A bevvy of swans ventured north to Geraldton over the weekend to participate in this year's running of Backroads Gravel. Notoriously windy, this year didn't disappoint - it also decided to chuck in some rain because riding 160k on gravel isn't challenging enough. Kudos to everyone that gave it a crack.

The challenge presented showed in the results, so far at the time of writing - not a single person has expressed positive feelings about how they went on the day. Everything from mechanicals and crashes to acute pink eye infection impacting rider's days.

Pre-Race Swans favourite for a result (according to surveys conducted by self-nominated hitter - Mitch Clarke) was Mitch Clarke - he unfortunately had a seat that decided to get a bit loosey goosey very early on in the race. After stopping 4 times he managed to crank out a monster effort to solo TT for 120km and still crack the highest mark for our swans gravelista crew in the overall standing, coming in 31st.

Swans member, who wears swans kits on all training rides, commutes and apparently even at work - but allergic to wearing swans gear on a race day - our Russian/English/New Zealand import, Ira, was our best performer on the day, coming in 2nd in her age cat and 3rd female overall!

Showing what sort of day it was out there, almost 20% of the 160km field DNF'd on the day with the mud causing absolute havoc.

In the 100k race - our best performer as well as award for grimmest look at the end of the race was Sam Paulin who ended up getting a dinner for 2, coming in 69th overall.

Other notable mentions:

• Best crash - Oscar Pretorius: Taken out by a rogue tree branch resulting in cuts and abrasions as well as a broken mech.

• Weirdest injury - Pete Minchin: Pink Eye, we didn't ask.

• Quickest to DNF - Josh Lovegrove: So short he didn't even log it on Strava.

• Getting best value for money on the entry fee - Kelana Selah: 7 hours+ on that course is monumental.

• Smallest training lead up - Simon Doyle: 1 ride, 3 days out + some stretching the night before.

Results below:

Gallery: