A one-of-a-kind cycle adventure hosted by the Grass Routes CC, in association with The Bike Place. This self guided Grass Routes Gran Fondo takes participants on a criss-cross 140km stage where they weave a path from rural boreen to boreen, taking in several mixed surface sectors on route to the finish. Influenced by the American DIY gravel events, but more in common with the European “classics”, the crew at Grass Routes CC have taken the no marshal self-guided approach and brought it to the road community; ever wonder where that small road goes? Well now you know! Type of bike required? This questions come up quite a bit and we try answer it as best we can but ultimately it comes down to riders choice. This is designed as a “classics” style road bike event, so some mixed surfaces are to be expected but all just about passable for a roadie (think Roubaix). The vast majority is paved rural roads and boreen (grass routes) which have pretty good surfaces, the boreens can be in mixed repair. The Bike Place will be riding road bikes with 25c standard tyres, some people will prefer to use a CX/Gravel bike with 28c+ road tyres for these types of roads and keep the S-Works in the garage, that’s cool too! There is a fair bit of short sharp kicker climbs in the 140km stage, so balance between comfort, weight and speed as appropriate The event is supported by Tipperary County Council