Format

CotsDURO is a chilled no frills gravel ride usually held on the last Saturday of June each year.  It is a gentle gateway into the national XDURO trials.

The route showcases the wonderful variety of singletrack and doubletrack, highways and byways of the Cotswolds across its rolling countryside and the saw-tooth profile of the Cotswold Edge.

#CotsDURO26 will run on Sat 27 June 2026:
  • Start: meet for a coffee and lovely pre-ride bite to eat at 8.30am at Musette (formerly The Coffee Lada) [Merretts Mills, Bath Road, Stroud GL5 5EX]
  • End: late-afternoon back at Musette & the Fresh Standard brewery next door.

Note there is no parking at the start - please take the train and/or ride. And the normal stuff... please don't cycle in a group of more than 6 people and always be courteous and give priority to walkers when off-road. In short, don't be a dick.​
​
​What bike shall I ride?
It suits non-UCI compliant(!) >33mm tyres on a gravel/cx bike. Rough bits will be too rough for road bikes. MTBs would be fine but probably a tad overkill.
The ride will be run in XDURO format - several timed segments comprised of gravel and road. Lots of time for socialising in the non-timed bits. ​Rider with the lowest aggregate time over the segments 'wins'*.​​  

*There are no entry fees, no prizes, and there is no support. You are entirely responsible for your own actions, only turn up to ride if you are comfortable with this (see Rules for more details).

Route

The route consists of ​~80km of gravel and 1,300m of climbing, lovingly engineered to not be a sufferfest...
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For 2026 the segments are:
​Download to your GPS device prior to the trial
​​Navigate to this page on your mobile, then download KMZ file (for Android you may then need to unzip it by using a File Manager app), and then open in Maps.me app to use as backup navigation

Entry

  1. Fill in the Trials Contact Form - link available on the Trials page (same form for all standard TRC trials; no signup, no results)
  2. ​Join The Racing Collective club on Strava and click "I'm in" on the ​Strava event - ​​​here​
  3. Download the route to your GPS device and star each segment so they appear in Strava

Results

Rider CD-1 CD-2 CD-3 CD-4 CD-5 Total