Adventure cycling and bikepacking podcast launches in UK

A new adventure cycling and bikepacking podcast has launched in the UK.

Unpaved Podcast’s introductory series of four episodes explores the fundamental concepts of what it means to ride off-road, exploring cycling history, how new communities are being born all over the country and how attitudes are changing more than they have done in decades.

Unpaved is not a studio podcast. Host and producer duo Katherine Moore and Tom Bonnett join their guests as they showcase the best of their local gravel, come snow, rain or shine. With each episode, the route and highlights are shared on the Unpaved komoot account.

Podcasts guests from this series include some of the people behind The Woods Cyclery, Brother Cycles, Pannier.cc, Second City Divide, The Bicycle Academy, Mercredi Bikes, The Racing Collective and current pro road racer, Lachlan Morton.

Unpaved Podcast is supported by komoot. During the series, Unpaved Podcast will be sharing its komoot experiences and tips, as well as the opportunity for listeners to win tickets to off-road events based in the UK.

“It had a huge impact on how I looked at the bike, my relationship with it,” said Lachlan Morton, pro cyclist, EF Education First. “It added a dimension outside competition or my livelihood, opened up an element of discovery, exploration, and personal growth – a whole bunch of things I didn’t know you could achieve just by riding a bike. So yeah, that for me was the beginning of a totally new relationship with riding.

“You can look at it as something new, that’s kinda sprung out of this want for adventure, this post-road racing scene. People want something else outside of road racing… I think it’s grown out of that, but if you look at the history of cycling, on the whole, it’s actually how it all started.

“The idea of being self-supported and covering really big distances. If you look at the origins of road racing, that’s where it all began so it’s almost full circle in a way. It’s just the fact that we’re doing it in the modern age that it’s considered adventure, I guess.”

Moore is a gravel and bikepacking enthusiast, cycling writer and guide, formerly a presenter at the Global Cycling Network. Bonnett produces a diverse range of radio programmes for BBC Sounds, as well as capturing cyclists at the limit of their endurance to produce the Transcontinental Race and Trans Pyrenees Race podcasts.

Unpaved Podcast is on all major podcast platforms, including Apple Podcasts, Spotify and Google Podcasts as well as YouTube, Pocket Casts, Deezer and Overcast. Episodes will be released weekly for the first series of four. Episode one will be available on 19th February, featuring a gravel ride from The Woods Cyclery in the New Forest, along with Brother Cycles.