MTB Marathon & Gravel Challenge, live.

Out through Stenholt Vang into the national park

MTB Marathon & Gravel Challenge is a one-day forest race from the centre of Hillerød, which its organiser, Allerød OK, calls Denmark’s largest and oldest XC race, with more than 30 years behind it.

The 2026 edition was on Sunday 4 October. There are four main routes: the 63 km Gravel Challenge from 09:00, the 103 km MTB from 09:15, the 57 km MTB from 09:30 and the 32 km MTB from 10:00, plus a 57 km E-MTB class and a U15 class on the 32 km route. The organiser lists 1,200 metres of climbing on the 103 km, 600 on the 57 km, 550 on the gravel route and 300 on the 32 km. The start times were published as provisional, with final times sent to riders a few days before.

The MTB routes start in central Hillerød and lead out through Stenholt Vang into Nationalpark Kongernes Nordsjælland, on forest gravel roads and singletrack. They are built for marathon distance; the 103 km alternates technical singletrack with flow trails, while the 32 km is mostly gravel paths with a little flow singletrack and very few technical spots. The gravel route is separate from the MTB riders for more than half its length, rides a 13 km loop twice in the northernmost part of Gribskov, and has a cut-off after 30 km.

A forest marathon spreads its riders across hours and kilometres of woodland where nobody stands. A Livebib broadcast shared by the rider shows family where they are on the course line, the distance covered and a finish estimate that updates as the race goes, in a browser, no account and no app. Under the canopy, if the phone loses signal, the position is carried forward along the course and marked as estimated instead of freezing. The rider decides who gets the link.