Years ago, Graveleur’s Mike Israel finished the 100km marathon at the Highland Fling mountain bike race in Bundanoon. As he stood exhausted at the finish line, he saw a rider he'd never met but who turned out to be Mark Fenner (aka “Fenz”), the well-known Australian cyclist and coach.

Mark had just finished the event's 100-mile “Miler”.

"He'd just ridden 100 miles of mountain biking with lots of vertical single-track," Mike remembers, “and he looked fresh as a daisy. He inspired me. I thought, I want to do that."

So Mike trained, came back the next year and rode the Miler. It's still one of the highlights of his cycling life. Now, as the organiser behind the Bushranger Gravel Collection, he's built a 100-mile course of his own as part of the upcoming Marys Mayhem event on Friday 30 October through 1 November, 2026.

Even though Mike has only just announced the new route, more than 30 riders have immediately signed up for the Miler. That includes series ambassadors Alistair Davis and Kor Sietsma, a Masters 6 rider who finished in the top 10 overall at Clarkes Gambit.

Strong local Johnny Adams is also considering it.

One thing that's attracting riders is the prise money of $500, $200 and $100 for the podium. If you're going out for a long ride, why not also win some money while you're at it?

For riders chasing the Bushranger series belt buckle, the Miler counts just like the Marys Mayhem long course. Buckles will be presented on Saturday night to all those who have completed the long course of all three Graveleur events this year.

Another factor is that the 100 km Marys Mayhem long course near Mudgee and Rylstone is so flat the fast guys are back before lunch, Mike says. "It takes them three hours to ride 100K, so they need something longer."

Finding the route

Building a 100-mile / 160-kilometre course out of Mudgee wasn't simple. There are busy bitumen roads and plenty of mining traffic at certain times of day. Mike mapped the course with Joel Burke from the local Giant bike shop and series ambassador Alistair Davis, "who loves looking at maps." They rode it in full for the first time just a few weeks ago.

One section was to run through a private farm. Mike walked up a long driveway to a house that looked abandoned, with spiderwebs and wasp nests everywhere, and found an old farmer in his lounge chair. The answer was a firm no.

The route now goes around the farm.

The course

The Miler partly follows the 100-kilometre course but adds a short detour and a big gravel loop, reached by an out-and-back stretch of very quiet bitumen. Most of it is what Mike calls, a little sheepishly, "champagne gravel": graded back-farm roads of yellow clay and embedded rock, with hardly any corrugations. It's rolling rather than hilly, free of any brutal climbs.

The exception is the Slapdash section, named after nearby Slapdash Creek and placed a little past halfway. Smooth gravel turns into about 5 to 6 kilometres of overgrown, rutted double track. There are three eroded gullies, like dry creek beds, that you'll ride (or walk) through. It's also where the course's one real kick, briefly up to 11%, comes.

"Gravel isn't just road. You have to know how to handle a bike," Mike says. "For some people it will probably be the most technical thing they've ever ridden. But they can do it. It's fully rideable."

If it rains, expect mud. Riders who finished caked in it at Thunderbolts Adventure early this year will know the feeling.

Why stay for the weekend?

Marys Mayhem runs from 30 October to 1 November. Saturday starts and finishes at Small Batch Brewery in Mudgee, with riders choosing from 30km, 60km, 100km+ and the new Miler.

Presentations follow that night at Kelly's Irish Pub. You must be there to claim prizes.

Mike's pitch is to stay for Sunday. Sunday’s 35km and 60km social recovery rides start at The Globe Hotel in Rylstone, with a Volunteer Rescue Association escort, lights flashing, down the main street.

The Country Women's Association runs the feed zone at the fire station.

"People are chilled out, and there's a really nice community feel," he says. At the end, riders roll straight into the pub's beer garden for an artisan market of wine, gin, beer and local produce, set up just for the event. Rylstone itself rewards a wander before you head home. It has a great vinyl record shop, a famous yum cha restaurant and, Mike insists, outstanding Mexican food.

The weekend also supports the Laverton Cycling Project.

Find out more or enter Marys Mayhem 2026 here.