The second edition of the UCI Gravel World Championships takes place this weekend, and it looks set to be a scorcher, both in terms of warm weather and the fierce competition that will grace both the men’s and women’s startlines.
Running in the Veneto region of Northern Italy between Lago Le Bandie and Pieve di Soligo, the women’s race will cover 140km with 1660m of climbing on Saturday, while the men’s race will cover 169km with 1890m of climbing on Sunday.
The routes are set to comprise approximately a 50/50 split between gravel and paved roads, with some early sections already being described as potentially selective. Compared to the 2022 edition in which most riders used their road bikes, the 2023 course will pose significant equipment choice questions to the riders.
The sheer fact that it is a gravel race will also present a novelty to some of the field. The headline acts in the fields such as Wout Van Aert and new European gravel champion Lorena Wiebes might be well versed in multi-discipline racing, and the gravel pros such as Keegan Swenson and Sarah Sturm will be perfectly comfortable on the rougher terrain, but a huge portion of the start list will come from the WorldTour road peloton where the roads are smooth and team cars are on hand to help with any misfortune.
In this preview we’ll look into the key equipment choices riders will be forced to make, overview any early clues we’ve been given and what considerations the riders will be trying to weigh up in their pursuit of tech perfection.
Bike choice: road bikes vs gravel bikes
We’ll start with the main one: the bikes. In 2022, the gravel terrain was widely criticised for how tame it was, to the point that Specialized-sponsored gravel racer Sarah Sturm jokingly called it the “Bike Path Worlds.”
Gianni Vermeesch won the men’s race aboard a Canyon Ultimate CFR, and was just one of many to race a road bike adapted for the gravel with some wider tyres.
This year, however, despite the UCI’s description of a 50/50 gravel and paved split, some challenging early terrain is looking like it will sway at least some riders toward dedicated gravel bikes as they fight to stay near the front and avoid missing crucial selections.
“The start is pretty spicy,” the American, Sturm, told Cyclingnews. “There’s some technical, chunkier sections. And today we rode some really steep twisty turny descents.”
Fellow American Alexey Vermeulen hinted at a consciousness of these early pinch points when…
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