn’t count.
Same tent, all weekend. Questions, lost property, lost children, anything at all. Open Friday 12:00–20:00, Saturday 08:00–20:00, Sunday 08:00–17:00.
Four items come in your rider pack. You need all four fitted to ride.
Leave a bag with us at the start and pick it up when you’re back. A change of clothes, a warm layer, whatever you want waiting for you.
The Bag Drop tent is in the Festival Village. Open Saturday 08:00–20:00.
You’ll be given a bag drop label when you hand your bag in — show it to collect. Valuables are accepted, but they’re left at your own risk.
Main stage, 09:00. Short, and worth ten minutes of your morning — it’s where any last-minute changes to the route, the weather plan or the cut-offs get announced.
Pens open at 09:30 in the heart of the Festival Village. You’ll need your rider wristband to get in, your jersey number on your back and your bike board on the front.
One single pen for all riders. There’s no seeding, so line up where you’re comfortable.
Published from Wednesday 26 August at explorr.co.uk/start-lists.
The Gravel Stage Race rolls out at 10:00, neutralised, from the Festival Village along Dee Street, across the Bridge of Feugh and out towards the start of Stage 1.
Roughly a kilometre is neutralised. Riders are released 500m before the start of Stage 1 and are free to race from that point.
Stay behind the Lead Vehicle. All of you, all the way. Racing starts when the Race Director drops the flag and the Lead Vehicle accelerates away. From that point, it’s on.
120km. Four stages. Three ways to win.
Everything good about a multi-day stage race, compressed into one Saturday. A 120km route with 75.9km of it timed across four stages. Five sprint segments. Five mountain segments. Compete for all three classifications or pick one and commit — the strategy is yours.
Only the four timed stages count. Between them are transitions — untimed sections, mostly on open public roads, that link one stage to the next.
Transitions are not racing. Roads are open to traffic, the Highway Code applies, and you ride on the left. Use the time to eat, drink and get your breathing back. The clock isn’t running.
Every stage is a self-start. There’s no gun, no queue and nobody holding you. Your time starts the moment you cross the start point of that stage and stops when you cross its finish.
That means the clock is yours to manage. Roll in when you’re ready — take a breath at the line, sort your gearing, wait for a mate if you want to ride the stage together. Nothing counts until you cross.
From the roll-out on Dee Street to the high gravel roads above Royal Deeside, this route is built on the real terrain of the Cairngorms' edge. Punchy climbs. Flowing forest track. Wind-exposed gravel highway on the tops. Tactical 250m sprints where a lapse in concentration costs you the segment. Each stage tells a different story. Together they decide the race.
Full route detail and the official GPX: explorr.co.uk/routes/gravel-stage-race
| Stage | Distance | Climbing | Sprints | Mountains |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 · The Opener | 5.2km | 180m | 1 | 1 |
| 2 · The Breakaway | 10.7km | 240m | 1 | 1 |
| 3 · The Queen's Stage | 50.9km | 1,008m | 2 | 3 |
| 4 · The Final Charge | 9.1km | 61m | 1 + Flying KM | — |
Three feed zones on the route, each stocked with Veloforte nutrition, carbohydrate drink mix, fruit, sweets and water. Getting your fuelling right is most of the difference between finishing well and finishing.
| Feed zone | Food | Drink |
|---|---|---|
| 1 — 25.3km | Veloforte Ciocco and Classico energy bars · bananas · Haribo | Water · carbohydrate energy mix · Red Bull |
| 2 — 56.7km | Veloforte Nero and Mela energy chews · bananas · Haribo | Water · carbohydrate energy mix · Red Bull |
| 3 — 85km | Veloforte Rosso and Limon energy gels · bananas · Haribo | Water · carbohydrate energy mix · Red Bull |
There’s a moment on the way back to the Festival Village, in the final kilometre of The Final Charge, where the route meets the banks of the River Dee.
Flat out. One kilometre. Every rider registers a time. No splits, no group dynamics, no sitting in. It doesn’t matter where you are in the field or how the day has gone. For that final kilometre you give it everything that’s left.
Times are captured and published live through the weekend. Riders, friends and supporters can watch the board build, see exactly where they sit in their age group, and see the fastest times land.
Every rider who registers a time goes into a prize draw for free entry to any Red On Sports event in 2027. The fastest riders pick up spot prizes on the day.
The route carries three cut-off points. They exist so that our marshals, first aiders and sweep crews aren’t still out on a hillside at dusk. Miss one and you’ll be asked to take the direct route back to the Festival Village.
| Point | Distance | Location | Cut-off time |
|---|---|---|---|
| A | 56.7km | Feed Zone 2 | 13:20 |
| B | 94.6km | Slug Road | 15:50 |
| C | 111.8km | Start of Stage 4, The Final Charge | 17:00 |
| Finish | 120km | Festival Village | 18:00 |
Mechanical, injury, or the day has simply gone. It happens. Here’s what to do.
If you need medical help at any point, make yourself known to a marshal, steward or any member of the event team. Our first aid team works from roving 4x4s and is deployed wherever it’s needed, so there is no fixed post to walk to. For anything minor, make your way to the next feed zone if you can. There’s also a medical station in the Festival Village — marked on the Festival Village map.
Stop. Check they’re all right. Then report it to the next marshal you pass, or call Race Control. This is a rule, not a courtesy.
Out on the route you’re self-sufficient. Carry the tools and spares you’d need to fix your own bike — nobody is coming to do it for you between feed zones.
Limited mechanical assistance is available at each of the three Feed Zones: 25.3km, 56.7km and 85km. Expect basic help and basic spares, not a full service course.
In the Festival Village, our expo partners — Banchory Cycles, Total Endurance Cycles, REM Bikes and the Red Bull Bike Shop — can look at anything more serious, across the whole weekend.
You may accept help from event staff or from another rider in the race. From anyone else, no. See Rules.
Because someone does. These are working forests and public roads, shared with people who didn’t enter a bike race. How we behave on Saturday decides whether we’re welcome back next year.
The last kilometre brings you back along the Dee and into King George V Park, through the Festival Village and across the line. It’s the best bit. Enjoy it.
Every rider is timed on net time — from the moment you cross the start line of a timed stage or segment to the moment you cross its finish. Transitions between stages aren’t timed. You’re ranked on your lowest cumulative net time in each classification.
Results, including interval times from checkpoints along the route, are live on race day at explorr.co.uk/results.
Live timing, live tracking and the timing screens in the Festival Village — see Follow the race.
Take it to the Info Desk and ask for the Race Director. That’s the only route for a results query, a protest, or anything about another rider’s conduct. Marshals, feed zone crews and the timing team can’t resolve it.
The Race Director’s decision is final.
Everything handed in goes to the Info Desk in the Festival Village. Open Friday 12:00–20:00, Saturday 08:00–20:00 and Sunday 08:00–17:00. After the weekend, email info@explorr.co.uk.
Podium presentations for the top three in each age group in the General Classification, from 15:00 on the main stage. After the GC podiums, a medal session for the Sprint and Mountain Classification winners — all of them called up together. Medals for every podium.
| # | Age groups | From |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | 19–34 M · 35–39 M · 40–44 M · 45–49 M | 15:00 |
| 2 | Junior M · 50–54 M · 55–59 M · 60–64 M | 15:30 |
| 3 | Junior F · 19–34 F · 35–39 F · 40–44 F | 16:00 |
| 4 | All remaining age groups | 16:30 |
| Medals | Sprint and Mountain Classification winners, all age groups | 18:00 |
Every rider races against others in their own age and gender group, in all three classifications. Your group is set by your age on 31 December 2026.
Riders disappear into the forest at ten past ten and most of them aren’t seen again for hours. Here’s how the people who came to watch stay involved.
Download the explorr live tracking app and the whole race comes with you — live timing off every checkpoint, live positions, projected finish times, and the three classification leaderboards updating as riders cross each segment.
Follow one rider or follow the fight for the Queen’s Stage. Watch the Sprint Classification change hands at 250m a time. See the Red Bull Flying KM board build through the afternoon.
The best place to watch is the Festival Village. Live timing screens run all day beside the finish, with the leaderboards, the checkpoint splits and the Flying KM board. Add a coffee, then a beer, then the finish funnel filling up from 13:45.
Three days, and only one of them involves a race number.
Free to enter, all three days, for everyone. This is where the weekend actually happens — riders, runners, families, locals, and anyone who fancies a pint by the river.
The food village runs all weekend — vendors, speciality coffee, desserts, and a fully stocked bar serving alcoholic and non-alcoholic drinks. Coffee from early each morning. The bar goes late on Friday and Saturday.
The expo runs Friday through Sunday with a strong line-up of brands showing the latest gravel kit, new launches and interesting tech. It’s a working space too — mechanical support, shakeout rides leaving from the Festival Village, and real time with the people building the sport. Come with a specific question or come to browse. Both work.
The Festival Village is free to enter, on grass, and open to everyone. Accessible toilets are available and marked on the map.
Accessible parking is available adjacent to the Festival Village. Spaces are limited, so reserve one in advance — email info@explorr.co.uk and tell us which day or days you need it.
Anything else that would make the weekend work better for you, just ask — the earlier the better.
Grab something to eat, get a drink, and stay where you are.
Knobbly tyres, a 1km loop, and a finish line in the middle of the Festival Village. Proper racing with real numbers and a crowd that’s genuinely there to watch.
The loop is enclosed, non-technical and suits any bike with knobbly tyres — mountain, gravel or cyclocross. Riders complete as many laps as they can inside their age group’s slot, so nobody gets lapped out and everybody is still racing when the finish comes.
Run with Deeside Thistle CC, with British Cycling qualified coaches on hand all morning.
Three categories, in two-year blocks, set by a rider’s age on 1 January 2026.
| Cat | Age group | Race time |
|---|---|---|
| E | Under 8 | 11:30 · 10 min |
| D | Under 10 | 12:00 · 15 min |
| C | Under 12 | 12:30 · 20 min |
Loosen the legs and get eyes on the closing kilometres. A guided spin through Scolty Woodland and Blackhall Forest, taking in part of The Final Charge and the trails along the Dee, led by the Red On Sports team.
A relaxed but rewarding evening walk into the forests above Banchory. 7.4km, climbing steadily to Scolty Tower, where the ground opens out and Royal Deeside goes gold in the sunset. Refreshments and snacks at the summit, then back down to the Festival Village — where Kasbah, the street food and a field full of people who’ve been racing all day are waiting.
No racing, no clock. Just a hill, a view and good company, guided the whole way by our team.
All profits are shared between Prostate Cancer UK, Breast Cancer UK and Banchory Outdoor and Active.
Sunday is the running day. Marathon, half marathon, 10km and 5km, all off-road, all through the same Deeside forest and riverside you’ll have ridden on Saturday. Plus the Deeside Dash and Wee Dash for the kids, on the park loop.
Backing up a 120km gravel race with a Sunday 10km is a decision only you can make. Plenty will.
explorr exists because a lot of people decided a new event in Banchory was worth the effort.
To Aberdeenshire Council, Live Life Aberdeenshire and Visit Aberdeenshire — thank you. This weekend genuinely wouldn’t be here without your support.
To our commercial partners, who backed a first edition of something before there was anything to look at. To Forestry and Land Scotland and the landowners who let us take 120km of route across ground they look after. To the businesses, residents and community of Banchory, who’ve put up with the road cones and turned out anyway.
To our marshals and volunteers, standing at forest junctions in whatever the weather does, cheering people they’ve never met. You are the reason this works.
And to you, for entering something that had never happened before. That takes a certain amount of faith. We hope it was repaid.
