When WestCycle spoke with Mal Sutherland after last year’s second edition of Bike it to Ballidu Gravel he celebrated the event’s great ability to attract city folks for the gravel riding, and wow them with Wheatbelt hospitality as key pillars of its roaring success.
“It is bringing the city to the country and it will continue to do that,” reflected Sutherland, who took over as the Ballidu Progress Group’s Boekeman Machinery | Case IH Bike it to Ballidu Gravel coordinator in 2024, and was at Optus Stadium in February when it was crowned Community Sport Event of the Year at the WA Sport Awards.
“More and more locals around the whole Shire are behind it – because they see how great it is for our communities. So they’re volunteering, they’re sponsoring it, they’re finding ways to get involved. They’re out there mingling with all the riders.”
And more are signing up to ride it themselves, he said. (We can confirm that, with local registrations barrelling in especially for the shorter 12km and 44km rides.)
“From the other side, people get out of the city to the country, they can touch the earth, pick some seed, see the wildflowers, walk through the wheat, check out the lakes – and ride some pretty great gravel too! It’s not until you see it through someone else’s eyes that you realise what you’ve got.”
“…we’re on the map now for gravel tourism.”
Which is not to throw shade on the previous asphalt version of Bike it to Ballidu that was beloved by locals, and rode the roughly 30km bitumen stretch between Wongan Hills and Ballidu from 1999 to 2022.
“We had some great years and raised a lot of money, but lower populations in the towns and some safety issues had seen interest wane. Going gravel has revitalised the event – it’s a big positive what we have done here.”
Not to mention becoming probably the biggest annual event in the whole Shire of Wongan-Ballidu.
“The Shire itself is 100% behind the event, and that has been very important to have that ongoing commitment. And it’s not just the event itself. Riders, e-bikers are coming through here now all the time – we’re on the map now for gravel tourism.”
Not to mention gravel localism. Sutherland, a local farm owner, has become quite the keen gravel man himself, and will take on the 82km The Ballidude fondo.
“I’ve been getting a few rides in,” he says. “Not in lycra though. One step at a time.”
Join Sutherland on 12km, 44km, 82km and 155km rides in Ballidu Township on 28 September 2025.
