• landscape
    118km

    of scenic and rolling terrain

  • grain
    110km

    of continuous gravel

  • elevation
    6800'

    of climbing

The Ghost always has something special on tap, but this year, we're cranking things up to 11! This year, the Ghost of the Gravel is also the 2024 Cycling Canada Gravel Canadian Championships.

 

Mark your calendars for Sunday June 16, 2024!

Register
Tech Guide
Volunteer
 

Gear

The Alberta foothills offer stunning panoramas, but can also introduce rapidly changing weather. There will be aid stations, sweep vehicles, medical support, and the camaraderie of your fellow riders to support you, but portions of the course do not have cell phone coverage so in the event of an emergency or inclement weather, you’ll need to be self sufficient – Let’s do our best to reserve our sweep vehicles for those who can no longer progress under their own power.

Although not mandatory, below are some gear selections you may want to take under advisement:

  • Rain cape or wind jacket – please bring both to race, and we’ll advise at race start on which is recommended.
  • Warm under-helmet beanie.
  • Shower cap to keep your head dry and wind proof.
  • Full fingered gloves.
  • 1 tube, CO2 and/or pump (small pump recommended).
  • Multi tool with/and chain breaker + quick link.
  • Your preferred race nutrition to supplement aid stations.

Additional items to evaluate on race day:

  • Arm and leg warmers
  • A base layer
  • A fender

 

Sponsors Great races don't happen without amazing sponsors. We'd like to extend our thanks to the following companies.
Next time you need to part with some of your hard earned money, We hope you can think of them.

 

Route Info

We're still offering the same Friendly (78km) and Scary (118km) Ghost lengths, but this year, the Scary Ghost will be offered in both recreational and competition flavours.

This year our event and your experience will be bigger than ever before. As a National Championship, we will have separate start waves to reflect the championship categories. To be eligible for the championship categories; you will need an ABA or CCC racing license. We will still run a separate Ghost of the Gravel Challenge in the mass start format of previous years, with no special licensing required.

For those unfamiliar with Water Valley, it's a hop, skip and jump from Calgary (translation: about 1h drive). The historic western town provides tons of Alberta character and their community hall acts as our event's start and finish line

 
 

About The Ghost

Ghost of the Gravel was born from a group of friends that loved bikes. We rode as far and frequently as possible on any bike. Winter meant gravel, and the gravel NW of Calgary was the best there was... and so the Water Valley 220 was born. An annual Calgary-to-Calgary spring tradition of rain, sleet or snow (sometimes all 3).

One day Ghost of the Gravel was born out of a desire (need?) to make the hardest bike race we could on the coolest roads we knew - those roads just happened to be unpaved. We shortened it to only the best roads, and made sure everyone was fed and watered afterward to reward the hard day - but the spirit of pushing yourself on seldom-travelled roads remains.

10 years later, we've had thousands of starters, winners from 3 different countries, and a ton of fun showing people the roads and character of Western Alberta.

2023 Results
 
 

About Deadgoat

Drawing inspiration from the long defunct Deadgoat Saloon in Salk Lake City, Pat Doyle and Tim Brezsnyak founded the Deadgoat cycling club in 1995. Over the past 20 years, the Deadgoats have been riding and racing both at home in Calgary, Alberta and around the globe.

 

Photos