This weekend marks the inaugural UCI Gravel World Championships, yet despite the ever-growing abundance of gravel bikes available from the world’s biggest bike manufacturers, Mathieu van der Poel is set to ride a lightweight, semi-aero road bike for the 194km course, Canyon’s new Ultimate CFR. Choosing not to ride the two more gravel-specific bikes available to him, the Grizl and Grail.
Images of the bikes and a video of Van der Poel in training ahead of the race show the bike fitted with a Shimano Dura-Ace groupset and wheels, eschewing his sponsor’s more gravel-specific GRX groupset. Throw in the same integrated carbon handlebar and stem and aside from the obvious difference in tyre choice, Van der Poel is on his usual road set-up, he even seems to have stuck with his road pedals and shoes.
He’s not the only one. A slew of images shared by Specialized confirms that Sina Frei and Sofia Gomez Villafane will be aboard the Specialized Roubaix, the endurance-focused road bike designed for – and named after – the cobbled roads of Northern France.
The 140km and 194km female and male races this year feature around 30% asphalt and are a little more in line with Strade Bianche than anything rockier or more testing. Pro cycling is an arms race and no rider will want to feel they are on a slower bike than their competitors so perhaps road bikes with larger volume tyres fitted will be the order of the day.
Are we seeing the categories of fast gravel bikes and capable disc road bikes bleeding into each other or is this just a scenario where speed will trump all and the pro riders will want the fastest bike for the job at the likely expense of comfort and increased risk of damage?
Gravel and off-road riding is, unsurprisingly, tough on bikes. Most of us would baulk at the idea of taking our best road bike, throwing on a pair of gravel tyres and heading for the rough stuff. Gravel-specific bikes will have more clearance for larger volume tyres and wider rims as well as more comfortable geometry. Road-specific wheels will have slightly narrower internal widths than gravel-specific models which could lead to issues when fitting higher volume gravel tyres. Remember Jumbo Visma and their broken carbon wheels at Paris-Roubaix?
However, it isn’t that unusual to see riders…
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