A club coach doesn’t periodize a member toward the Tour de France. You periodize them toward Unbound, toward a gran fondo with their riding buddies, toward a masters national championship: the mass-participation goal events and amateur races that an everyday rider can actually train for, travel to, and finish. This calendar collects those events for 2027: the gravel marquees, the big gran fondos, and the USA Cycling championships that matter to amateur and masters riders.
It deliberately leaves out pro racing. A WorldTour calendar is great television and useless for planning a club member’s season.
How to read these dates
Most of the big events announce next year’s date when registration opens in the fall and winter, and USA Cycling posts its championship venues on its own schedule. So in November, some of 2027 is firm and some isn’t yet. Each entry is graded:
- Confirmed: the organizer or USA Cycling has published this exact 2027 date.
- Provisional: reported for 2027 in published race listings, but we haven’t yet seen it on the organizer’s own page, or details are still settling.
- Pattern: the 2027 date isn’t posted yet; the recurring slot is given for planning. Confirm before committing.
Where an event spans a multi-day festival, the date shown is the main mass-participation ride day. The linked official site is the source of truth.
Registration season is now
For the marquee gravel events, getting in takes as much planning as the training. Unbound runs a lottery because demand far outstrips the field, and several others sell out within hours of opening. As of early November 2026:
- Unbound Gravel: the lottery opened November 1; results are announced November 21. Volunteering or the official training camp can secure a spot outside the lottery.
- Leadville Trail 100 MTB: the lottery runs December 1–15, 2026.
- SBT GRVL: the random-selection window closed October 31.
- Belgian Waffle Ride: 2027 registration opened October 13.
- Big Sugar Gravel: 2027 date and registration not announced yet, and it traditionally sells out fast. Watch the race site.
If a rider’s A-event runs a lottery, have the conversation about a backup goal now, before the training plan assumes they got in.
Still on the 2026 calendar
One championship is left this year: Cyclocross Nationals, December 9–13, 2026, in Fayetteville, Arkansas. Everything below is 2027.
Marquee gravel races
Gravel is where the amateur “A-race” culture lives now. These are the events club riders fixate on.
| Event | Date | Status | Location |
|---|---|---|---|
| Belgian Waffle Ride — Arizona | Mar 5–6, 2027 | Confirmed | Arizona |
| The Mid South | Mar 11–13, 2027 | Provisional | Stillwater, OK |
| Life Time Sea Otter Classic Gravel | Apr 15–16, 2027 | Provisional | Monterey, CA |
| Belgian Waffle Ride — California | May 1–2, 2027 | Confirmed | San Diego County, CA |
| Belgian Waffle Ride — Utah | May 14–15, 2027 | Confirmed | Cedar City, UT |
| Life Time UNBOUND Gravel | Jun 5, 2027 | Confirmed | Emporia, KS |
| SBT GRVL | Jun 27, 2027 | Provisional | Steamboat Springs, CO |
| Crusher in the Tushar | Mid-July 2027 | Pattern | Beaver, UT |
| Leadville Trail 100 MTB | Aug 14, 2027 | Provisional | Leadville, CO |
| Gravel Worlds | Aug 24–28, 2027 | Provisional | Lincoln, NE |
| Belgian Waffle Ride — Montana | Sept 17–18, 2027 | Confirmed | Bozeman, MT |
| Rebecca’s Private Idaho | September 2027 | Pattern | Sun Valley, ID |
| Big Sugar Gravel | Mid-October 2027 | Pattern | Bentonville, AR |
What moved for 2027. Unbound’s main ride shifts a week later, from May 30 in 2026 to June 5 in 2027 (the festival runs June 3–6). That’s one more week of base for a rider coming off a long winter, and one less week of recovery before a late-June event like SBT GRVL. Two Belgian Waffle Ride rounds moved too: Utah from June into mid-May, and Montana from June to mid-September. In 2026 BWR Utah came two weeks after Unbound; in 2027 it comes three weeks before it, so a rider doing both now has a different double to plan.
(The Belgian Waffle Ride is a multi-stop series with the four US rounds above plus a Mexico finale in Querétaro on November 20–21, and the organizer says another mid-country event, possibly in July, is in development; a rider picks the round that fits their season. Leadville is technically a mountain-bike race, but it’s an iconic amateur peak event and belongs on any goal-event list. Sea Otter Classic Gravel opens the 2027 Life Time Grand Prix, the pro series that also runs through Unbound, Leadville and Big Sugar.)
Gran fondos & mass-participation road events
For the road-leaning club, the gran fondo is the goal event: a hard, supported mass ride with a timed competitive element. The Gran Fondo National Series (GFNS) runs the dominant US circuit.
| Event | Date | Status | Location |
|---|---|---|---|
| Levi’s GranFondo | Late April 2027 | Pattern | Windsor / Santa Rosa, CA |
| Gran Fondo Asheville | Jul 18, 2027 | Confirmed | Asheville, NC |
| Gran Fondo Maryland | September 2027 | Pattern | Frederick, MD |
| Gran Fondo Hincapie — Greenville | October 2027 | Pattern | Greenville / Travelers Rest, SC |
The Gran Fondo National Championship moves to Asheville for 2027. It was held with Gran Fondo Maryland in September 2026; in 2027 it runs with Gran Fondo Asheville on July 18. National champions are decided by timed segments for age-group riders who complete the Gran Route, and riders qualify through GFNS events and partner events, ROUVY E-Fondos, or USA Cycling state and regional championships. A July national championship changes the shape of the year: the build now runs through spring instead of summer.
USA Cycling national championships
For members who actually race, including the large masters contingent in most clubs, these are the amateur-relevant national championships with 2027 dates so far.
| Championship | Date | Status | Location |
|---|---|---|---|
| Endurance MTB Nationals | Jul 11–18, 2027 | Confirmed | Roanoke, VA |
| Gran Fondo National Championship | Jul 18, 2027 | Confirmed | Asheville, NC |
USA Cycling hadn’t published 2027 venues and dates for road (pro/elite, masters and junior), gravel or cyclocross nationals as of early November 2026. For planning, the 2026 editions were Pro/Elite & Junior Road in mid-June, Masters & Junior Road from late June into July 1, Gravel in mid-September, and Cyclocross in early-to-mid December, but treat those as a rough guide only. Championship venues rotate, and dates move with them. We’ll add the 2027 editions when USA Cycling announces them.
Building a club season around it
The strength of a mixed calendar is that it meets riders where they are. A periodization block looks the same whether the A-event is Unbound, a masters road championship, or the local gran fondo: a winter aerobic base, a build with progressively race-specific intensity, a short sharpening, and a taper into the event. The discipline doesn’t change; only the date you point at does.
For a club with riders chasing different goal events, that’s the coaching challenge: several athletes, several A-dates, one training calendar. Drop each rider’s goal event into Smagpie and you can run parallel build blocks off a single team view, so the gravel crew, the fondo group, and the masters racers all stay on plan toward their own Saturday.
