Why was the gravel distance launched?

Tartu Rattamaraton—and cycling in general—has evolved. Since the very beginning, our course has been gravel-bike friendly, so it felt natural to officially acknowledge that by adding a dedicated gravel category.

Why is only one distance called 'gravel' if you can ride all of them with a gravel bike?

It’s true—you can ride any of the distances (21 km to 126 km) with any type of bike. But we chose to label the longest course as 'gravel' to highlight its suitability for gravel bikes and to better reach riders who identify more as gravel enthusiasts, and who may have previously thought of Tartu Rattamaraton as primarily a mountain bike event.

Why does the 126 km gravel race now start at 9:00 instead of 14:00?

Originally, we wanted to keep the traditional start times unchanged and minimize the impact of adding the new 126 km race. However, feedback showed that many would prefer the longer course—but only if it started earlier. Otherwise, they'd finish much later than riders on shorter distances. So we adjusted the schedule: the 126 km gravel start moved to the morning, and to avoid overlap between groups, we pushed the 86 km and 40 km starts slightly later.

Check the start times in the program.