On the last weekend of April, the square in front of the Megalopolis town hall looked like a start line in Tuscany. It was the second Megalopolis Gravel Classic, and the numbers tell the story on their own: 210 riders registered, 193 rolled out on Sunday 26 April, and 164 finished. The year before, the whole race had 80 people in it.
Three routes went out into the hills — 25, 50 and 100 kilometres of dirt road through the Arcadian countryside. On the long one rode Paolo Bettini, Olympic champion in Athens in 2004 and the event’s official guest, who came in at 5:13:12. An Olympic gold medallist choosing to spend an April weekend on our gravel is not a small thing for a race in its second year.
What makes this weekend worth travelling for, though, is everything that is not the race. Megalopolis ran skills clinics for children, a bike expo, and a programme called “Learning About Bicycles” inside the local schools. On the Saturday evening more than 400 people rode through the town together. There was live music, and a pasta party built on products from the region — the kind of dinner where the pasta, the cheese and the oil all come from within an hour’s drive.
This is what we mean by slow travel with a purpose. A race weekend brings people into a town that most travellers drive straight past on their way to somewhere with a beach, and it leaves something behind: beds filled, tables full, children who now know how to corner a bike on loose gravel.
What to expect in 2027. The organisers, Bicycle Friendly Greece, have already fixed the date: 25 April 2027. They have also announced a partnership with Geo Gravel Tuscany, Bettini’s own gravel race in Italy, which they expect to bring a noticeably more international field to Megalopolis. The event is supported by the Municipality of Megalopolis, the Marina and Athanasios Martino Foundation and the Arcadia Chamber of Commerce.
Our advice is simple: come on the Friday, leave on the Monday, and treat the race as the excuse rather than the trip. Where to stay around Megalopolis →
