Collegiate Gravel Is Here. BorderLands Gravel Wants College Cyclists to Come Test Themselves.

Collegiate cycling has long meant road racing, mountain biking, cyclocross, track, and BMX.

Now add gravel to the list.

USA Cycling held its inaugural Collegiate Gravel National Championships in Turkey, Texas, in March 2026, officially bringing one of cycling’s fastest-growing disciplines into the collegiate racing landscape.

For college cyclists across Arizona and around the country, that creates a new question: How do you prepare for collegiate gravel?

BorderLands Gravel would like to offer one possible answer.

Come race in the Arizona borderlands this fall.

Collegiate Gravel Has Arrived

As mentioned above, the first USA Cycling Collegiate Gravel National Championship brought student-athletes from across the country to the Valley of Tears gravel race in Turkey, Texas, on March 7, 2026.

The men’s and women’s races covered roughly 50 miles of gravel. Nate Meister of Fort Lewis College claimed the men’s national title, while Emma Kasza-James of Midwestern State University won the women’s championship.

But collegiate cycling has always been as much about the team as individual accomplishments. Fort Lewis College captured the inaugural team title, followed by Midwestern State University and Milligan University.

And we’re just getting started …

USA Cycling has announced that Collegiate Gravel Nationals will return in spring 2027 and will be added to the 2026-27 schedule. USA Cycling now lists gravel alongside road as a spring collegiate discipline, with racing taking place from March through May.

For collegiate cyclists, gravel is becoming another opportunity to race for their schools. That makes this fall a great time to start getting ready.

Consider BorderLands Gravel Your Off-Season Gravel Test

BorderLands Gravel isn’t part of the USA Cycling collegiate calendar. We also know our November race date doesn’t line up with the official spring collegiate gravel season. That’s why we see an opportunity for you.

Think of BorderLands Gravel as an off-season test. A warm-up to the spring gravel season. Besides, mid-November in southern Arizona is bliss.

Bring your teammates. Wear your school kits. Line up together. Race each other. Push each other. Find out what happens when the pavement disappears and the race stretches deep into the desert.

This Is a Wide Open and Expansive Course

BorderLands Gravel takes place in Douglas, Arizona, along the U.S.-Mexico border.

This is the far southeastern corner of Arizona, where the Sonoran and Chihuahuan deserts meet and where seemingly endless dirt roads disappear toward distant mountain ranges.

The race follows roads through a landscape shaped by Indigenous history, ranching, migration, international boundaries, wildlife refuges, and generations of people moving through the borderlands.

Geronimo Trail Road forms the backbone of the experience. The historic route stretches east from Douglas toward New Mexico through some of the most remote country in southern Arizona.

There are no grandstands out there. No campus crowds. No city blocks filled with spectators.

Instead, there are huge skies, desert mountains, borderlands history, long stretches of gravel, and plenty of time to find out what kind of cyclist you are when the miles begin adding up and the headwind gets stiff.

We believe that’s what makes this a worthy collegiate challenge.

Arizona, We’re Looking at You

Oh, there’s another competition we’d especially like to see.

University of Arizona vs. Arizona State. Throw Northern Arizona University into the mix. Grand Canyon University? Prescott College?

Absolutely. Bring it.

We’d love to see school kits filling the start line in Douglas. Bring five riders. Bring ten. Bring the whole team. Make the trip south together, race together, and settle some school rivalries on gravel.

But the invitation isn’t limited to Arizona.

Collegiate gravel is growing nationally, and BorderLands Gravel wants to welcome club and varsity cyclists from across the country who are looking for an entirely different kind of fall race experience.

Fort Lewis College. Midwestern State. Milligan. Brevard. Colorado Mesa. Marian. Lees-McRae. Lindsey Wilson. And every collegiate cycling club trying to figure out where gravel fits into its program. Come see what southern Arizona has to offer.

Gravel Can Build Better All-Around Racers

One of the exciting things about collegiate gravel is how naturally it connects cycling disciplines.

A strong road racer already understands endurance, pacing, positioning, and riding efficiently in a group. A mountain biker brings bike handling, confidence on loose surfaces, and the ability to read changing terrain. A cyclocross racer knows what to do when traction disappears and things get messy.

Gravel brings pieces of all of those disciplines together. That makes an event like BorderLands Gravel such a great opportunity. It can become part of the preparation for what comes next.

USA Cycling’s collegiate gravel season arrives in the spring. BorderLands arrives in November. There are a lot of winter training miles between the two. Why not start them with a benchmark?

Experience the Borderlands

There’s another reason we want collegiate teams in Douglas. We want you to experience this place.

BorderLands Gravel was created around the idea that a great gravel event should also be about the communities, history, landscapes, food, and people surrounding them.

Douglas isn’t a polished cycling resort. It’s a working border town.

Across the international boundary is Agua Prieta, Sonora. Beyond Douglas are wildlife refuges, historic ranches, desert mountain ranges, and miles upon miles of dirt roads.

Spend the weekend here and you’ll quickly understand why we believe southeastern Arizona deserves a place on the gravel cycling map.

Race hard and then stick around. Eat some Mexican food. Make the trip part of the experience.

Collegiate Gravel Is Only Getting Started

The first USA Cycling Collegiate Gravel National Championships represented another pathway for collegiate cyclists, which we’re totally stoked for. Why? Because we love what gravel is all about.

Gravel is another discipline for teams to pursue. Another reason for road racers, mountain bikers, cyclocross racers, and gravel specialists to line up together under their school’s name. We’re excited to see where collegiate gravel goes from here.

So here’s our challenge to collegiate cycling teams: Bring your teammates to BorderLands Gravel. Rock your school kits. Represent your college. Race your rivals. Test yourself against the gravel roads of the Arizona borderlands.

Then take what you learn back to campus and start getting ready for spring.

Collegiate gravel is here.

We’ll see you in Douglas.