← All eventsGravel and Tar Classic
A New Zealand gravel classic mixing fast sealed (tar) roads with selective gravel sectors in spring-classic style over ~159km/~2,000m — UCI-adjacent and raced like a road race. Date and figures approximate.
New Zealand's spring classic on mixed surfaces. Long, fast sealed roads hold the bunch together, then a gravel sector hits and splits it apart, the way cobbles do in Europe.
159km and 2,000m of rolling farmland and river country in the windy Manawatū, raced on an early-February summer's day.
It is not a gravel grind. It is a road race with gravel sectors, settled in a fast 4.5 to 6 hours by positioning, drafting and repeatable hard efforts, not steady solo miles.
Who finishes, and how
Is Gravel and Tar Classic for you?
- Road racers who are comfortable in a bunch. This is decided by positioning and drafting on the tar, not by grinding out miles alone.
- Riders with a repeatable punch. The gravel sectors ask for 3 to 8 minute hard efforts, back to back, without blowing up for the next one.
- Confident handlers who can hit gravel at speed and slot straight back into the tar bunch when it smooths out.
- Riders who can read the wind. Manawatū crosswinds form echelons, and being caught out the back is a lonely, race-ending mistake.
Training plan for Gravel and Tar Classic
A training plan for Gravel and Tar Classic isn't a generic base build. Beina reads the event's exact demands, looks at your specific profile and the time you actually have, and maps a highly adapted plan to the start line.
- Long sealed sections at bunch speed, where losing the wheels means a lonely, costly chase
- Selective gravel sectors that split the field and reward repeatable hard efforts in position
- Surface transitions: hitting gravel at speed, then getting back into the fast tar bunch
- Manawatū crosswinds that form echelons and shell unprepared riders off the back
- Sector threshold repeats: 6 to 10 times 3 to 8 min at threshold with short recovery, the core race demand
- Over-unders: 3 to 4 times 8 to 12 min alternating just below and above threshold, for surviving sector surges
- Long mixed-surface rides building from 2.5hr toward a 4.5 to 5.5hr peak on tar and gravel
- Fast group rides in the wind for drafting, positioning and echelon skills
- Built from your current fitness and the time you actually have
- Adapts every week as Beina learns how you respond
- Syncs your sessions straight to Garmin and Wahoo
- One clear next session, never a wall of spreadsheet
