The early days of bicycle racing was a time when intrepid riders took on long, hard races alone: without team cars and soigneurs to look after them. They were hardy and sometimes desperate men who ate what they could find, slept when possible and rode every inch of the way. They weren't professional athletes as we know them today, and most weren’t men of means. They were "mavericks, vagabonds and adventurers" who picked up a bicycle and went to seek their fortune.

The Atlas Mountain Race is an unsupported single-stage cycling race that will take place in Morocco. With a grand depart from Marrakech, the Atlas Mountain Race is a fixed route, unsupported, single-stage cycling race through the spectacular mountains of the Atlas and Anti-Atlas. The clock does not stop, and no prizes are awarded. The race will follow gravel, single and double track and old, hand built, colonial roads that have long been forgotten and fallen into disrepair – there will be very little tarmac.

The Migration Gravel Race is a semi-supported, four day gravel stage race across the wilds of the Maasai Mara, Kenya. The 650 km / 8000m altitude route courses over single track, red clay and hard packed gravel, traversing through Maasai villages, plains, rivers, mountains and across big game country. Participants are accommodated in remote camps and lodges in the nature reserve, accompanied by local Maasai.