[Words by Steve Thomas]

Gravel racing has come a long way over the past few years, especially in terms of “official” recognition by the UCI who granted the discipline official World Championship status in 2022.

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Although the first-ever title bout in Italy 2022 was a bit of a wet blanket – to say the least, the powers that be got their nobbles together just in time for last year’s Championship races in Northern Italy, where the new organisers put on a great race and saved the day and fragile repute of the official title race.

This, in many ways, marked the coming of age of the discipline and helped it gain greater acceptance from the old-school establishment of pro road cycling.

Last year some of the greatest road and off-road stars in the sport lined up to do battle for the title, with leading WorldTour road pros Kasia Niewiadoma of Poland and Matej Mohoric of Slovenia scoring victories ahead of many of the finest gravel pros around.

This year, we anticipate the light to be shone even brighter on gravel racing. Although the final official start list will not be confirmed until Wednesday, and the actual starters will not be sure-fire until they hit the grid, we anticipate that the competition will be ramped up a notch over last year.

Plus, given the fact that the racing takes place in the dropped-bar heartland of Belgium, you can be sure that this will be an exceptionally well-supported and hard Spring Classic-like weekend of racing, only perhaps being a little bit rougher around the edges in terms of terrain.

The venue and courses

The Brabant region, which is to the east of Brussels in Belgium, makes for a fine and appropriate stage for this year’s races. The Elite Woman and older age groupers will ride a 134km course on Saturday 5 October, while the younger male age group riders and Elite Men will race over 181km the following day, with both main races starting at 12pm CET (11am BST). 

2023 gravel worlds hero.jpeg, by Suvi Loponen

All races will start from the historic city of Leuven, which is famous for its many fine Belgian breweries. For those who don’t get waylaid by such amber delights, the course then takes on a couple of local loops around the Forests of Brabant National Park before weaving its way south of Brussels, passing by Waterloo, to finish up in Halle, just to the southwest of the capital city.

The region here is superb for cycling, both on and off-road, and the route reflects that with lots of sweet and twisty forest trails, signature Belgian cobbled sectors, open farmland and narrow paved roads, and it’s estimated that around 56% of the route is unpaved. With a sawtooth-like profile that tops out at 450 metres, and with an estimated 1,000m of elevation gain for the shorter course and 1,150m for the longer course, this will be an intense race, and one which will really suit the punchy, classic-style road riders, as well as endurance capable cyclo cross riders, too.
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The live TV coverage was a little confusing and uncertain last year, although we hope that both Elite races will be livestreamed on the UCI YouTube channel (TBC). That highlights will appear by the following day – so stay tuned for notifications there. Although, it has yet to be confirmed, Discovery+, Eurosport and Flo Bikes (Only Saturday races confirmed on Flo) should have live coverage too.

Who to watch - Elite Men

As much as we’d like to open up the predications on this one, given the nature of the course and the WorldTour firepower that is going to come into play, it really is hard to see many. If any, of the top 10 slots not going to either current or recently retired WorldTour road pros.

Gianni Vermeersch wins 2022 UCI Gravel Worlds, by SprintCyclingAgency

The outcome of last weekend’s World Road Race Championship will no doubt have an impact on which of the top-tier road contenders decide to throw their last hand in the ring at the last minute, and there could well be some surprise last-minute entrants. Although riders do have to qualify through World Cup gravel races, there are also wild cards, and so it would be fair to assume these have already provisionally been agreed and will be played in the next few days. 

Mathieu van Der Poel of the Netherlands will surely start as the odds-on favourite for the title, and as to whether Britain’s Tom Pidcock will choose to start is unclear but it’s a long shot, and should he do so then he would also be another leading medal contender.

Last year’s Champion Matej Mohoric crashed heavily a couple of weeks back but is down to start, and he could well be a strong medal hope too – at least. Belgium will be pinning its greatest hopes on local Leuven boy Jasper Stuyven, a top WorldTour road pro who previously won the European Gravel Championship on this same terrain. Backing him should be something of an all-star Belgian team, which will include former Olympic Road Race Champion and gravel convert Greg van Avermaet, who is also a potential top-five finisher, and the Belgians are also the best in the game when it comes to team tactics, especially so on such courses.

Also well and truly in for the medal run will Spanish road-turned-gravel veteran Alejandro Valverde, while British hopes will fall on the shoulders of INEOS road pro, Connor Swift, who finished a superb third in last year’s race. Also anticipated to ride for Team GB are INEOS road pro, Ben Swift, off-road allrounder Cameron Mason (confirmed), and potentially comeback road and gravel racer Matt Holmes – all of whom are capable of cracking the top 15.

Sadly, US gravel specialist Keegan Swenson has declined to race, preferring to focus on the Lifetime GP series among other things, which is a real shame for the race and the sport, and in so many ways.

Who to watch - Elite Women

The Elite Woman’s race is likely to be something of a very close-fought firecracker of a race, which will probably be decided between a mix of top road pro racers, select gravel converts and a couple of MTB stars.

Last year’s Champion Kasia Niewiadoma of Poland will be out to defend her title and, notably, she showed how serious she was about the rough stuff by switching back to gravel riding straight after her Tour de France victory this year. The firepower at the front of the race will be pretty intense, with top road and cyclo-cross pros provisionally listed to ride. These include the World Road Race Champion  Lotte Kopecky, Sanne Cant (BEL), Fem Van Empel, Lucinda Brand, Lorena Weibes (who won the European Gravel title here) and the unstoppable Marianne Vos (all NL), plus Canadian road pro and first finisher in the recent British Gravel Championships, Alison Jackson. Australian gravel and road expert Tiffany Cromwell is also in fine form, and could well be in with a shout at a medal.

However, there are two other very serious mixed discipline aces expected to be in the pack; Olympic MTB Champion and 2022 Gravel World Champion Pauline Prevot Ferrand of France, and World XCO MTB Champion and newly crowned U23 Road Race Champion Puck Pieterse of the Netherlands – and barring accident or incident you can expect to see both of these going for Belgian gravel gold.

As for the Brits, at this moment we have no confirmation of who will take to the start but will update this article as soon as we know.

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