1 – This is a “Point to Point” event. You begin in Fruita, Colorado, and ride 208 miles to Moab, Utah.

2- Of course it is hard. It is 208 miles and gains more than 11,000′ of elevation. That said the roads are GREAT! This is a “Gravel Race” and not mountain bike style technical terrain. Terrain sample videos can be found here.

3- We have 5 full aid stations. They are stretched out and approximately 35-45 miles apart.

4- There is a time limit and cutoffs but we want you to finish! You have 23 hours and 59 minutes to get it done. This is approximately 9 mph.

5- This is an ultra-endurance adventure event. In this spirit, you are on your own between aid stations. ALL participants must have someone on hand to rescue you should you need help or extraction from the course. (And to get you home after you finish!) Receiving ANY outside aid or support, except from other participants, is not allowed and grounds for disqualification from the event.

6- There are two options for participation. Solo. Or, a relay team of up to 4 riders. Relay teams will be either A, all female members, or B, any other combination of up to 4 riders. Only 1 relay rider rides at a time. Relay teams may exchange riders only at any one of our 5 official aid stations.

7- This is a race. Awards (very cool awards) will be given to all finishers and Solo overall male and female top 3 finishers and “age-group”  top three finishers. Team awards will be given to the top 5 teams in each of the two categories.

8- This is much more than a race. This is a true desert adventure! YES, you can come out to crush it. More importantly, you can come out to this incredible part of the world and test yourself. You against you in a most beautiful place and end up in Moab Utah.

9- Crew support at aid stations is allowed. We encourage them to be there for you for additional support, both nutritional and moral!

10- Yes, we will have a kick-ass celebration and awards party on Sunday at the finish!

We are optimistic that by the fall 0f 2021 Covid-19 will be much, much less of an issue. We will keep our Covid-19 refund policy intact you can find it here full policy here.  If needed we will have face coverings, social distances, and group mitigation policies in place to protect you the riders, and our communities.

We know that crappy feeling… You get it, you pull the magic lottery ticket and then you scramble for a place to stay. Nothing but No-Vacancy everywhere you look.

Not here. With more than 2,000 local hotel rooms, hundreds of short-term rentals and plenty of camping at both the Fruita start town and Moab finish town. Our Fruita lodging partner visitfruita.com will be offering discounts to racers and on the Moab end we will have a limited but very special lodging opportunity. Stay tuned!

This event starts and ends in world-class cycling venus. We strongly encourage you to make this a destination event/vacation, something for your entire family or ride group. We can’t even begin to list the road, mountain, and gravel cycling opportunities. Let alone the hiking, climbing, sightseeing, dining, camping, exploring opportunities.

Additionally, we’ve structured this route to have easy access to Interstate 70. As a rider, you will feel like you are absolutely in the middle of nowhere. The reality is aid stations are not far from the roadway and allows easy access for your family/crew to follow the event and support. In doing so, they will end up in Moab too. Lastly, as you are required to have a support person in the region anyway your shuttle/transportation needs are built in.

Aid stations for the course easily accessible and do allow access for the crew, friends, and family for outside support. These defined locations can be found above in the course info. Within these open-access aid stations, riders are allowed and encouraged to meet with their crews and families for mechanical, nutritional, and moral support!

Beyond these defined ‘open access’ aid stations All courses are closed to outside support and riders are not allowed to accept support, crew or aid outside of ANY designated aid station.

At Desert Gravel we want riders and their support to be involved and part of the action. We also want to honor the adventure of gravel riding and the self-reliance appeal of the sport. For these reasons, WE WILL NOT RESCUE YOU.  All riders MUST HAVE a designated crew person on hand and available to retrieve a rider that needs assistance. If a rider does receive this outside assistance they become disqualified from the event.

Please take the time to review your course, develop a support and crew plan and determine at which open access aid stations you would like your crew to meet you. Crew suggestions and directions to open access aid stations can be found in the riders’ bible.

Aid stations. All aid stations have water, hydration drink, and an array of snacks and energy nutrition provided by Skratch Labs. Aid stations are approximately 40 miles apart.

We want you to have your family or friends cheer you on and provide additional support. Aid stations are crew accessible. These “crew accessible” aid stations are the ONLY place riders are allowed to receive outside support. Crew on other parts of the course is not allowed and taking outside support (except from a fellow rider) is grounds for disqualification.

Rexy will not be marked. GPS is a mandatory requirement for all riders. Rexy takes place on open, active roads. You are required to obey all traffic laws and ‘rules of the road’ – such as staying on your side of the road and paying close attention on tight turns, curvy segments and always being on the lookout for oncoming traffic. Don’ t let the remote nature of this event or your location lull you into a sense of forgetting that others may be just around the corner and coming your way!

GPS Map Files and cue-sheets (turn by turn directions) will be available electronically for download and will be emailed to racers. You should print these and carry them with you. You should also provide copies for your crew and designated support person.

Downloadable GPS files will be provided to all racers and should be shared with your crew.

Swag and Awards.

Great swag – we love it. Bad swag, turns into rags to clean your bike with. We are all about GREAT swag.

Every rider receives – A cool t-shirt you’ll actually be proud to wear. Socks that are better than the shirt and a course-specific finishers’ award that you’ll want to show off.

Awesome awards – Solo Age group awards (each 10 year bracket). 1st, 2nd, 3rd places receive an award that will become coveted and iconic in the gravel world.

Queen and King of the Desert overall awards for solo and team categories as well as top five overall finisher in the solo and two team divisionsl

Beer. A lot of excellent beer for all of those riders 21+ and plenty for purchase for family and crew.

Food. Finish line recovery, snacks and calories to get you back up and active.

Plenty of extra tees, socks, hats and jerseys for sale for you and/or your family and crew. So you can all go home and show the world that you came to the desert and conquered Rexy, Queen of the Desert!

This is a gravel event. Our top choice is a gravel bike. Especially in the longer distances, getting low, and grinding out the miles happens faster and more comfortably on a gravel specific bike.

That said – If you want to ride your mountain bike, no problem. No big rocks, drops or ledges (that’s mostly on the other side of the highway) so lockout suspension or a hardtail would be ideal.

Tire size is a big debate in today’s gravel. These courses, on most days, are smooth enough for anything in the 30’s. We personally like 38’s -42’s for the extra absorption and float if the sand comes out. We’ll keep course conditions updated as the race date approaches.

208 miles on a flat road is hard. 208 miles of almost all gravel and dirt, with over 11,000′ of climbing? Very, very hard.

But, that is the point after all. Right? Rexy is your chance to define your new “possible” It can be done, comfortably (as comfortably as 200 mile rides can be) within the 24 hour time limit by riders that have prepared correctly. We know, we’ve done her ourselves, many times. We have a generous cutoff time of 24 hours because we want you to finish. Ya, it’s freaking hard. Ya, there are some epic, steep climbs that most of you will have to walk a few sections but, you will be rewarded with breathtaking views and an accomplishment you will NEVER forget. If that sounds like too much, or you just aren’t sure. We have answer – relay it!

What makes Rexy hard other than the distance?

One of the unique aspects of riding here is elevation gain comes in short, abrupt climbs, generally steep and rarely over 1/2 mile long. When you think about 11,400′ feet of total gain that means there are a lot of short little punches out here. You can see a good example of a very steep climb in this video clip

Depending on the recent weather we can also have none – some sand.  The challenge isn’t that the sand is for long sections. Actually, it is just the opposite – It comes without notice and in areas, you might not expect. It can be deep and quickly take charge of your front wheel. You can see an example in this video.

And in between? is sweet, rolling, beautiful gravel that allows you to chew up the miles and get’r done.

Such a great question – The national definition of the term is anything from not quite asphalt to just short of single-track.

Desert Gravel is this. We ride on 4 types of road – in order of most prevalent to least.

1- 70%  ‘dirt’ to ‘actual’ gravel. Desert, hardpack dirt with gravel and very fine crush rock mixed in and, occasional segments of sand. Width ranging from single-lane to wide double lane. These roads range from regularly maintained to seasonally maintained. The texture from very smooth to moderate washboard.

2- 15-20% Hardpack – less packed dirt road. (primarily on the 3 longer courses). Narrower, ‘jeep’ style road (no double track, all are actual road) comes into play higher in the hills with more climbing, and descending, rolling terrain. Some sections of these roads can also be sandy when the weather has been dry for long periods of time. The opposite can be true with extensive rain creating challenging, sticky mud.

3 – 5% Primary county maintained true “gravel” road. Well-maintained, wide, smooth, fine gravel roads. We’ll also put old deteriorated state hwy 50 road into this category. Low or no maintained old asphalt road, plenty of gravel and potholes in sections. In the 175 and 125 mile courses these few sections will be much appreciated for a reprieve from the ever-changing terrain most of the course enjoys.

4- Paved, current, modern asphalt road and hwy. Minimal. ALL course use this primary road type for the 1st and last 5 miles of each course leaving and coming to Fruita. All but the shortest courses use 1 mile (each direction) of a state highway at about outbound mile 24.

What you won’t find here. There is NO single-track. There are no “rock gardens” (yes, rocks can be anywhere on a rural road) – but there are no segments, or sections covered/littered with medium to large rocks.