European-based professionals road riders will take on the privateers and US-based gravel specialists at the inaugural UCI Gravel World Championships this weekend in Italy.
The official entry list for the races name Mathieu van der Poel, Magnus Cort, Tiffany Cromwell, Elisa Longo Borghini, Greg van Avermaet, Peter Sagan, Rachel Neylan, and even Miguel Angel López for the elite races.
Van der Poel and Sagan confirmed they will end their 2022 seasons racing gravel but more names have emerged before a number of national federations confirmed their line-ups.
48 women are on the elite entry list and a total 552 riders have registered for this first edition of the Gravel Worlds, representing 38 different nationalities.
Pauline Ferrand-Prévot is trying to win a fourth world title in 2022 in the elite women’s race on Saturday, while Lauren De Crescenzo and Sarah Sturm lead the US team.
They face competition from Longo Borghini of Trek-Segfredo, who won the recent Giro dell’Emilia and Tre Valli Varesine road races, Tiffany Cromwell of Australia, Riejanne Markus of the Netherlands and Letizia Borghesi and Sofia Bertizzolo of Italy.
The men’s elite entry list includes 138 names, including Van der Poel, Sagan and Van Avermaet, as well as former cyclo-cross world champion and Classic winner Zdenek Stybar, his QuickStep-AlphaVinyl teammate Davide Ballerini, Sagan’s lead out man Daniel Oss, Lilian Calmejane (AG2R Citroën), Movistar’s Carlos Verona and Alessandro De Marchi (Israel-Premier Tech).
Some may be riding just to please bike sponsors but other have serious ambitions thanks to their bike skills and love for gravel.
Nathan Haas and Alex Howes lead the gravel specialists, with Lachlan Morton also on the entry list but still to confirm his presence. Many of the US-based gravel riders are absent as they prepare for the Big Sugar Gravel race in Arkansas on October 22, the final event of the Life Time GP series.
Perhaps the biggest surprise on the Gravel World Championship entry list is the name of Colombian climber López.
He is due to ride Il Lombardia on Saturday and then may dash across to the Veneto for Sunday’s men’s race. His Astana Qazaqstan teammates Alexey Lutsenko, Leonardo Basso and new under 23 world road race champion Yevgeniy Fedorov are also set to ride on Sunday. Lutsenko won last year’s Serenissima Gravel race in the Veneto area.
The elite women, women’s age groups, and men’s 50+ categories will race on Saturday, October 8…
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