Gravel Race: B.C.’s Ride for Water Grinds Gravel for a Good Cause

The only thing better than the personal triumph of completing a gravel event is completing that personal triumph for a good cause. In recent weeks, we have seen the Great Gator Gravel Grinder, Rasputitsa and La Grind all donate part or all of their proceeds to charity.

Last weekend, British Columbia’s Ride for Water joined them in raising money for a good cause. Saturday’s event helped provide funding for clean water projects in Ethiopia.

The event might be new, but the organization behind it is not. Before there was a Ride for Water, there was a Run for Water. Two years ago, some folks wanted to help the charity, but did not necessarily want to run long distances.

“In 2017 a local development firm, Diverse Properties, approached us and really wanted to support our charity and our work that is being done in Ethiopia,” event director Matt Scott said. “But they were not runners. They were cyclists and suggested we look at hosting a road cycling event.”

British Columbia has plenty of mountain biking and road fondo events, so those were off the table for the folks from Run for Water. There was, however, a discipline growing in popularity in North America.

“Around this time, there was a strong core group of local cyclists who were already riding gravel. With the Fraser Valley being home to hundreds of kilometers of logging roads, old-growth forestry roads and access to the Trans Canada Trail network, a gravel race in 2018 was just a logical step for us,” Scott explained.

“This year’s Ride for Water registrations raised $38,000 for clean water projects in the Bekyye region in Ethiopia. Hundreds of families will now have clean water for the first time in their lives because of our event. To date, the Run for Water charity has raised over $3 million for our clean water projects in Ethiopia and has drilled over 60 wells.”

Support for the Ride for Water also came from Easton Cycling. The company put up all the money for payouts to the Elite riders. Winners of both the Women and Men’s races took home $1,000 for their day of gravel work.

“Easton’s support for gravel racing has been amazing,” Scott said. “They’re really getting behind the growth of the gravel scene, and in particular our Ride for Water. We saw a definite increase in the number of elite riders this year over last. And being able to offer equal prize money for the Women’s field was important to us.”

This year’s impressive support from sponsors comes to an event that has grown quickly. Last year, we did a quick hit on the first Ride for Water. Scott said the event was a big success.

“We knew we had an amazing route and backdrop for a gravel event but we weren’t sure if there were enough local gravel riders to support a large scale race. Luckily for us, there was,” he said. “Based on last year’s turnout, we knew we were on to something and going in the right direction.”

This year, the Ride for Water offered three distances: a 27km Intro to Gravel, 85km Medio and 130km Epic. It was the Epic, with 2,200 meters of climbing, that offered the chance to race for cash.

Unlike spring classics such as the Belgian Waffle Ride, the Ride for Water was very much a gravel gravel race, with 80% of the course rolling on gravel, doubletrack or even singletrack. This year’s course swapped some flatter riding along dikes in the Fraser Valley for trails that make up the Trans Canada Trail network. Those trails are old-growth forest logging roads, so you know they got gnarly at times.

“We have a lot of mountains, a lot of forestry roads climbs and trails in our region. For us, gravel riding is everything from our house to the mountain vistas,” Scott said about the course. “To take full advantage of what our region has to offer, you’re going to have to climb.”

The Race

An impressive race calls for impressive fields.

Last month, we chatted with Courtenay McFadden about her first gravel experience. The cyclocross star was back at it in British Columbia, and she took home the win and $1,000 for her efforts. Morgan Cabot finished second and Dierdre Douglas took third. Suzanne Foster and Stephanie Jensen rounded out the wide-angle podium.

For the Men, it was Spencer Paxson taking the win. Garrett Mcleod took second and Michael van den Ham third. Carsten Ivany and Craig Richey rounded out the top five.

Full results for the 130km Epic are below. Results for all races are available here.

Women's Results: 2019 Ride for Water

Place	Name	Time
1	Courtenay McFadden	05:49:54.90
2	Morgan Cabot	06:12:36.20
3	Dierdre Douglas	06:55:31.40
4	Suzanne Foster	07:12:51.80
5	Stephanie Jansen	07:25:48.80
6	Sofia Bayfield	07:33:46.80
7	Sarah Carter	07:48:21.50
8	Diella Siemens	07:51:16.40
9	Crystal Lambert	07:58:25.70
10	Jane Weller	08:12:06.00
11	Juschka Clarke	08:30:36.90
12	Kristen Meindertsma	08:30:39.10
13	Chelsey Cooley	09:09:22.20

Men's Results: 2019 Ride for Water

Place	Name	Time
1	Spencer Paxson	05:13:22.40
2	Garrett Mcleod	05:14:57.90
3	Michael Van Den Ham	05:22:32.80
4	Carsten Ivany	05:22:45.40
5	Craig Richey	05:28:20.10
6	Nick Geddes	05:37:44.00
7	Nic Tickner	05:38:03.30
8	Christopher Bradbury	05:39:58.30
9	Steve Devantier	05:44:42.10
10	Connor Wolff	05:48:03.10
11	Nathan Killam	05:48:42.40
12	Marc Edwards	05:50:32.60
13	Kalum Utley	05:51:36.60
14	John Lackey	05:54:12.70
15	Dan Schmit	05:54:15.60
16	Ben Shaklee	05:55:33.60
17	Greg Timewell	05:58:09.30
18	Lucas Gallagher	06:01:25.90
19	Simon Blythe	06:02:22.60
20	Warren Cornwall	06:03:10.00
21	Dean Reimer	06:05:08.30
22	Phil Smith	06:05:10.70
23	Quinn Anderson	06:06:24.00
24	Jason Harris	06:09:24.20
25	Nico Petch	06:13:04.60
26	Colin Schlosser	06:13:08.70
27	James Funk	06:17:44.60
28	David Gillam	06:24:12.40
29	Chris Bozman	06:24:48.30
30	Maxwell Kelsch	06:27:31.10
31	James Kirker	06:36:23.90
32	Andrea Carrino	06:36:26.70
33	Kevin Nemethy	06:36:31.20
34	Etienne Hossack	06:36:32.50
35	Neil Winkelmann	06:37:18.40
36	Alexander Morgan	06:38:30.00
37	Stefan Feldmann	06:38:31.90
38	Jordan Behan	06:41:30.00
39	Gearld Sawatzky	06:41:34.20
40	Martin Bayly	06:41:36.50
41	Uli Mayer	06:41:44.90
42	Geordan Hankinson	06:41:54.10
43	Jim Zimmerman	06:41:55.50
44	Graham Lade	06:42:19.00
45	Bruce McLean	06:43:05.50
46	Colin Smith	06:45:22.50
47	Bert Sandie	06:49:07.90
48	Blair Benjamin	06:49:08.70
49	Gord Dickson	06:51:14.60
50	P.L. Meindertsma	06:51:15.60
51	Brian Anderson	06:54:38.80
52	Keith Tolhurst	06:56:20.50
53	David Price	06:57:28.40
54	Paul Palfreyman	07:03:44.70
55	Devin Knopf	07:06:30.20
56	Jonathan Schwarz	07:07:25.20
57	Jakub Wasiela	07:08:17.30
58	Charlie Secretan	07:08:18.40
59	TRAVIS SCHISLER	07:11:35.30
60	Sean McLean	07:11:37.10
61	Matthew Friesen	07:15:49.00
62	Jason Wutke	07:16:16.40
63	Jakub Kania	07:18:43.50
64	Mike Richards	07:20:35.70
65	Bert Griffioen	07:22:05.20
66	Nils Kuerten	07:26:03.40
67	Tom Baker	07:27:10.00
68	Peter Kobzar	07:33:43.10
69	Bob Helgason	07:33:47.40
70	Alejandro Morales	07:33:53.00
71	Ted Hobby	07:34:24.60
72	Mike Coulter	07:34:30.70
73	Matt Skinner	07:34:34.70
74	Denis Ross	07:34:41.30
75	Jason Rhodes	07:34:53.70
76	Liam Rourke	07:34:56.20
77	Matthew Hendriks	07:35:03.40
78	Milos Kalanovic	07:44:30.50
79	Alex Wren	07:46:30.70
80	Joe Viel	07:51:23.90
81	Craig McGarry	07:52:12.50
82	Justin Turcotte	07:52:15.70
83	Tom Walz	07:52:16.70
84	Paul Mc Carthy	07:52:26.90
85	Justin Payeur	07:53:13.30
86	Jack MacDonald	07:53:16.00
87	Erick Wong	07:54:59.50
88	Shawn Von Diebitsch	07:56:09.40
89	Brian Evans	07:56:57.20
90	Dwight Sick	07:57:09.30
91	Derek Slykerman	07:57:38.60
92	Tom Ryall	07:58:22.50
93	Ian Prinsloo	08:13:01.10
94	Martin Kastelein	08:32:37.70
95	Dan Buhler	08:49:34.20
96	Warren Taylor	09:04:22.30
97	Graeme Ahokas	09:04:25.20
98	Rafael Muneton	09:06:28.90
99	John Swarbrick	09:27:24.10
100	Eric Unrau	09:27:24.80
DNF	MATTHEW BROWN
DNF	Matt Church
DNF	Andrew Falk
DNF	Brandon Jones
DNF	Trevor Klaudt
DNF	Drummond Lawson
DNF	Curtis Oakes
DNF	Bjoern Ossenbrink
DNF	Matthew Strand
DNF	Graham Tutti
DNF	Dominic Walsh
DNF	Wayen Wiebe