A confessed mountain biker – a downhill devotee with zero interest in big miles – somehow ended up at the start line to ride over 70 miles of dirt detours and gritty liminal spaces in one of the oldest cities in the world. Mike Rose takes us to the 2026 edition of North London Dirt. Join the ride below…
I’ll be honest with you, the thought of riding 70 miles on my bike just seemed like a step too far. I totally understand that for a lot of people reading this, 70 miles is nothing to shout about – but it’s never really been my thing. I come from a downhill mountain bike background, so that kind of distance has never been on my radar. I did once ride 60 miles on a borrowed road bike back in the 1990s with two semi pro riders. We pedalled all the way to this beautiful lake, and they didn’t even stop to look at it; they just carried on! It left me wondering, what’s the point? Anyway, before we got back home, I bonked (I had no idea what that word meant back then). The only thing that saved me was a can of flat Coke. That put me off riding big distances on my bike. It just wasn’t fun.
Fast forward 30 years, and here I was, sitting on the bed in my Airbnb with ridiculously uncontrollable nerves, shovelling Bircher muesli down my throat at 5:30 am, about to take on the challenge that is North London Dirt (NLD), which I’d somehow managed to rope myself into. As Petor Georgallou perfectly summed up last year, NLD is organised by brothers Andrew and Phil Diprose. If you are in the London cycling scene, you will know the Diprose brothers; they are probably two of the nicest and coolest people on the two-wheeled planet. Every year they create the NLD route, and every year it is different. It’s a lesson in creativity, discipline, and just sheer dogged determination to get it right for the riders.
Put simply, NLD is a 70-mile self-supported gravel ride that starts in north east London and heads out of the city and into the countryside. It’s roughly an even split between road and off-road, on a variety of surfaces and through a variety of terrain and environments. From city streets right through to “I’m in the middle of nowhere” fields and woodlands, urban to rural and back again. The contrast is what makes this event so special. I should also say that there is also a 100-mile “Luxe” route (with a special sticker to prove you’ve done it), but in all honesty, it’s only for the real hardcore riders out there. All profits from the event go to the St Mary’s Community Centre, which supports vital local services like Hackney Food Bank, Hackney Migrant Centre, and Second Chance Café.
Such is the love and desire for NLD amongst the London cycling community that the event sells out in minutes. Now in its ninth incarnation, 290 riders took to the start line this year on a beautiful May morning. Conditions were amazing: warm weather, bright skies, and fast and dry trails.
In terms of bike selection, it’s clear that a gravel bike is the obvious choice for NLD, but as I mentioned at the start, I’m a mountain biker, and I don’t actually own a gravel bike. Even if I did, I think I’d have to set it up with a MTB cockpit, because I just don’t get curly (drop) bars. They don’t seem right to me – when I look at their swoops and bends, I just see confusion. I was definitely in the minority at NLD. There were a few people on MTBs (including a super retro 26” wheeled Marin), but the majority were on gravel bikes, and I admit that they did look like the right tool for the job… depending, of course, on what you wanted to get out of the ride. And as I kept telling myself, and everyone that asked, NLD is not a race, it’s a ride.
My bike choice was limited. In the lead-up I had borrowed a friend’s hardtail, but eventually I settled on my old 120 mm full-suspension MTB, a 2017 Whyte T129. It was ahead of its time in 2017, downcountry before downcountry had really become a thing. I locked out the suspension, fitted some suitable tyres, and away we went. With its purple rattlecan paint job, it looked a little out of place, but in all honesty, it was good.
I rode with a group of friends, a perfect combo. Ex Dirt Mag designer Chris Jones rode a Ragley hardtail MTB, journalist Meg Elliot rode a Kona Dr Dew, and photographer Archie Bromfield rode a Cannondale Topstone. We had agreed beforehand that our chosen speed would be ‘chatting speed’, so that was sorted.
NLD appealed to me for many reasons, but mainly because I’ve always loved the idea of ‘urban dirt’ – the little ribbons of single track that you see snaking off into who knows where, that Alice in Wonderland feeling as you duck off into another world. The mounded soil kicker at the side of the road, the nice little grass-covered embankments for a gentle carve, or if you’re really lucky, a perfect dirt bank to wall. Liminal spaces; those transitional, in-between kind of places where nothing really takes place. Corridors and rat runs, gullies and clearings.
As previously mentioned, NLD is a ride of contrasts. One minute you are navigating dog shit, broken glass, cigarette butts, and energy drink cans down some back alley; the next you are in the most bucolic stretches of the English countryside, with native wild flowers all around and Red Kites wheeling overhead… and the odd bit of roadkill. The rough and the smooth, the yin and the yang. The mindlessness of miles of river towpath compared to the concentrated effort of avoiding trees and following a single dirt line at max speed.
You could just call it a bike ride, but knowing that over many months the brothers had been carefully curating and refining the route is also what makes it so special. It’s got it all.
The interplay between rubber and whatever surface you were rolling on became more important as the miles rolled by. The sometimes subtle, but often obvious, changes in feel, sound, and smell. The crunch of gravel, the black tar strum of asphalt, the zip of perfect dirt mixed with the smell of Hawthorn, those bloody rumble strips along the canal! The temperature changes, too – from the cool woodlands to the reflected heat of a suburban street.
Dipping into people’s lives. Passing someone hanging out their washing, someone else going for an early morning coffee, lovers taking a stroll, kids in a playground. But also in some of these backwaters, the slightly dirtier side of life: the lost souls, the loners, the homeless. Life, warts and all.
We got lost a few times. Of course we got lost. By the end of the day, 70 miles had turned into 75 (a semi-Luxe perhaps?). I blame the heat and the fact that no one in our group had used a Garmin before! At the end of the ride, my eyes were red and stinging from the dust and glare of the sun, my knees were sunburnt, and my left hand slowly going numb and cramped. I’m not a believer in suffering for fun, but this felt good. It was just the right level of pain and suffering for me.
At the finish line, as I lay slumped against the centuries-old walls of St Mary’s church, beer in one hand, pizza in the other, surrounded by many NLD finishers, I felt relieved and content. Everyone has their own story about NLD, it’s stuff of legends, and we’ll be banging on about this for ages… well, at least until next year!
I may have been a bit tired, and it may sound a bit melodramatic, but my heart and soul were aching (in a good way) because I’d had such a good time. I was semi-delirious, of course (again, the heat), and it may sound a bit cheesy, but the bonds you make, that shared suffering… I kinda see it now. A sense of belonging. The following day, on my long drive home, I had time to take it all in. What had started off as a kind of joke between friends had turned into a crazy personal challenge that had ended in the most special way. I’ve always thought that riding 75 miles on and off-road wasn’t really my thing, and it isn’t, but I’ll definitely be back for more. Zero to hero and all that.
We’d all like to thank Andrew and Phil for their amazing work, and they would like to thank all the sponsors for their support of NLD. Without them the event would not be possible. So thanks to: Apidura, Fairlight, Giro, Heales Cycles, MiiR, OTE, Portal, POC, and Pretty Decent Beer Co.
Interview with Matt Blease
North London Dirt (NLD) has many amazing sponsors that support their charitable bike event every year. For 2026, Giro came onboard as the footwear sponsor and musette supplier. Every rider at the event got a ‘goodie bag’ (musette) to take home, but Giro and NLD organiser Andrew Diprose didn’t really just want to slap a logo on it, so they decided to do something a little different. Andrew got out his little black book of contacts and called up friend and illustrator Matt Blease…
Who is Matt Blease?
I’m a London-based illustrator. I work across branding, editorial, and advertising.
How did this project with Giro and NLD come about?
I’ve known the Diprose brothers for many years. Some of my early commissions were with Andrew when he was Creative Director at Wired. We’ve hung out at BITW & The Big ‘Un (Brother Cycles events), I’ve danced along to their DJ sets but I’m yet to ride NLD. They are great guys so I was stoked when Andrew called. Giro were one of the sponsors this year and they had the idea of asking me to customise a pair of shoes, which would be shown at the event. I think they were expecting me to get busy with some Posca pens!
The illustration for the musettes was super cool. Where did your inspiration come from for that?
From the start, I knew I wanted to make something a bit ‘out there’. Everything starts with some very loose sketching. I try and dump as many ideas down onto a page as possible. Leave nothing behind. When I began sketching, the Support Vehicle idea came really quickly.
All the little elements… the water bottle, pump, banana, etc., so good. And the name, the North London Dirt Support vehicle?
Support vehicles are such a big part of the slick aesthetic of pro rides. I liked the idea of a really low-fi weirdo version of this for NLD. I just loved the idea of this little shoe car flying along a trail to rescue struggling riders. We’ve all been there on a ride when you’re low on water, get a flat, forgot your tool, or need something to eat. Imagine, in that moment, your own personal mini support vehicle drives up next to you with everything you need to keep on riding.
When did you have the idea to take your illustration and turn into a real object?
The drawing on the page just looked so tangible that I knew it had to become a real thing. As a former student of product design, whenever the opportunity comes along to turn a drawing into an object, I take it.
Is there a career in modified RC cars on the horizon?
Haha, I’d love that! Before this project, I’d always been drawn to what model maker Tamiya do. Their cars are just so cool.
And bikes, have you always been a bike guy?
Always. It’s just the best. It still amazes me how something so beautifully simple can bring so much joy. My love affair with bikes started with me inheriting my older brother’s Raleigh Burner in the late ’80s, and much to my wife’s despair, it hasn’t stopped. I have a problem with bikes. As soon as one goes, two more come along.
There’s a very nice-looking S&M Dirt Bike BMX in your studio. What’s the story there?
Oh my god, this bike is special. A 1995 chrome S&M Dirt Bike. I bought the frame and forks new when I was 18. I had no money, so the rest of the build was pretty budget: rad, but not dream build levels. I’d always longed for a 3-piece Profile crank, S&M Redneck stem, chrome rims, etc. The bike has been by my side for my whole adult life. All through university, moving to London, every flat I’d live in, that bike would be in the corner of my room. No matter what else I was riding, that bike always made me smile. A couple of years ago I was chatting to my mate Neil, who runs Neil’s Wheels in South West London, about restoring it to its former glory and tracking down all the OG parts that I’d always wished it had. He nailed it. It’s more than a bike, it’s a time machine. When I look at it I’m immediately transported back to when I was 18, riding BMX every day without a care in the world.
What does your current bike line-up look like?
In no particular order: the Dirt Bike, a Larry vs Harry Bullitt Bike, a sick Brompton, a 26” Cotic Soul, an Open U.P., a Canyon road bike, a budget 26” BMX that I picked up to thrash around with my kids on our local jumps, an old Brother Swift track frame with a front rack, and a pretty badass Brother Big Bro hardtail thats being built as we speak.
Do you have any other bike-related projects on the go or in the pipeline?
Yes. I’m working on some really fun ideas with a good friend and amazing photographer Mark Shearwood that should hopefully see the light of day soon. I’m starting a new project with Rapha as well as my ongoing work with Will and James at Brother Cycles. All their new frames feature a hand illustrated logo by me. We have lots planned for the future. It’s so great to work with friends that are doing rad things.
Thanks Matt.
It was pretty funny watching the Support Vehicle being driven in and around tired bodies as they ate the pizza and drank their beers at the end of the ride. Inspired and surreal at the same time.
You can find Matt Blease on Instagram.