The third version of the UCI Gravel World Championships, held October 5-6 in the Flemish area of Belgium, brings a recent ethos to the burgeoning battle for rainbow stripes, with a brand new organiser, new geography and new rivals. Not all of the adjustments have created a full metamorphosis in the self-discipline, however the groundwork is in place to offer gravel a strong basis on the world stage.
The qualification course of by way of the year-long Trek UCI Gravel World Series has helped deepen the fields. The collection went from 16 world occasions in 2023 to 25 occasions on the calendar this yr, the place the prime 25% of every race made the minimize of their class. Golazo Sports, which manages the Gravel World Series, can be overseeing the Worlds this yr and with way more advance discover on the course and qualification as the UCI incarnation of the self-discipline hits its stride, the newbie and elite fields are brimming with these desirous to race, particularly from the prime tier of the skilled highway biking ranks.
Unlike the UCI Gravel World Series occasions, the elite girls have their very own day for the begin on a route that’s shorter than the elite males. On Saturday, October 5, Kasia Niewiadoma (Poland) will defend her 2023 title on a 133km course between Halle and Leuven. On Sunday, October 6, elite males’s defending champion Matej Mohorič (Slovenia) will begin at the entrance of the grid on an 182km course, the distinction being additional native laps for the males.
The course has a lot in widespread with the one used final yr for the European Gravel Championships and is about up like a one-day Belgian Classic with plenty of flat, quick sections and brief, punchy hills. The mixture of the shorter distances than typically present in the massive US gravel occasions together with the proportion of filth paths and cobblestones to paved sections are more likely to lean in favour of the highway specialists.
All programs begin on the Possozplein in Halle, with a 12.5km loop, then traverse by way of the nationwide park Brabantse Woods, to achieve Leuven. The girls will full a 47.7km end circuit as soon as, the males making the lap twice, to finish the race in the metropolis centre of Leuven. To attain the end line, a brief however steep Ramberg cobblestone climb of 1.8km have to be crossed, adopted by the Donatuspark “gravel” part for the remaining kilometre.
Expected to return after a one-year absence is Mathieu van der Poel (Netherlands) whereas first-time rivals trying to make their marks on gravel embrace two-time girls’s elite highway race world champion Lotte Kopecky (Belgium) and U23 girls’s highway race world champion Puck Pieterse (Netherlands).
The seasoned execs who’re again for a 3rd time at the Gravel World Championships embrace Tiffany Cromwell (Australia), Lauren Stephens (United States), Gianni Vermeersch (Belgium), Alessandro De Marchi (Italy).
The UCI recognises that the booming off-road various self-discipline started blossoming “in the US Midwest some 15 years in the past”, nevertheless lots of the notable names of the gravel racers from North and South America will not be in Belgium. Fans will not see Keegan Swenson, Peter Stetina, Sofia Gomez Villafañe, Haley Smith or Lauren De Crescenzo, as they stay in the US for different gravel pursuits. Just a few different names lacking are Alejandro Valverde (Spain) and an injured Wout van Aert (Belgium) however there’s nonetheless a bounty of huge names on elite begin lists.
Here are a few of the versatile riders to look at – based mostly on preliminary starter indications – who might earn the rainbow jerseys at the UCI Gravel World Championships.
Elite Women
When Kasia Niewiadoma lined up at the UCI Gravel World Championships in 2023 it was her first gravel race and got here after a interval of robust outcomes on the highway, however a top-step drought that dated proper again to 2019. That all started to vary when she flew solo towards the end line at the end in Pieve di Soligo and secured the gravel rainbow stripes.
The drought broke and Niewiadoma then additionally swept up two of the greatest victories of her greater than a decade-long skilled highway profession in 2024. The 30-year-old first received La Flèche Wallonne after which went on to upset the clear-cut Tour de France Femmes favorite Demi Vollering, securing yellow in an thrilling competitors that ended with a tenacious battle up Alpe d’Huez and a successful margin of simply 4 seconds. It was a contest of nerves and grit, two traits that would simply assist put Niewiadoma in with a shot of defending her gravel title in opposition to a packed Dutch staff.
It will be Niewiadoma’s second race again since her Tour de France triumph, with COVID-19 altering her Tour de Romandie race plans. Her first race again was the chilly and moist World Championships highway race in Zurich and whereas seventeenth maybe wasn’t the outcome she was searching for it ought to have helped set up the race rhythm forward of her gravel defence. Regardless of what occurs on Saturday, it has been an unforgettable yr for Niewiadoma and a nothing-to-lose angle might simply work in her favour on the punchy terrain. (SG)
Lotte Kopecky has not competed in a gravel race throughout her intensive biking profession, however it’s no shock that she will be one among the favourites to line up at the occasion in Leuven on house soil in Belgium.
Kopecky is in prime kind having secured her second-consecutive highway race world title at the Zurich World Championships final weekend. She can be one among the prime one-day Classics specialists in the world, which implies this classics-style gravel occasion could possibly be well-suited to her strengths.
Kopecky, who can be a six-time world champion and Olympic medallist on the observe, excels as a multi-discipline racer. She won’t have raced in the gravel self-discipline earlier than, however she has received cobbled Monuments; Tour of Flanders twice and Paris-Roubaix. She has additionally proven no issue on the white gravel roads of Strade Bianche, successful the one-day race two instances.
Watch for Kopecky so as to add a rainbow jersey in gravel racing to her assortment of world titles on the highway and observe. (KF)
Lorena Wiebes will lead a robust Dutch staff at the Gravel World Championships that features Demi Vollering, Marianne Vos and Puck Pieterse, all of which have the potential to win the world title.
Wiebes is the reigning European Champion, having received the title in Oud-Heverlee final yr, and will be trying to carry her gravel racing success into this world championships. She has loved a successful season on the highway to this point with 19 victories, and quite a few different podiums as a part of the SD Worx-Protime squad.
Last yr, Wiebes completed fifth in the World Championships occasion in Italy, however this time round the course seems just like the earlier yr’s European Championships, and so might higher swimsuit Wiebes’ strengths, given the flatter, classics-style course.
She lately received the highway race title at the European Championships in Hasselt earlier than turning her consideration to gravel racing the place she received Ok Gravel + Merida NL Gravel Series-Meerveld.
She didn’t take part in the Road World Championships held in Zurich final weekend and so may be lining up more energizing than her rivals who took half in the elite and under-23 girls’s highway occasions. (KF)
Tiffany Cromwell has the splendid mixture of highway and gravel know-how plus the confirmed capacity to carry out on the type of terrain that this course presents. The Australian has been an everyday participant, and winner, in the UCI Gravel World Series rounds. She additionally is aware of her highway ways and rivals inside out after 16 seasons of racing.
Already at the two UCI Gravel World Championships she has taken half in, Cromwell has delivered a tenth and sixth place however this yr is one the place she has each motive to hope for much more as the punchy course, with no massive climb proper at the begin, works to her strengths. The proof of that was clear when she received the European Continental Championships race in 2023 – the title nevertheless went to second-placed Lorena Wiebes as an alternative given Cromwell’s nationality.
Cromwell is exhibiting robust kind, successful the Sea Otter Europe UCI Gravel World Series spherical in current weeks, pulling off a dramatic fightback after slipping effectively again in the area in the opening phases. Plus Cromwell was then a late call-up for the Australian staff at the Road World Championships, the place amongst the riders she was supporting have been U23 silver medallist Neve Bradbury. The Canyon-SRAM teammates’ roles will flip this weekend, with Bradbury certain to be a helpful help for Cromwell as an alternative, giving her a bonus she hasn’t had in earlier editions of the World Championships. Add in Sarah Gigante as a participant in each Road and Gravel World Championships and, if highway staff ways leach into the gravel contest, the bonding in Zurich might effectively repay even additional in Belgium. (SG)
Lauren Stephens will lead the US staff at the Gravel Worlds having simply competed in the time trial, blended relay and highway race at the Road Worlds in Zurich final week and weekend.
Stephens received her second consecutive nationwide title at the USA Cycling Gravel Championships in September and likewise received Rattlesnake Gravel Grind, SBT GRVL, and defended the girls’s title at Garmin Gravel Worlds in Nebraska.
On the highway, Stephens received Clasica de Almeria, a stage of the Tour de Normandie, the total title at Tour of the Gila, and gold in the elite highway race and silver in the elite time trial at the Pan American Championships.
Stephens mentioned she spent a lot of the later a part of her season competing in gravel occasions and criteriums to organize for competing in back-to-back Road and Gravel Worlds. Upon arriving in Leuven, she has taken time to recuperate from her effort in Zurich and has frolicked previewing the Gravel Worlds route.
Although Stephens hasn’t competed in a UCI Gravel World Series occasion this yr, she goals to complete on the podium in Leuven. She has raced in the earlier two editions of the UCI Gravel World Championships ending sixth in 2023 and fifteenth in 2022. (KF)
Additional riders to look at
Outside of our choice of favourites, there are honourable mentions and riders to look at and lots of of them will be competing for the Dutch squad together with former multi-discipline world champion Marianne Vos, mountain bike world champion Puck Pieterse, former cyclocross world champion Lucinda Brand, and reigning cyclocross world champion Fem van Empel.
All these riders have the potential to win a world title. Pieterse lately secured the elite girls’s world title in cross-country mountain bike and the under-23 world title in the highway race. The multi-discipline rider has additionally earned silver and bronze medals in the elite girls’s cyclocross Worlds and she or he received a stage at the Tour de France Femmes in August.
Other riders to look at embrace Italy’s Silvia Persico, who completed second final yr, and German Champion Carolin Schiff, who received Gravel World Series occasions in Poland, Germany, and France, whereas additionally successful Traka 200 and Utopia Gravel Fest.
Elite Men
When cyclocross ramps up in a matter of weeks, Mathieu van der Poel will race in the rainbow stripes, however he misplaced his grip on the highway world title in Zürich just some days in the past. The 29-year-old large of a number of disciplines might very effectively add the gravel rainbow jersey to his assortment subsequent Sunday. No one might catch Tadej Pogačar on his solo sortie at Road Worlds, however Van der Poel was third finest and one among the few riders to complete rather less than a minute behind the hovering Slovenia. Unless Pogačar surprises the area and exhibits up at the begin line in Halle, Van der Poel will be the prime favorite.
Two years in the past at Gravel World Championships, Van der Poel rode to bronze in Veneto, Italy. Since then in one-day races, he is received 4 Monuments – Milan-San Remo, Tour of Flanders, each begins at Paris-Roubaix and likewise the 2023 Road Worlds race. He was additionally on the podium this yr at Gent-Wevelgem and Liège-Bastogne-Liège, in addition to Road Worlds.
If for some motive Van der Poel cannot get in gear on a course that’s a lot shorter than his Classics conquests, Jasper Ockeloen might take over as the Dutch chief. He completed thirteenth final yr at the gravel championships and has two gravel wins this season. Dutch gravel coach Laurens ten Dam gave him the nod as ‘the man’ if Van der Poel shouldn’t be in kind. (JT)
Matej Mohorič is greater than motivated to retain the males’s elite world title for gravel, as one other yr would possibly give him a chance to put on it throughout a end line. He suffered a number of mechanicals at Unbound Gravel 200 and was a DNF. Then he suffered a hand damage on a preview trip the day earlier than Sea Otter Europe Girona which brought about him to tug out of that gravel tuneup. After that he didn’t line up for Slovenia at the Road World Championships to recuperate for his defence on gravel.
The 2024 season stored Mohorič targeted on the highway with UAE Team Emirates and he supported Tour de France champion Tadej Pogačar for a 3rd GC win. Before that, he had nice efforts at two Monuments with a fifth at Strade Bianche and a sixth at Milan-San Remo.
“I’m fairly excited [about Gravel World Championships]. It’s mainly like an enormous one-day Classic,” he advised Cyclingnews. Last yr, he mentioned the Italian setup was “tremendous arduous and fairly punchy in the remaining with lengthy climbs” and mentioned he wasn’t positive the Belgian course with smaller quantities of climbing would swimsuit him.
The 29-year-old has competed in 12 Grand Tours, and numerous Classic, so so long as his hand can take the impacts of off-road terrain, search for Mohoric to be on the podium once more. (JT)
The Belgian males’s staff is stacked and lots of riders on the squad might simply be listed amongst the favourites, however there may be one factor that units Jasper Stuyven aside, and that’s his confirmed capacity to win on the terrain. It was final yr in the similar territory that he slipped on the bands of a European champion along with his solo end forward of compatriot Tim Merlier. He additionally as soon as once more proved his gravel capacity in the gravel heavy stage 9 of the Tour de France, when for a second his win at the prestigious race had appeared inside attain as he countered an assault from the break to surge out the entrance solo at simply 11km to go. His hopes, nevertheless, have been dashed when the catch occurred in sight of the flamme rouge.
Still at the Gravel World Championships, the confirmed Classics power of the Milan-San Remo, Kuurne–Brussels–Kuurne and E3 Saxo Classic winner combines with the familiarity of the roads and paths he grew up on, making him a formidable foe. So does the power of the Belgian staff. Quotas might maintain a good restrict on the variety of riders in a Road World Championships, however not so in gravel so the house nation staff is anticipated to return out in power to verify one among their riders will get to have a good time in entrance of the house crowd. (SG)
Last yr’s winner of The Traka 200 has turn out to be one among the veterans of gravel racing, his 11 years on the world stage of highway racing put aside in 2016. Last weekend, Paul Voß completed second at Sea Otter Europe Girona, one among the remaining qualifying races in the UCI Gravel World Series, so he is received confidence getting into his third Gravel World Championships. In Girona, he outsprinted Petr Vakoc (Czechia) and distanced prime contenders Alessandro De Marchi (Italy) and Hugo Drechou (France).
Last yr he was third in the UEC Gravel Championships, outsprinting world champion Gianni Vermeersch for the podium spot. That efficiency was on the course that served as the template for this yr’s Worlds course, so search for Voß to do effectively on acquainted floor. (JT)
Last yr when WorldTour rider Connor Swift determined to “have a bash at some gravel racing” at the Gralloch he found a self-discipline the place he appeared proper at house, successful on his first outing. He then stepped straight onto the podium at his UCI Gravel World Championships debut, coming third behind Matej Mohoric and Florian Vermeersch, and never surprisingly shortly foreshadowing his dedication to returning to strive once more in 2024.
A yr later the Ineos Grenadiers rider has somewhat extra gravel expertise, and is lining up on a course the place his Classics expertise ought to make him much more at house. Add to that the confidence enhance of an ideal file in the self-discipline in 2024, having received each the British Gravel Championships and the UCI Gravel World Series race, Graen Cymru. Swift now will be hoping he could make it three for 3. (SG)
Additional riders to look at
We might have one Belgian rider listed amongst the favourites above however there are loads extra that would simply as simply be placing the house colors on show at the entrance of the area. Firstly there may be the winner of the inaugural version, Gianni Vermeersch or maybe final yr’s second-placed Florian Vermeersch. Then if Tim Merlier traces up he’s doubtless be one other main menace, having come second at the European Gravel Championships final yr, received at the mid-year Blaavands Huk UCI Gravel World Series spherical and likewise being in the midst of a robust streak on the highway, with three wins in September and a type of being the European Road Championships. Turning to different nations, former WorldTour rider turned gravel specialist Petr Vakoc (Czech Republic) is a critical menace, having come sixth at the European Gravel Championships final yr and infrequently having been off the podium this season, together with wins at the La Monsterrato UCI Gravel World Series race and Traka 200. American Chad Haga could possibly be a protracted shot, having delivered a powerful gravel run this yr, with second at Octopus Gravel and Unbound.