Nathan Haas blog: Has the UCI done enough for gravel pros at the Gravel World Championships?

Ignoring my own advice never to read the comments section on Cyclingnews; whilst sinking into a recent piece about the USA team not supporting its gravel athletes this year, I was yet again surprised by the sentiment many have towards the UCI Gravel Worlds Championships, calling it ‘bike path world champs’ and a ‘disgrace to USA gravel’. This last comment triggered me briefly, because as for how I see gravel, courses can be whatever they like, there is no definition of what makes it a true gravel course vs one that isn’t.

If you haven’t seen the course, you can see the UCI Gravel World Championships route here – it’s about a 50/50 split between rough surface and road. The race kicks off in Halle, loops around the south side of Brussels, and finishes in Leuven. It’s actually one of the only gravel races on the calendar that has a distinctly different and far-apart start and finish, making it different in its own right, but possibly logistically harder for those riders without a support team.