The first ever UCI gravel world championships were this weekend, and while there were some positives, there was also some room for improvement.
The UCI puts on many legit world championships – road, track, MTB, cyclocross. I’ve covered many of these and they are thrilling. The UCI also puts on world championship events that are test balloons of sorts, such as an e-mountain bike worlds and a cyclocross team relay. Can you name who won those? I can’t – and I was at ‘cross worlds this year in Arkansas. I do clearly remember Marianne Vos and Tom Pidcock winning the elite worlds, though!
On the plus side for gravel worlds, it was cool to see some of the world’s best riders take the start line, with Pauline Ferrand-Prevot and Gianni Vermeersch taking the wins. Conceptually I’m not against a gravel worlds if the world’s best athletes are present and are all in on racing it.
On the minus side, the event just failed in many ways to capture the imagination. It looked at many times more like the bike path world championships than the gravel world champs. And it was in Italy! Home to gorgeous gravel roads like those used in L’Eroica and Strade Bianche.
To state the obvious, the health and the spirit of gravel absolutely do not depend on the UCI. Gravel was a very healthy robust thing developed completely separate from international governance, and will continue to do just fine if the UCI gravel worlds dries up and blows away.
But in the spirit of communal improvement, I present to you my top 5 suggestions on how to improve the gravel worlds for 2023. Afterwards we’ve got a quick check in with 2022 Badlands winner Sebastian Breuer, who raced the gravel worlds in one of the many age groups.
