TWO Horwich Cycling Club members have successfully completed one of the toughest British one-day challenges their sport offers.

Dave Powell and Paul O'Halloran took on the 200k Dirty Reiver gravel race in the Kielder Forest in Northumberland.

Powell returned for his second crack at the event, having ridden it last year, while O’Halloran did it for the first time.

Powell raced home in 8hrs 19mins and was an outstanding 15th overall – a supreme achievement in a record field of 800 cyclists – while O'Halloran crossed the finish line in 13:15.

Gravel races are a rapidly growing style of cycle event that originates in the United States, and the Dirty Reiver takes competitors across one of England's last true wildernesses.

The theme of the race is to travel long distances off-road, usually on gravel tracks, riding a cyclocross, mountain or specific gravel bike.

Kielder has mile upon mile of gravel roads and is the perfect location.

O’Halloran is no stranger to long-distance races, having previously ridden Lands End to John O'Groats, London to Paris and Manchester to Belfast.

Having just missed out on a top finishing award last year, Powell achieved his aim of completing the race under 8:30.

He said: "It’s a long enough ride for you to go through bad patches, where you can feel like you’re really struggling, only to recover and find yourself flying round.

"You have to keep your focus the whole race, but the rewards are more than worth it.

"I got my pacing strategy just about right. At about 130k you pass very close to the start/finish, before heading off over one of the longest climbs of the race. You get to this point after one of the hardest sections of the course, where the tracks are very bumpy and seem to drag constantly for about 25k.

"It’s very tempting to call it a day rather than head back out for another 70k of racing."

O’Halloran said: "The strategy was to average 10 mph, so I planned for a 12-hour day on the bike.

"I treated it as a challenging ride rather than a race.

"I have ridden a century ride (100 miles) every month in 2017, and I am planning to ride the Vatternrundan in June, which is 180 miles around Sweden's largest lake.

"I was happy to finish rather than worry about position.

"I'm amazed at Dave's finishing time, I think he beat my time by five hours, but he's not a 13-stone 50-year-old!"