Kasia Niewiadoma took victory in what was her first-ever gravel race on Saturday at the UCI Gravel World Championships. The Polish rider left the rest of the field behind and arrived at the finish with a 33-second lead over Silvia Persico and Demi Vollering after nearly five hours of racing in Northern Italy.
The decision to not televise the Women’s World Championship race drew criticism in the days leading up to the race although some short highlights were later shown.
Like the men’s race winner Matej Mohorič, Niewiadoma took the UCI World Title aboard an as-of-yet unreleased bike. This time however it was a model from Canyon, not Merida. We also saw this same prototype bike at Unbound earlier in the year, with Carolin Schiff winning the women’s race.
Though as mentioned, we don’t know what this Canyon bike is just yet. We speculated after Unbound it could possibly be an updated version of the Canyon Grail. It’s safe to say it isn’t a new Inflite, which got an update and top flight CFR status in late September.
This new frame appears to have mounting points under the top tube and a seatpost that doesn’t look like anything currently featured on Canyon gravel bikes. An Ergon saddle was mounted atop the seatpost.
Niewiadoma used a Sram-based build, with wheels from Zipp and road pedals by Time (Sram owns Zipp and Time). Time pedals are also generally some of the lightest on the market.
Wheel and tyres wise Niewiadoma used Zipp 303 S wheels fitted with tubeless Schwalbe G One RS tyres, which feature a slick centre section. Schwalbe claims the G One RS tyres have the lowest rolling resistance in the G One range and are suited to tarmac and dry conditions. Niewiadoma possibly gambled slightly with tyre choice, going for speed over extra grip or puncture resistance but it certainly looks to have paid off for her. We also discussed tyre options in our Gravel Worlds tech feature if you want to read more.
A mixed Sram transmission was fitted to the bike. A Sram Red 1x chainset and Quarq power meter with a small chain catcher were fitted up front. Whilst the rear derailleur and $700 10-52T T-type cassette were from the fairly new XX SL Eagle MTB range. The XX Eagle SL derailleur uses a hangerless interface and carbon fibre cage to drop weight, and a lower jockey wheel that won’t jam or stick if a piece of debris enters it, a nice…
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