While we’re still reliving the thrilling battles for the road world championship title from this past weekend, rainbow fever continues as we get ready for the third-ever UCI Gravel World Championships in Leuven, Belgium, this weekend.
Those we missed out on the rainbow bands in Zurich will get a second chance at a jersey, while Lotte Kopecky and Puck Pieterse will be vying for a second world title, or in Pieterse’s case a third title, to add to their palmarès this season.
Kopecky and Pieterse are just two of many WorldTour stars flocking to the start line in Halle. While official start lists have yet to be published, we’ve seen confirmed attendance from Mathieu van der Poel, Greg van Avermaet, Tiffany Cromwell, Marianne Vos, and defending men's gravel world champion Matej Mohorič. Defending women's champion Kasia Niewiadoma has decided to finish her season early.
What makes these gravel world championships unique is that pros and amateurs will compete side by side. Unlike traditional race programs with men’s and women’s juniors, U23 and elite categories, the UCI Gravel World Championships are broken up in age categories and an Elite category. Amateur riders —including professional race car drivers— could qualify by finishing in the top 25% at one of the 25 events in the Trek UCI Gravel World Series held this year. Qualifying races spanned from Kenya and Poland to Canada and the U.S. For the elite race, national cycling federations were allotted up to 20 slots for their top men and women, selected at the federation’s discretion.
The course is set, the competition promises to be fierce, and this year, we can watch it all live. Both elite races — men's and women's — will be live-streamed, a welcome improvement after last year’s shameful lack of coverage for the women's race.
Here’s your guide to the 2024 UCI Gravel World Championships.
The UCI Gravel World Championships at a glance
After the success and huge growth in unregulated gravel events across North American and Europe, the sport’s governing body, the UCI, decided it wanted a slice of the gravel pie as well. At the start of 2022, the UCI debuted the UCI Gravel World Series and announced the first-ever UCI Gravel World Championships, where an ‘official’ rainbow jersey would be on offer.
The previous two editions of the UCI Gravel World Championships took place in Italy, where the location, shorter distances, and different style of racing have largely favoured European WorldTour racers accustomed to the high pace and bumping elbows on narrow paths.
The move to Belgium brings with it some Flemish flare. The course winds its way through woodsy Brabant and traverses across gravel, cobblestones, unpaved surfaces as well as paved roads.
When:
- Saturday, Oct. 5, 12 p.m. CEST / 6 a.m.EDT - women's elite race
- Sunday, Oct, 6, 12 p.m. CEST / 6 a.m. EDT. - men’s elite race
Start: Halle, Belgium
Finish: Leuven. Belgium
Race distances: 135km for the elite women, 182km for the elite men
Past winners: WorldTour roadies Kasia Niewiadoma (Poland) and Matej Mohorič (Slovenia) in 2023, and multi-discipline riders Pauline Ferrand-Prévot (France) and Gianni Vermeersch (Belgium) in 2022.
The Course
All races start in Possozplein in Halle, a town some 15 kilometres southwest of Brussels. From here, the peloton will complete a small local loop (once for the women and twice for the men) before heading east through a forested region called Brabantse Wouden, which starts with a pitchy run up the Krekelenberg. The Forests of Brabant is a network of forests and green spaces throughout Flemish Brabant, characterized by its tall trees, worn and sunken roads, and heathlands. As the course nears its finish in Leuven, the peloton will complete another local loop—one or two, depending on the race category. On the way to finish line, the peloton will have to conquer the steep and cobblestoned Ramberg climb as well as one final gravelly section before racing to the heart of the city where the rainbow jersey awaits.
The UCI Gravel World Championships so far have eschewed the 200-320 kilometre-long distances popularised by American gravel races, and the routes for the 2024 event are no different, with the elite women's field tackling 135 kilometres (82 miles) on Saturday, October 5, and the elite men covering 182 kilometres (113 miles) the following day. But where the courses lack in distances, they make up for in punchy climbs and narrow, twisty-turny paths.
Around 56% of the course consist of gravel, cobblestones or otherwise unpaved surfaces, many of which were previously featured in the 2023 European Gravel Championship.
The paved sections will also be familiar for some as the 2021 UCI Road World Championships took place in the same region, traveling between Antwerpen and Leuven.
The Contenders
Even without the availability of start lists as of yet, here are some riders to keep your eye on.
In the women’s field:
XCO World Champion and U23 Road world champion Puck Pieterse (The Netherlands)
The 22-year-old wunderkind from The Netherlands can do it all. She’s a top performer in cyclocross, became the cross-country mountain bike world champion in September and netted the U23 road title last weekend in Zurich as well. Why not add some gravel bling, too?
The Fenix Deceuninck rider was also one of the most exciting playmakers of this year's Tour de France Femmes, in which she showed the versatility of her cycling talent. In her first-ever stage race, Pieterse won a stage in a photo finish with Demi Vollering, led the Climber's and Young Rider's classification, and even went into the final stage sitting second in the overall classification. In the end, she lost the polka dot jersey but went home with the best young rider's jersey, finishing 11th overall, third in the mountain classification, and eighth in the points classification.
“When Puck participates, she only wants one thing, and that is to win,” team director Michel Cornelisse told Cycling Weekly. We cannot wait to see what Pieterse can do on gravel.
Road world champion Lotte Kopecky (Belgium)
Last weekend, Lotte Kopecky demonstrated that she is (still) the best rider in the women’s peloton when she defended her Road World Championship title in Zurich. The 28-year-old Belgian is in top form and decided to make the most of that fitness by entering in her first-ever gravel race at Gravel Worlds.
As a winner of Ronde van Vlaanderen, Strade Bianche and Paris-Roubaix, Kopecky is one of the best Classics riders in the women’s peloton, and thus, this punchy course should suit her well despite lack of gravel experience.
Already a world champion on both road and track, adding a gravel title would further solidify her multi-discipline dominance.
Sprinter Lorena Wiebes (The Netherlands)
Should the race come down to a sprint, Kopecky will have her work cut out for her against her SD Worx teammate and top sprinter Lorena Wiebes. Wiebes is no stranger to gravel, having won the European Gravel Champions twice and competed at events like the Traka 100.
She also did not compete at the UCI Road World Championships last weekend, which means she’s had a little bit more time to rest and prepare than some of her competitors have had.
And, as mentioned above, many of the roads and paths of the world championship course were also featured in the 2023 European Gravel Championship, which means Wiebes knows how to conquer them and come out ahead.
The GOAT Marianne Vos (The Netherlands)
The Dutch are lining up with a team brimming with talent and it seems that only they themselves can get in the way of securing the gravel title. Joining Pieterse and Wiebes is none other than the GOAT herself, Marianne Vos.
With a career spanning nearly two decades, Vos has claimed 11 world champion titles in cyclocross and road cycling, and there are few races on the WorldTour calendar that she has not won. Revered for her exceptional racecraft, explosive power, technical skills and her ability to thrive in challenging conditions, Vos is a contender no matter what race she enters.
Even at 37 years old, the Cannibal is not slowing down. This season saw her win an Olympic silver medal (her third Olympic medal) and take wins at Omloop het Nieuwsblad, Dwars door Vlaanderen, Amstel Gold and Vuelta a Espana Feminina. She also delivered an absolute masterclass in suffering and grit to secure the green jersey at the Tour de France Femmes.
Her palmarès is already overflowing, but with a museum being built in her honour, I'm sure they'll find space for yet another rainbow jersey
Tiffany Cromwell (Australia)
Perhaps the most experienced gravel racer on this short list of favourites, Cromwell has embraced the off-road discipline to the point of co-founding her own races—FNLD GRVO and RADL GRVL.
The Canyon-SRAM rider has lined up and won races like Unbound Gravel 100, Belgian Waffle Ride, FNLD GRVL and several of the UCI Gravel World Series events. The 36-year-old also finished in the top 10 at both previous editions of the world championships. She won the final round of the UCI Gravel World Series just two weeks ago in Spain, promising good form for the race ahead.
In the men’s field:
Defending champion Matej Mohorič (Slovenia)
Defending champion Matej Mohorič (Bahrain Victorious) has yet to successfully carry his rainbow bands across the finish line of a gravel race. The rainbow curse was in full effect for the Slovenian WorldTour rider who had a hard time fitting gravel events into his road calendar. His first race in the rainbow jersey was a mechanical-marred disaster at Unbound 200, and his second attempt at Sea Otter Europe Girona just two weeks ago saw him pull out due to a hand injury.
Mohorič will be wearing his national team colours on Sunday, and hopefully, he’ll experience better luck then.
Cyclocross world champion Mathieu van der Poel (Netherlands)
Like so many on this list, Mathieu van der Poel is a multi-discipline star. The 29-year-old had to surrender his road world champion status to Tadej Pogacar last weekend but remains the reigning cyclocross world champion. He finished third in the debut gravel championships in Veneto in 2022, and would surely like to move up the steps this go around. He certainly got the chops for it.
In addition to his explosive power and expert bike handling skills that serve him so well in cyclocross, Van der Poel is also one of the best Classics riders men’s cycling has ever seen with three Ronde van Vlaanderen wins, two Paris-Roubaix victories and wins at Milan-San Remo, Amstel Gold and Strade Bianche to his name.
He also showed great form on Sunday, when he walked away with the bronze medal in Zurich.
Underdog pick: the Gravel Pioneer Ted King (USA)
American fans will be disappointed not to see the likes Keegan Swenson, Sofia Gomez Villafañe and Lauren De Crescenzo line up in Belgium. While considered the best off-road specialists America’s got to offer, they’re all staying stateside to finish the Life Time Grand Prix series.
Instead, it will be retired WorldTour roadie and gravel veteran Ted King serving as gravel captain for Team USA. When King retired from the WorldTour in 2015, he went on to win Unbound Gravel and show his WorldTour contemporaries a viable off-ramp from top-tier road racing. An early adopter of the gravel discipline, King has since won Unbound twice and secured victories as SBTGRVL, Vermont Overland and the Last Best Ride, among others.
King will be a wealth of information for the current U.S. national gravel champion, Brennan Wertz, who’s new to the narrow roads and European style of racing. And King isn’t the only one with European race experience. Colby Simmons of the Team Visma Leas a Bike team will be joining the US roster as well.
How to watch
In North America:
FloBikes will be hosting the livestream for those in the U.S. and Canada, with coverage starting at 8 a.m. EDT on Saturday and 8:20 a.m. on Sunday. Subscription is required.
In Europe:
Europeans should tune into Discovery+ and Eurosport: Discovery+ and Eurosport for live coverage.
In Australia:
The 2024 UCI Gravel World Championships will be available to watch on SBS. Coverage starts at 22:00 on Saturday and 23:20 on Sunday.
YouTube:
The UCI YouTube channel: The Elite races may be live-streamed on the UCI YouTube channel, but coverage will be geo-restricted. Highlights will be available the following day.
