Race to Valhalla is 72 miles with about 7,300 feet of climbing on traffic-free gravel through the Blue Ridge escarpment, headlined by the roughly thirty-minute Winding Stairs climb from Lake Cherokee in the early miles. Steep grades run throughout, with more escarpment climbing between the final aid station at mile 57 and the finish in Walhalla, under variable mountain conditions.
This is a twelve-week plan for riders chasing a result here, built around the higher weekly hours that racing takes rather than just covering the distance. The volume is higher and the hard days more specific, because a result on this course comes from climbing the escarpment grades repeatedly across seventy-two miles, not clearing Winding Stairs once.
72 MI · 7,300 FT CLIMBING · TRAFFIC-FREE GRAVEL ROADS THROUGH THE BLUE RIDGE ESCARPMENT IN · 12 WEEKS · 9–13 HR/WK · COMPETE
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 and a mid-plan retest, so the plan runs on your real numbers
- The full Race to Valhalla guide — terrain, gearing, fueling
Hey, I'm Matti. I spent 11 years at TrainingPeaks, where they trusted me to teach coaches how to coach at TrainingPeaks University. I raced Amateur Elite with Rio Grande Cycling Team and podiumed my age group at Unbound 200 in 2026. I have a degree in biology and exercise physiology from St. Olaf. I'm also a middle-aged dad of three, so I know training doesn't happen in a vacuum. I help gravel riders get stupidly fast without becoming the person who brings a food scale to a party