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Most people start humming that famous U2 song when they hear the words “Where the streets have no name.” Dutch gravel riders, however, think of something completely different—the famous Where The Streets Have No Name (WTSHNN) gravel event. The once-small gravel event has grown over the last couple of years but despite this growth, the team never lost sight of what a true gravel event should look like (i.e., great riding, like-minded bike lovers, food, and post ride beers by the fire). Not only has the event grown, but now it’s even gone international!

Shimano Gravel Alliance rider Erwin Sikkens teams up with Bas Rotgans and decides to ride a 360kms gravel loop over one weekend, in the middle of winter. How hard could it possibly be?
– As originally published on the Shimano Gravel website.

It is only once every so many years that the Netherlands sees any snow. It is even more unique when that snow is actually a thick layer that survives for multiple days or even up to a week. When a sudden period of frost and snow hit our country last week, it gave a lot of people some welcome distraction from lockdown and living under curfew. The whole nation jumped on their ice skates looking for the nearest pond or canal or started hiking through our snowy towns. But what about those bikes?

Our intrepid Dutch gravel riding über-fan Erwin Sikkens hasn’t lost his love for bikepacking despite the arrival of winter – here’s his tips for getting all-of-the-fun in less-of-the-time. The introduction of a new trend: daypacking!

With traveling being an issue this summer, but also walking around with a big bikepacking itch that needed to be scratched, I found myself looking at komoot maps for the best places to go. We ended up bikepacking the German Black Forest and French Alsace regions on both sides of the Rhine Valley. Not just a bikepacking trip, but one to remember!

Voor het Vlaamse Grinta! in samenwerking met fietsreisorganisatie Flamme Rouge stapte ik tijdens de eerste editie van ‘Giro di Grinta!’ mee op de racefiets en bedwong met mijn camera op m’n rug de Italiaanse Alpen.
Een pittige maar prachtige 8-daagse tocht voor de getrainde fietser. Van de Italiaanse meren tot de Passo dello Stelvio. Van Lombardije tot aan de prachtige Dolomieten.

Bikepacking of trekking… Volhangen met bagage, met de fiets erop uit trekken op zoek naar de horizon. In september 2017 trok ik solo van Newcastle (UK) met mijn fiets richting het noorden, om uiteindelijk in de Schotse Highlands terecht te komen…