Still, when it comes to actual riding, autumn works for everyone. Road and MTB both have their charm this time of year, but if there’s one discipline that truly owns the season, it’s gravel. Here are seven reasons why you should give it a go this year.
Perfect weather
No more frying on asphalt like a human schnitzel. Autumn cools things down, which sounds great for roadies, until you remember they ride fast enough to turn a light breeze into Siberia. Nothing like doing 35 km/h while wishing you could pull an Alaphilippe, grab a cardboard sign, and use it as insulation. MTB? Fun year-round, but autumn trails often mean you’re one bad line away from a full-body mud spa.
Gravel hits the balance. The speeds are steady, not freezing. The ground stays grippy, not swampy. You’re moving fast enough to cover distance but slow enough to actually feel your fingers. Most routes are at lower altitudes, so you’re not sweating up a climb only to freeze at the summit like a popsicle – a very sweaty, not-so-delicious popsicle. Gravel gives you adventure without the extremes. It makes autumn actually feel like a season to enjoy your ride, not survive it.
Extending the season for new riders
Beginners thrive in summer. Dry tarmac, predictable trails, no slippery leaves hiding potholes like evil little booby traps. MTB in the summer? Fantastic: no wet roots waiting to flick you off the trail. Road riding? Smooth and safe, as long as you don’t melt into a puddle on the blacktop. Autumn changes the rules. Roads get glassy with wet leaves, MTB trails turn into slip-and-slide obstacle courses, and suddenly, that safe summer playground feels like it’s out to get you.
Gravel is where newbies can keep riding without adding “hospital visit” to the agenda. Damp paths offer grip without becoming ice rinks. The terrain is varied but rarely technical enough to punish mistakes with broken bones. You’ll still slide a little, but it’s controlled chaos, not instant “AHHHHHHHH” moments. For anyone who wants to keep rolling past September without risking their neck, back or gluteus maximus, gravel is the golden ticket.
Finally, dust-free rides
Gravel is fun in summer, but the dust? Less so. By August, you’re basically inhaling a desert. Your water tastes like dirt soup, your nose becomes a vacuum filter, and your lungs are building sandcastles in themselves. Draft behind someone for ten minutes, and you’ll need an archaeologist to dig your teeth out of the dirt.
Autumn solves that. A little rain keeps the trails damp, which means the dust stays on the ground where it belongs. Unlike wet asphalt, which becomes a Slip ‘n’ Slide for adults or MTB trails that transform into mud wrestling arenas, gravel turns perfect. Firm, grippy, and mercifully breathable. It’s the only time of year when your water bottle tastes like actual water instead of earthy broth, you don’t eat about 300 calories of soil, and your eyes can stay open without becoming tiny sandboxes.
No more tourists
Summer gravel rides are a test of patience. ATVs roaring past, buggies blocking the track, families spread across the entire road because little Timmy insists on riding diagonally. Every outing feels like an obstacle course designed by people who hate cyclists.
Autumn clears the stage. The tourists pack up, the “fun for the whole family” excursions disappear, and suddenly the gravel roads are yours again. No weaving between quad bikes, no dodging picnic groups, no awkward smiles as you squeeze past ten people who’ve mistaken your route for a walking tour. What’s left is silence. Just you, the crunch of tyres on gravel, and the occasional bird giving you side-eye. Gravel riding finally feels like what it should be – peaceful, steady, and free of human traffic jams.
Post-harvest trails open up
In summer, gravel paths double as highways for tractors, harvesters, and farmers doing actual important work… You know, the kind that produces the sandwich you packed. By autumn, the fields are empty, the crops are in, and those same gravel roads transform into wide-open playgrounds. No dodging machinery, no waving awkwardly at farmers wondering why you’re sweating past their barn. Just quiet roads lined with empty fields, finally yours to ride.
It’s the one time of year when you can enjoy the countryside without feeling like you’re intruding on someone’s office… unless you count cows as coworkers.
Colours worth slowing down for
The meadows, the trees, and the magic of nature are slowly dying. It’s beautifully tragic. And before I burst into a song about the duality of autumn and its inevitable decay, let’s just say this: the season looks incredible, and it’s worth seeing more of it.
Gravel is the perfect way to do that. Road riding forces you to focus on traffic and staying upright on leaf-coated tarmac. MTB buries you in mud and roots before you can admire a single view. Gravel, though, gives you just the right pace to look around, pull out a camera, or simply enjoy the scenery without needing a full hazmat cleanup afterwards. It’s cycling’s version of slow cinema. Gorgeous, quiet, a little melancholic, and best enjoyed with tyres crunching on damp gravel instead of teeth chattering on slick pavement.
It’s THE gravel season
Autumn is when gravel takes centre stage. Road racing has wound down, MTB trails are halfway to swamps, but gravel? Gravel is everywhere. Community rides, local festivals, long-distance suffer-fests that promise “fun” but mostly deliver sore legs, and that one place with the awesome pastries is “closed for winter”.
It’s the discipline that refuses to hibernate. Riders come together, roll through the countryside, and turn the season into a celebration instead of an afterthought. Whether you’re chasing a podium or just chasing the food truck at the finish line, autumn gravel events are where you’ll find the energy of summer without the heatstroke.
If you’ve ever wondered why gravel has become cycling’s fastest-growing obsession, autumn is the answer. This is the season when it shines, and the best time to join in before winter pushes everyone back indoors.
The Goldilocks season
Autumn doesn’t belong to roadies freezing on descents or MTB diehards swimming through mud. It belongs to gravel. The weather is cooler but not cruel, the trails are firm but not dusty, and the scenery is tragic enough to make even the most hardened rider pause for a photo. Gravel in autumn is the balance point. Adventure without chaos. Beauty without disaster. Enough challenge to make you feel alive, but not enough to make you lock away your bike till late spring.
So yes, summer had its glory and winter will have its suffer-fests, but autumn is gravel’s season. Ride it right, and you’ll remember why you fell in love with cycling in the first place… even if your shoes carry that first-autumn-ride moisture all the way to the next summer.
