The UCI Gravel World Championships are upon us in a number of days. It’s the first one – hopefully one of many to come – and it should throw up some seriously good racing.
My editors (who are sometimes my friends) over here at Cyclingnews asked me to diverge from my standard blogging to write up a bit of a race preview. I’m no journalist, trust me – these lads and ladies behind the keyboard are incredibly talented, accomplished and of course far more experienced than me [this was legitimately written by Nathan – Ed.] – so all I can do is give you my best insider’s take on what to expect on the weekend.
Based in the gravel-rich region of Veneto in northern Italy, we should have a fitting setting for the inaugural World Champs. The elite courses – 166km for the women and 196km for the men – start in Vicenza, riding toward and around Padova before riding into the city of Cittadella to take on several laps of finishing a circuit.
Similar to last year’s Serenissima Gravel race, I’m told the gravel is not very technical and the parcours is almost completely flat, so we can expect a big bunch for most of the race, with very few major obstacles other than positioning and your standard challenges of racing on gravel without a support vehicle.
Unlike road, though, the lack of major teams makes it less likely – albeit not totally unheard of – for a race to end in a bunch sprint. More likely, imagine a reduced field of key contenders in those final km’s, playing a strong game of cat and mouse.
But let’s back up and talk about how we got here.
To qualify for the World Championships, one simply had to finish in the top 25% of their age group at any of the UCI World Series gravel events this year. From the Philippines to Iowa, Poland to Perth, the global series offered ample opportunities to make it to this final start line. To note, this qualification was only for age group categories. Coinciding with the age group categories – think Ironman or Gran Fondo champs – there is an elite level.
The UCI held spots for elite athletes, male and female, mainly from the WorldTour ranks, via wildcard invitations. Every nation has 20 spots to give, which seems a lot for the Vatican, or not enough for the USA, but this this is to allow for household names to be able to come and race, without having had to have done any gravel racing this season, or perhaps ever.
In many ways, this is great for the sport of gravel, as big names will get big attention,…
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