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The UCI Gravel World Championships return to the Veneto area of Italy, October 7-8, 2023, and with a title wave of adjustments. Only one month earlier than the second version of the battle for rainbow stripes, the UCI introduced that Pedali di Marca would take over as organisers for the occasion, changing PP Sport Occasions. Then a very new course was unveiled for Treviso, with races departing from Lago Le Bandie and together with end circuits at Pieve di Soligo.
Gone had been the largely flat programs from the inaugural season, which noticed street techniques play out for dash finishes within the elite races. Pauline Ferrand-Prévot (France) took the ladies’s victory forward of Sina Frei (Switzerland) and Gianni Vermeersch (Belgium) led a pack of eight different professional street stars throughout the road for the lads’s title.
Considerably extra climbing has been added this yr for all classes of racing, with elite girls overlaying 140 kilometres on Saturday and elite males driving 169 kilometres on Sunday.Â
A 50-50 mixture of surfaces, from the hard-packed white pebbles to the paved black tarmac, function 9 key climbs for the elite males and eight climbs for the elite girls. Although 25 kilometres shorter than the inaugural version of the lads’s race, the course on Sunday has 1,900 metres of elevation acquire, greater than double from 2022. The ladies’s route can also be hillier, with 1,660 metres of elevation acquire.
Course particulars
All fields start with a 5km lap on a dust street round Lake Le Bandie in Spresiano. The route heads instantly north to the primary of three passes by means of the end line in Pieve di Soligo, located lower than 50km from the beginning. The opening 30km passes by means of Grave di Papadopoli which gives terrain for assaults and riders to settle into positions over the longest stretch of dust street, 21km alongside the Piave River.Â
At Ponte della Priula, the route turns away from the river and over the hills of Collalto, the primary climb alongside vineyards at 3.8km and a 3.9% common gradient.Â
Onerous-packed white roads then result in the guts of the Prosecco hills in Pieve di Soligo and the start of the primary loop, which is roughly 60km for elite males and 45km for elite girls. The clockwise circuit begins with an asphalt climb to  Arfanta (3.7 km at 4.3%) adopted by Nogarolo (700 metres at 11.6%) and Ca’ del Poggio (1.2 km at 12.2%) close to San Pietro. The boys’s route swings broad for further kilometres simply after Arfanta and once more earlier than San Pietro, with a climb throughout Formeniga (1.2km at 6.2%) which is exclusive for Sunday’s course.
Organisers known as a stretch of dust roads by means of Val Trippera ‘treacherous’ because the route heads again for a second move of the end line and one other clockwise circuit, this time to the west on off-road sectors of Patean and Palù di Sernaglia. The Males’s route takes in further kilometres passing the Isola dei Morti.
From Colbertaldo, probably the most difficult a part of the route takes within the remaining 4 climbs within the remaining 25km. The ascent of San Vigilio is barely 300 metres lengthy however at 16.5% is a stiff problem. It leads on to the ascents of Le Serre (3.4 km at 7%) and Le Tenade (900 metres at 3.9%). A brief reprieve follows for the ultimate climb, Collagù (3.9 km at 5.1%), and a pointy descent to the end. Â
From the descent of San Gallo riders will navigate cobblestone streets that move the Church of Saints Peter and Paul and end at Piazza Balbi Valier in Pieve di Soligo.
