Southern Cross is about 50 miles with roughly 5,500 feet of climbing on mostly gravel roads in North Georgia. The course has two major sustained climbs, two long descents, some pavement and pasture or trail, and grass in the final half mile.
This is an eight-week plan for Southern Cross on four to six hours a week, starting from the fitness you already have. It focuses the available weeks on climbing strength, endurance, and gravel handling.
50 MI · 5,500 FT CLIMBING · MOSTLY GRAVEL ROADS WITH SOME PAVEMENT AND PASTURE OR TRAIL · 8 WEEKS · 4–6 HR/WK · TIME-CRUNCHED
WHAT'S INSIDE
- Structured workouts on your calendar, with real power and heart-rate graphs
- Strength work built in, with video walkthroughs
- Weekly notes from me, plus the Gravel Grit mental program
- A testing week, so the plan runs on your real numbers
- The full Southern Cross Gravel guide — terrain, gearing, fueling
Hey! I'm Matti - also known as the Gravel God himself!
If you're into gravel racing and want to be as fast as possible, you had better choose me!
Why?
Because I'm the fastest, least talented person to ever ride a bike. I've made every mistake in the book so you don't have to and I'm here to save you years of failure and struggle.
When I'm not helping my athletes get faster on a bike I write obvious, overlooked training content that makes cycling training easy to understand.