Taking the rough with the smooth

Whether your doorstep opens on to wide open hills or you’re linking together sinuous suburban green space, gravel riding in 2020 offered an escape at a time when it felt like the world was standing still. Gravel bike design certainly wasn’t standing still. The year 2020 saw a raft of new releases that featured new geometry, new frame design and new gravel-specific technology. This year’s Editor’s Choice list features eight bikes both analogue and electric.

If you consider cycling a spectrum, with road bikes at one end and mountain bikes at the other, 2020 saw gravel biking as a genre move along it. ‘Longer, lower, slacker’ is a mantra that mountain bikes have pushed for years and as gravel riders tackle gnarlier terrain, they too are looking for bikes that inspire confidence.

Take the Specialized Diverge as an example. It was updated in 2020 and it received a slacker head angle and a longer wheelbase as well as clearance for much wider tyres. Specialized said it had taken inspiration from its Epic XC hardtail.

Meanwhile at the other end of this spectrum sits the Scott Addict Gravel 10, a premium carbon-framed gravel race bike – as fast on road as most race bikes but capable of accommodating wider tyres. We loved how quickly it allowed us to cover ground off-road.

But simply a list of carbon-fibre bikes would have any hardcore graveller turning up their nose. Gravel remains