The Safari Gravel Race is 69 miles with about 8,200 feet of climbing on mostly unpaved ground — fast red-clay gravel, singletrack, and genuine game trails through Hell’s Gate. It runs high the whole way, starting near 6,200 feet and topping out above 7,200, with cool mornings that give way to strong equatorial midday sun.
This is an eight-week plan for riders working with four to six hours a week. Most of the training goes toward the specific demands of this course — repeated climbing and time on loose, technical ground — because the altitude and the midday sun are the race’s to hand out, not something a plan can simulate.
69 MI · 8,202 FT CLIMBING · ~6.4K FT ALTITUDE · 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 Safari Gravel Race 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.