Falling Leaves Lahti - UCI Qualifier Saturday
Falling Leaves Lahti’s Saturday race is a September gravel qualifier in Lahti, Finland, located in the Salpausselkä UNESCO Geopark region. The UCI qualifier features 175 km and 100 km routes, offering riders a long day on remote hardpack gravel, not a short festival spin. It connects to the broader Falling Leaves weekend, which includes Nordic Gravel Series racing, a gravel camp, and the traditional conclusion of the Finnish gravel season. The riding takes place on clean gravel roads through fields, lakes, and forests in Lakeland Finland. Riders can use the weekend as a championship qualifier for the UCI Gravel Worlds and the UEC European Gravel Championships, or consider it a final significant gravel trip before the season concludes. The race package is unusually comprehensive: Thursday and Friday shakeout coffee rides, a post-ride buffet, lake sauna and swim, and the Nordic Gravel Series closing party. Pajulahti sports center provides single and double rooms, and riders can reserve BMC gravel bikes equipped with electronic SRAM drivetrains and 40 mm Panaracer Gravelking tubeless tires.