Gravel is all about grit and embraces variety. That applies to both race routes and the competitors themselves, where variable conditions and terrain often present unpredictable equipment and fitness challenges to even the most experienced pro riders.
The fourth edition of the UCI Gravel World Championships in Zuid-Limburg this weekend hits the mark for fast, Classics-style competitions this Saturday and Sunday. There is Dutch territory that has been featured in the Amstel Gold Race, which lures the legends of the WorldTour and Women’s WorldTour this year – Lorena Wiebes, Marianne Vos and Tim Merlier (Netherlands), Tim Wellens (Belgium) and Romain Bardet (France).
Riders with long pedigrees on gravel desperately want the rainbow stripes, however, so look for a clash of titans from the likes of gravel ‘veterans’ like Gianni Vermeersch and Greg Van Avermaet (Belgium), Tiffany Cromwell (Australia), Geerike Schreurs (Netherlands) and Rosa Klöser (Germany) to kick up the dust at the front of the elite races.
Some of the top women not expected to line up are 2023 women’s champion Kasia Niewiadoma-Phinney (Poland), last year’s fourth-place finisher Puck Pieterse (Netherlands) and three-time US women’s gravel champion Lauren Stephens. On the men’s side, last year’s winner Mathieu van der Poel (Netherlands) takes time off from a hectic road and MTB season, so the podium is wide open. While 2023 winner Matej Mohorič (Slovenia) is on the start list, he is questionable to start due to struggles at Road Worlds and European Championships.
Perhaps missing from the action will be many of the gravel stars who have performed consistently on longer and more mountainous courses, such as US riders Keegan Swenson, Alexey Vermeulen, Cole Paton, Cecily Decker and Melisa Rollins. They are expected to race the final two rounds of the Life Time Grand Prix in Arkansas across the next two weeks. Also absent from the Netherlands for the prize-rich Grand Prix are gravel standouts Matthew Beers and Haley Preen of South Africa, Simon Pellaud of Switzerland, Torbjørn Røed of Norway, Cameron Jones and Courtney Sherwell of Australia, Haley Smith and Andrew L’Esperance of Canada – all of them also in Arkansas.
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