The second edition of the UCI Gravel World Championships is just days away, and while the teething problems have continued beyond the first edition, there are also clear signs of the lessons learned and building entrenchment of the new rainbow-jersey race.
The depth in the field of contenders is gathering strength, with more of the top gravel specialists joining a growing list of big names from across other cycling disciplines. The elite women’s race takes place on Saturday, October 7, and the elite men’s race on Sunday, October 8.
The course, which was announced little more than three weeks out after a late change of organisers to Pedali di Marca, remains in Italy in the Veneto region but crosses different territory and the amount of climbing is significantly amped up in 2023.
The elite men will race a distance of 169km, significantly less than the long-range, high-prestige gravel races in the USA, but still longer than most of the races in the qualifying UCI Gravel World Series events. The elite women will cover 140km, the same distance as last year, but the distance is still an outlier in the world of gravel racing which generally offers equal distances.
This is just one of a number of the talking points of the 2023 edition which also include the new grid ranking rules. There are course questions, a showdown between the top men’s US gravel rider, Keegan Swenson, and the multi-discipline ring-ins, continued lead-in chaos and the ongoing build of momentum in this new incarnation of the discipline.
Cyclingnews will bring you extensive coverage of the racing with results, news and features. Ahead of the event you can also find also read up on the route, contenders and teams with all the information gathered together on our 2023 UCI Gravel World Championships hub page.
Is this a fitting Gravel World Championships course?
What makes a good gravel course can be a challenging question to answer, with the top races in the discipline throwing forward a variety of challenges and surfaces. Some stretch beyond 300 kilometres, others are far shorter but packed with climbs, then others feature single-track paths with river crossings. There is the ratio of tarmac to gravel to consider as well.
The definition of a good gravel course can vary considerably between riders but probably the most obvious area of agreement is that it includes a solid dose of the feature it is named after, gravel.
This is one area where the 2023 course – which admittedly had to be put…
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