After a primary yr of “wait and see”, an avalanche of preeminent riders from the highest ranges of highway, mountain bike, cyclocross, and sure, even gravel, have modified the tide of curiosity to compete on the UCI Gravel World Championships, October 7-8.
Final yr, simply 41 riders took the beginning within the elite-women’s-only occasion on a course 54km shorter than the elite males, with the dash coming right down to a pair of world-class mountain bikers – Pauline Ferrand-Prévot (France) beating Sina Frei (Switzerland). On the next day, 99 males competed over black tarmac and white crushed stone in north-east Italy, with Gianni Vermeersch (Belgium) distancing Daniel Oss (Italy) for the title. In that race, the highest 9 riders had WorldTour expertise.
What gave the impression to be lacking on the inaugural competitors final yr weren’t simply larger numbers within the elite fields however simply extra gurus of the gravel. Actually, lots of the US contingency, lengthy thought of the pioneers of the gravel peloton who survive debilitating all-day races, skipped the lengthy journey to concentrate on extra conventional off-road races.
Group USA, which had solely 7 riders throughout the 2 elite races final yr, however this yr has introduced a squad of 23, together with newly-crowned nationwide champions Keegan Swenson and Lauren Stephens.
The UEC Gravel European Championships happen within the Flemish city of Oud-Heverlee on October 1, and the beginning listing for this inaugural mixed-terrain take a look at might be an indicator for the competitors per week later on the UCI Gravel World Championships. Lorena Wiebes, Fem van Empel and Pauliena Rooijakkers (Netherlands) are among the many Girls’s WorldTour riders competing, in addition to Carolin Schiff (Germany), Barbara Guarischi (Italy) and Tiffany Cromwell (Australia).
Notable on the lads’s facet are the 66 Belgian riders on the beginning line, with Vermeersch main the cost, because the Sunday races additionally function the Belgian Gravel Championships. Look ahead to cyclocross stars like Eli Iserbyt and Laurens Sweeck, in addition to highway warriors Tim Merlier, Greg Van Avermaet, Jasper Stuyven and Philippe Gilbert.
Whereas new organisers, Pedali di Marca, have supplied a totally new course throughout Veneto, the 2 elite course distances from Lago Le Bandie to Pieve di Soligo. The inflow of top-level WorldTour roadies in each the ladies’s and males’s subject might result in one other spherical of dynamic group racing, however twice as a lot climbing from a yr in the past and a 3.9km climb close to the end might put acquainted faces from 2023 gravel battles again within the combine.
Whereas the beginning lists for elite fields haven’t been divulged but for the UCI Gravel Worlds (keep in mind, ‘Gravel Worlds’ are in Nebraska every summer season), listed here are a few of the versatile rivals to look at who might earn the rainbow jerseys.
Elite Girls
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The defending champion of the inaugural Gravel World Championships, Pauline Ferrand-Prèvot, isn’t but a confirmed starter as she pulled out of the UEC European Gravel Championships scheduled for October 1 with a optimistic COVID-19 take a look at.
If she is ready to line up for the second version of the Worlds, she will definitely be the overwhelming favorite to retake the world title and add a profession fifteenth rainbow jersey to her assortment.
The French rider can be on a Worlds successful streak, including one other two titles to her accolades with wins within the elite ladies’s cross-country and brief monitor mountain bike races in Glasgow in August.
These two wins marked her fifth and sixth consecutive world titles earned within the 2022-2023 season. She additionally received the elite ladies’s brief monitor and cross-country final August, together with the marathon in Haderslev final September, after which the gravel title final October.
A flexible rider, look ahead to Ferrand-Prèvot to experience on the entrance of the all-new course within the Veneto area of Italy.
Newly retired from skilled highway biking, Annemiek van Vleuten has determined to dabble in gravel racing. She has by no means been one to draw back from a problem, so her endeavours start with the World Championships.
Van Vleuten had a profitable closing yr on the highway with general victories on the Vuelta a España and Giro d’Italia and just lately received the Tour of Scandinavia. She comes into this Worlds in nice type to make use of on a route well-suited to her capabilities.
Van Vleuten has seen success on gravel, having twice received Strade Bianche, and with a love for gravel and Italian racing, it might not be a shock to see her safe a fourth profession elite ladies’s world title.
One other overwhelming favorite to win the elite ladies’s world title, Villafañe, has received a few of the largest gravel and off-road races within the US, together with profession wins at Unbound Gravel, Leadville Path 100 MTB and SBT GRVL.
Final yr, Villafañe completed twelfth on a largely flat route, however this yr’s course may go well with her higher with extra gravel and undulating terrain the place she will be able to put her cyclocross and mountain bike expertise to good use in opposition to a few of the heavy-hitting highway athletes on the beginning line.
A targetted method to off-road racing, Villafañe trains particularly for her gravel and off-road season and won’t have the identical variety of one-day and multi-day racing obligations as a few of her riders on the beginning line. Her devoted coaching depth and miles will undoubtedly work in her favour at a race just like the World Championships.
Further contenders
The listing is lengthy in 2023, and contains Tour de France Femmes champion Demi Vollering (Netherlands), WorldTour highway professional turned gravel grinder Tiffany Cromwell (Australia) and mountain biker Sina Frei (Switzerland). From the UK, be careful for Danni Shrosbree, who was fourth at Unbound Gravel 200 at this yr’s muddy mess and second on the British Gravel Championships.
Quite a lot of riders from North America have turned highway or MTB careers into successful methods at signature occasions on the Life Time Grand Prix off-road collection together with a trio of US riders Lauren Stephens, Alexis Skarda and Sarah Sturm, with Stephens each the reigning US nationwide champion for gravel and Gravel Worlds (in Nebraska) champion. Canadian Haley Smith, nevertheless, will bypass the Worlds for mountain bike World Cups.
Elite Males
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Wout van Aert did not simply win his first gravel race, Houffa Gravel, a month in the past; he crushed the competitors, using the 80% gravel, 110km course 9 minutes quicker than fellow Belgian Daan Soete and German Paul Voss.
Although the Worlds course is 88km longer, the Classics-like rolling terrain fits Van Aert, having received massive one-day races corresponding to Strade Bianche (2020), Amstel Gold Race (2021) and Gent-Wevelgem (2021). He is received 4 cyclocross world titles, three as an elite rider. However he has plenty of silver medals in massive races, from 2022 Paris-Roubaix to this yr’s highway race World Championships.
Van Aert might solely have one official gravel race within the books, however he’s harmful. Search for him to be in any entrance group on the ultimate collection of climbs on the ultimate circuit into Pieve di Soligo.
The gravel world might get its want with a Van Aert versus Keegan Swenson matchup on the elite males’s facet. The US off-road super-star is a formidable competitor, having received the vast majority of his races previously two years.
This season, he has already dominated the primary 4 occasions within the Life Time Gran Prix – Sea Otter Traditional’s Fuego XL 100k, Unbound Gravel 200, Crusher within the Tushar and Leadville Path 100 MTB. He received a second consecutive SBT GRVL after which scored the stars-and-stripes jersey on the elite males’s US gravel championships.
He’s undaunted by WorldTour riders within the subject, as he skipped the inaugural UCI Gravel World Championships to characterize the USA within the Street World Championships in Wollongong, Australia, ending because the second-best US rider. He doesn’t have a world title throughout any self-discipline, so the stimulus to cross the end line first is big.
The previous WorldTour rider now blazes a path at gravel races all over the world, together with benchmark occasions within the US.
The yr, he was second at each Unbound Gravel 200 and SBT GRVL and was sixth at Gravel Locos. He received two of the three UCI Grael World Collection occasions wherein he competed – Gravel Journey in Poland and La Monsterrato in Italy.
It was from his demonstrations of endurance on the lengthy US races, starting from 220km to 330km, the place he proved to be a power off the pavement.
Further contenders
There received’t be a scarcity of massive names with massive engines within the males’s competitors. Nonetheless, the beginning listing might have exploded off paper had it not been for calendar conflicts the identical weekend with a mountain bike World Cup in Mont-Sainte-Anne, Québec, Canada – the place Tom Pidcock will race – and the legendary Il Lombardia – which can divert the eye of a number of WorldTour riders.
The WorldTour and ProTour professionals will nonetheless swoop into the mixed-terrain insanity for a modest 164km occasion in opposition to plenty of massive gravel stars to whom they haven’t been in a position to measure. Search for Connor Swift (Nice Britain), who was just lately edged on the line by Joe Blackmore for the British Gravel Championships victory. Alejandro Valverde (Spain) got here out of retirement to race, and win, a pair of gravel races in his house nation, Ranxo Gravel and La Indomable. And if Mathieu van der Poel (Netherlands) confirms he’ll race, the reigning highway World Champion might very effectively add one other rainbow jersey to his assortment.