Build it around the surface.
More gravel, white roads and farm tracks — or less of them, on the day the legs are not there. The surface is the setting, not the surprise.
Gravel is the sport where the route is the whole question: the same two towns can be joined by forty minutes of dull tarmac or by an hour and a half of white road worth the extra time. The engine is weighted towards the second and lets you push the weighting either way.
Because "gravel" covers everything from a graded farm road to something you would rather have brought a mountain bike for, the surface breakdown matters more here than anywhere. It is on the page before you leave, next to the profile.
Presets on this engine
- Mixed Unpaved and tarmac in balance, the default behaviour.
- Unpaved Max light off-road: seeks gravel roads and paths, avoiding steep climbs.
- Scenic Prefers forests and rivers, bypassing towns and noise.
- Cycle routes Follows quiet cycle routes, away from town centres.
Read from the router itself — this is the list the planner shows you.
And the switches
Worth checking before you leave
- The tarmac share — a gravel route that is 70% asphalt is a road ride.
- Whether the unpaved sections come in one block or in twenty short ones.
- The wet-ground switch, if it has rained; some surfaces stop being fast.
Questions about this sport
Can I control how much gravel the route has?
Yes. The presets shift the balance between sealed and unsealed, and the surface breakdown shows what the current route actually contains.
Does it know the difference between a farm track and a footpath?
It routes on the surface and track-type data in OpenStreetMap, and shows you the breakdown it used, so you can judge before committing.