Heading Photo by @patrickboerephoto
RADL Gravel is the opening gravel race for the 2026 season and the big gravel focus during the Tour Down Under week in Adelaide. A 130km race through the beautiful rolling hills and vineyards of South Australia. This year Ollie lined up in the elite field, alongside one of the most stacked gravel race fields you could imagine. World tour legends Romain Bardet and Ian Boswell, and new generation gravel talent like Dylan Johnson and Cam Jones. The racing was always going to be full gas, Ollie and Oskar were racing on their custom Candy Factory Paintworks AIR Kevs.
After the commute over, the legs were always going to go one of two ways; we feel great or we get dispatched in the neutral section. Happy to say I made it beyond the neutral section, but with the first and most decisive climb of the day coming about 10km in, I didn’t make it much further than that. A steep 3km climb that the boys rode flat out to thin out the group, put my tired legs straight on the back foot. Unfortunately putting me out the back and signing up for a long lonely day. We got 5 and 10 minute power PB’s though, so I can’t be too unhappy with that.
Photo by @spurlo_style
Nothing quite compares to rolling along in the group swapping off with the likes of Bardet, Boswell and Lachy Morton, even if it isn’t for very long!
The first 50/60km was super rolling, all fast gravel, with some pretty loose descents that kept you on your toes. Being a seriously hot week everything was just so dry. And the surprise sand section running into the feed definitely almost caught me off guard when I was just thinking about getting fresh bottles.
The second half of the course was significantly faster, I think we even got a sniff of tailwind at points and the steep gravelly ramps that characterised the first half of the course were replaced with long dragging road sections. Probably good for not crushing all of my morale, but a bit different to what I expected.
Cresting the final climb was a big relief, with a super fast straight run into the line for the final 15km. The heat was definitely getting to everyone towards the end, it was absolutely cooking out there and really needed an extra bottle or two.
RADL is a great example of how to run a gravel race, brutally hard but a seriously fun day out and a highlight of the week at TDU, and it’s not a week short of stories. Maybe we’ll be back next year on CarboKev?
Ollie's Custom AIR Kev Setup
Here's a bit more info on this one of one custom AIR Kev that Ollie will be racing this year:
Candy Factory Paintworks custom painted AIR Kev Frame in XL
Curve G5T Prototype Gravel Wheels topped with Pirelli Cinturato RC tyres in 45mm
SRAM Force XPLR E1 Groupset 46t 10-46
Zipp SL80 Race Bar 38cm with Zipp SL 110 -17 stem
Fizik Arione Saddle
Speedplay Pedals
Oskar's take!
It was great to start the year with a fiery bang at RADL GRVL, and put an end to my 5-month hiatus from racing (barring the Gravel Worlds, where my race was ended after 600 metres).
It was an honour to toe the start line amongst the strongest start list an Australian gravel race has ever seen, including the Tour de France podium-ing Romain Bardet. I held fond memories from the race in 2024, which was my first race on a Curve! The course has changed significantly since then, adding 15km, 500m of vert, and substantial exposed road sections, made even more brutal by the heat and strong northerly winds on the day. Despite being well and truly out the back after the first climb, I caught up with Ollie, who’d stopped on the roadside to help out a fellow racer who’d crashed 15km in. I then got to experience the epic form Ollie has built up over the last weeks and months. Despite having ridden from Melbourne to Adelaide only a few days before the race Ollie was absolutely motoring, and I couldn’t hang with him for long! I was happy to get to the finish line without blowing up entirely, and enjoyed watching friends and family roll in over the course of the afternoon; I even squeezed in a few runs down the inflatable waterslide! Till next time ADL
Oskar's Custom AIR Kev Setup
Here's a bit more info on this one of one custom AIR Kev that Oskar will be racing this year:
Candy Factory Paintworks custom painted AIR Kev Frame in XL
Curve G5T Prototype Gravel Wheels topped with Pirelli Cinturato RC tyres in 45mm
SRAM Force XPLR E1 Groupset 46t 10-46
Zipp SL70 XPLR Bar 38cm with Zipp SL 110 -17 stem