If ‘quicker, larger, stronger’ is the motto for the Olympic Video games, then ‘quicker, richer, louder’ might be the brand new mantra for gravel racing after the 2024 season.
The trajectory of gravel engagement, be it the skilled riders sprinting to the end line after 200 miles or the upper numbers of participation from keen amateurs of all ages, continues to soar. Alternatives to seize bragging rights at stand-alone occasions or multi-race collection are sprouting across the globe, now providing gender fairness in prize cash and race classes.
There’s nonetheless nobody normal definition of ‘gravel’, together with how a lot or what kind of terrain needs to be on an elite-level course, be it a gran fondo or a World Championships. The Worlds course in Belgium was distinctive and we’ll most probably see one thing very completely different in Good, France subsequent October, too.
‘Different’ was one of many early descriptions of gravel racing and driving, and that also rings true in the present day. Gravel refuses to be confined to at least one set of requirements, staying true to its US roots, and discovering agency floor globally amongst broad open areas, hidden valleys and grime paths.
What continues to be reliable are the athletes themselves who sort out off-road adventures and make it look maybe not straightforward, however at the least enjoyable, even whether it is typically kind 2 on the dimensions – ache and struggling within the second however fulfilling in hindsight.
Carolin Schiff and Petr Vakoc scored essentially the most factors within the 2024 TREK UCI Gravel World Collection, giving them beneficial beginning positions on the UCI Gravel World Championships. On the collection scene, Karolina Migoń and Simen Nordahl Svendsen received the Gravel Earth Collection, Keegan Swenson and Sofia Gomez Villafañe remained dominant within the Life Time Grand Prix, and Villafañe doubled up on the ladies’s facet to win Belgian Waffle Trip’s Tripel Crown whereas Peter Stetina received the lads’s title.
Cyclingnews takes a glance throughout the spectrum of gravel, pulling out among the key notable developments and moments of 2024.
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Nothing common about seismic speeds
When the climate situations cooperate, report occasions proceed to fall. It isn’t simply highway racers coming to gravel both that enhance the tempo in fields. Elements embrace stronger all-around riders, higher gear and swifter transitions for gear and hydration/vitamin stops all including as much as shorter occasions spent on long-distance programs.
We’ll begin with a glance again at Unbound Gravel 200, because it has a strong historical past for the self-discipline courting again to 2006. Within the first 15 editions of the 200-mile race, there was just one dash end for elite males, and that was 2015 when Yuri Hauswald completed in 13:01:17, one second quicker than Michael Sencenbaugh. They averaged 15.44 miles per hour (24.8 kph) over a muddy north course. Amanda Nauman received the ladies’s division in 14:08:18 and averaged 14.22 mph (22.8 kph).
9 years in a while an identical course at Unbound 200, albeit a primarily dry one, the typical velocity was as much as 22 mph (35 kph) for males and 19.4 mph (31 kph) for girls. Males’s winner Lachlan Morton edged Chad Haga in 9:11:47 and ladies’s winner Rosa Klöser led a nine-woman dash in 10:26:02. A seismic change.
A equally lengthy endurance check in Europe is the Traka 360, and speeds there are additionally on the rise. Mattia de Marchi was the primary rider to complete in beneath 13 hours in 2023, a 12 months with out main mud permitting him to common 17.3 mph (27.85 kph). Amity Rockwell took an hour off the ladies’s earlier greatest time that 12 months, profitable the ladies’s division in 15:01:02, averaging 14.9 mph (23.97 kph). Whereas the 2024 race was shortened by 20km because of opposed climate damaging sections earlier within the week, winners Peter Stetina and Karolina Migoń raised the bar on speeds, Stetina averaging 19.1 mph (30.75 kph) and Migoń averaging 17.68 mph (28.46 kph).
To see the shift in velocity in a capsule, you solely want to have a look at the epic Leadville Path 100 MTB over the previous few years, as it’s a part of the Life Time Grand Prix. 4-time winner Keegan Swenson has set new course information in consecutive years. He set a brand new course report in 2023 crushing his 2022 report by quarter-hour. In 2022, he completed 11:25 quicker than in 2021. From 2021 to 2024 Swenson has elevated his common velocity by 1.89 mph (3 kph), and this 12 months was simply over 5 minutes shy of his 2023 report time even with a mechanical and opting to trip a drop-bar machine over a mountain bike.
UCI Gravel World Collection provides new marker for flexibility
The US could have constructed high-profile gravel races and collection which have garnered profile whereas The Traka additionally adopted that path in Europe, however there was little elsewhere that was immediately as recognisable or aspirational on a world scale. That does not imply there wasn’t a legion of different extra localised occasions, however with no formalised rating system there was no straightforward method of marking out during which realm they belonged.
The UCI Gravel World Collection has modified all that. In 2024, it in some way felt just like the 12 months the World Collection went from an experiment to a fully-fledged going concern. The variety of races grew – 25 this season from 10 within the opening 12 months of 2022 – plus there was an more and more spectacular geographic unfold and strengthening fields of riders, many committing to creating their option to quite a few occasions on the circuit. The privateers, who earlier than could have struggled to discover a common marker exterior the US to make use of as proof of their credentials to point out potential sponsors, now had a recognised top-tier occasion to level to – with wins or podiums on the collection a helpful addition to any pitch.
What’s extra, as qualifiers for the UCI Gravel World Championships, riders now had extra incentive than ever to show up for his or her nearest occasion and attempt to make the reduce for the race for the rainbow stripes. What’s extra, significantly in areas the place multiple occasion was accessible, a catastrophic mechanical, sickness or native course that did not swimsuit did not have to finish their hopes, with one other occasion at all times across the nook.
Organisers, too, have more and more recognised the attraction of constructing native occasions a part of a globally recognised collection, with many lining as much as be added to the calendar. So many, actually, that now 2025 is trying to ship round 35 occasions.
A development within the variety of races and geographic unfold of the collection means the chance to speed up the embrace of gravel racing as a very world sport, for each the weekend warriors and budding professionals, simply retains selecting up momentum. In 2024 the collection and World Championships established footholds as occasions which are right here to remain.
Gravel tech topping highway tech
On the tech entrance, gravel race bike expertise has continued to develop and evolve at tempo in 2024 and is extra different and dynamic than highway tech proper now.
On the sharp finish, gravel racing is barely getting quicker and extra aggressive. This quest for velocity throughout a wide range of terrain is informing the event of gravel race gear. Aerodynamics, effectivity and rolling resistance are enjoying a key half in issues.
A slew of fascinating gravel tech was launched this 12 months. Within the run-up to Unbound Gravel, Castelli launched a gravel jersey with a built-in hydration bladder to avoid wasting weight and assist aerodynamics for riders carrying their fluids in lengthy races. SRAM additionally invested additional in gravel tech with their new Purple XPLR AXS 13-speed gravel groupset. Ridley quietly launched an aero gravel race bike which was ridden to fourth place at Unbound.
Wheel rim, tyre sizing and pressures are a sizzling matter in gravel proper now, briefly, larger-sized tyres could be run at decrease pressures on wider rims. This boosts effectivity by lowering vibrational losses over tough floor and saves riders watts throughout a race. US gravel racer Dylan Johnson has used aero wheels and Continental MTB tyres on his gravel bike this 12 months. While Zipp’s new 303 XPLR wheelset makes use of the widest inner rim measurement ever seen in highway or gravel at 32mm, the wheels are wider than many MTB rims.
Initially of October, Marianna Vos used the Gravaa adjustable tyre inflation system to dash to victory on the UCI Gravel World Championships in Belgium. The system has been developed over a number of years and permits riders to deflate and inflate their tyres repeatedly to swimsuit the terrain. The power to run decrease tyre pressures on rougher floor and better stress on quicker surfaces goals to create a extra environment friendly total setup, slightly than the rider having to compromise. Vos used the system with tubular tyres curiously, maybe to mitigate the danger of unseating a tubeless tyre if driving at very low pressures.
Gravel race tech is thrilling proper now as a result of gear is being experimented with and examined to seek out the quickest possibility for a variety of programs and terrain. We’ve got seen drop bars getting used on a mountain bike at Leadville, in addition to loads of gravel suspension forks and a variety of different fairly loopy setups. Gravel racing isn’t slowing down and we anticipate to see extra of the identical in 2025.
Elite women-only begins
Unbound Gravel 200 was a game-changer for the elite ladies. For the primary time within the race’s 17-year historical past of mass begins with blended genders, the elite ladies obtained important separation from the lads on the sound of the gun.
Fifteen minutes after the elite males, the elite ladies took to the course from downtown Emporia, Kansas, after which there was a big hole of 25 minutes for the amateurs to pounce from the road. At The Traka 360, the beginning occasions had been reverse, with the ladies pedalling at 6:00 a.m. native time in Girona, Spain and the elite males taking off with open classes half-hour later.
All of the UCI Gravel World Collection occasions are impartial, so begin procedures do differ, however tips do specify that from a begin grid of elite women and men there needs to be a minimal of a one-minute interval between the classes. There are variations of begin preparations for age group classes.
“I did plenty of UCI races this 12 months and most of them (all) had personal ladies begins, however ultimately all the things was blended once more due to much less time gaps between ladies and age group males. I feel the race with the much less males’s influence was Unbound this 12 months,” Schiff, who received three UCI Gravel Collection occasions in addition to The Traka 200, instructed Cyclingnews.
“In some races we begin earlier than the age teams. With this situation the lads catch us and simply the strongest of us ladies are in a position to stick with them. The opposite model was that we begin final simply earlier than the age group 60+. With this ladies have the issue that we’ve to cross the slower age group males which was actually harmful generally.”
US organisers Life Time adjusted begins for all the races of their off-road collection to permit ladies a separate ship off. It was a very new dynamic for the racers, and for spectators to witness the skills of girls.
“I feel we definitely proved how thrilling ladies’s racing is with our efficiency,” Sarah Sturm stated to Cyclingnews, ending seventh within the lead pack at Unbound Gravel 200.
“The largest piece is that we’ve a race from the beginning with simply ladies. Usually it’s nearly going ALL OUT from the gun and making an attempt to luck your method into the quickest group of males. This implies we normally by no means know the place anybody is and it turns into ladies in a males’s race. All of our exhausting work, coaching, getting ready was rewarded with knowledgeable ladies’s race.”
One of many holdouts to alter from the group gallop begin was SBT GRVL in Colorado. In 2025 organisers will restructure with separate begins for elite males and elite ladies, which has been applauded by many riders.
Cyclocross stars seize rainbows in Belgium
The phrase ‘Classics’, not ‘traditional’, got here up again and again to explain the 2024 course for the UCI Gravel World Championships. After two years in Italy with a heavy mixture of pavement and grime roads, the brand new battle for rainbow stripes was contested on what most elite and newbie riders likened to a Belgian Classics highway course, which appeared like a magnet to draw many professional riders from different disciplines to affix the occasion.
Most of the ‘common’ gravel riders didn’t have sufficient UCI factors to start out on the entrance of elite begin grids, thus getting squeezed from making any important strikes throughout the tight singletrack and slender bike paths, and even a spiralled bike commuter bridge by a practice station. The place had been the enormous climbs, gnarly descents, washed-out grime roads and elevation achieve to obviously discern gravel champions?
Belgium gave gravel its personal flavour in 2024, and the riders who had the very best technical abilities on various terrain gained the glory. It was no shock that those that had worn the rainbow stripes of cyclocross world champions Marianne Vos and Mathieu van der Poel, each representing the Netherlands, earned extra in one other self-discipline.
“Each nation has its personal type of gravel model racing,” is how Greg Van Avermaet summarised how a world championship course ought to search for gravel. “That is Belgium, in order that’s our type of gravel – some corners, a variety of buildings, forests, punchy climbs and never broad roads. It is a good mixture. I feel it is Belgium.”
Pay days are good days
The surge in gravel racing was by no means fueled by prize cash, particularly, however it does not damage to defray the prices of the largely-privateer platform. Gravel racing nonetheless comes with heavy servings of excellent vibes and adventures, the place a belt buckle or a pirate sword are a type of foreign money, however not ones that pay the payments. As well as, the thirst to pin on a quantity is many occasions quenched by simply being a part of a bunch trip, avoiding retirement and never being distracted by a outcome.
In 2024 there have been a number of boosts in incomes alternatives based mostly on podiums. With an invite, the highest 10 riders for girls’s and males’s divisions within the Life Time Grand Prix had been provided shares in a $300,000 purse, a 20% enhance from only a 12 months earlier than. A brand new race in a distant a part of west Texas, Valley of Tears, put up $26,000 for prime 10 elite women and men riders, and at the beginning line doubled the provide – $52,000 for the highest 20 in each divisions. There have been occasions in Australia too that delivered, with the brand new RADL GRVL providing a prize purse of $10,000 Australian and Sutton Grange Vineyard – Uncorked Gravel coming to the occasion with $5,500.
A number of races and collection have additionally introduced there will probably be a extra worthwhile path based mostly on efficiency in 2025, together with $30,000 at Unbound Gravel 200 for the primary time, a whopping $100,000 at Gravel Worlds in Nebraska and a handbag of €37,500 within the Gravel Earth Collection shared by tops 10s in elite males, ladies and non-binary classes.
In a glance again at 2024, riders might choose and select from a wide range of occasions providing money payouts, cool prizes, distinctive experiences in addition to the geography or viewers greatest suited to sponsor goals.
As Peter Stetina put it, “you may’t ever financial institution on prize cash. That is like a bonus. The privateer mannequin, we’re making a dwelling through contracts and endorsements.” However due to a rising pattern, there’s more money on the market for the taking.
