In the days before the first UCI Gravel World Championships last year, the specialists who had spent much of the year competing in and supporting the new UCI Gravel World Series discovered their results were worth nought when it came to the all-important starting positions in the race for the rainbow jersey. In a controversial decision, they were being trumped by road, mountain bike and cyclocross athletes, who had not raced a single one of the gravel series events. In 2023, the rules are set to change.
A post flagging the alterations to the regulations was put out on the Gravel World Series Facebook page, outlining that elite riders at the 2023 UCI Gravel World Championships, back in Veneto, Italy on October 7-8, would line up based on a points system. On first glance, this appeared to lean in favour of those racing gravel throughout the year.
Positions will be allocated, said organisers, based on a cumulation of points won during the Gravel World Series events and the previous year’s Gravel World Championship, along with “50% of the points in the UCI rankings road, mountain bike cross-country (XCO), mountain bike marathon (XCM) and cyclocross”.
The early broadcasting of the start grid policy, may perhaps allay some of the controversy from last year, with last-minute discussions resulting in riders like series round winners Piotr Havik and Adam Blazevic, ultimately, moved up to the second row in the men’s event. However, they still sat behind a front row dominated by road pros, including Mathieu van der Poel, Peter Sagan and Miguel Angel López. In the women’s race, mountain bike world champion and eventual winner Pauline Ferrand-Prévot, who hadn’t raced in the gravel series, was also prominent on the front of the grid.
The start position was an issue last year for the UCI Gravel World Championships, held October 9-10 in Veneto, Italy. Races began with an early climb to split the fields, and narrow sections following, that made moving up a challenge.
The importance of position on the start line is a key factor in mountain biking and cyclocross too. Riders who come into the racing from the road, like Tom Pidcock or Marianne Vos, do not finding any concessions given for road points but instead have to fight their way up if they want a better placement.
That raises the question, is it enough to cut the weighting of points from other disciplines in half for the Gravel World Championships?
The points awarded for the UCI Gravel World Series – running…
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