UCI Gravel World Championships 2022, October 8-9, Italy

[Ricco']

Appeal vs participants vs appeal to TV audiences is indeed the crisis it seems we're looking at. "Gravel is growing, what if we got in the road stars, maybe it'll blow up". And maybe the huge popularity of Strade Bianche also plays a role.

For me the big question is what the model should be of top level gravel races. Is a certain degree of overlap with the road peloton desired?

I can definitely see full time gravel riders get mad at this event suddenly being 'their' WC with 3rd rate roadies being able to win without even much of a contest.

Using road riders is a fast and lazy way of engaging occasional audience, instead of building up slowly the awareness to the guys that usually compete in each variant.

Athletics has space to promote itselfs with athletes from different specialities. We have Bolt, Duplantis, Kipchoge, Isinbaeva, Warholm, Radcliffe, etc. But in cycling it seems that only the road riders are sufficiently well known to make it viable to market the events. In XC, how many mainstream praise has Schurter or Absalon generated among the years compared to the hype generated by Pidcock being able to be a MTB world champion while being top-10 material at road events and cross world champion?

Putting it in absurd terms, this is like an athletics federation who focused on track events, due to the rising popularity of road running, start organising road championships consisting of 400m road runs with the jamaican sprinters at the start due to being more known.

 

[tobydawq]

I'm not sure gravel racing makes for good TV, unfortunately. I turned it off.

Me too. But I don't think it by definition should be bad tv. This is just terribly badly produced and has had an incredibly dull and unfortunate development.

 

[Bonimenier]

Who thought this was a good route for the first WC gravel?

 

[Red Rick]

Using road riders is a fast and lazy way of engaging occasional audience, instead of building up slowly the awareness to the guys that usually compete in each variant.

Athletics has space to promote itselfs with athletes from different specialities. We have Bolt, Duplantis, Kipchoge, Isinbaeva, Warholm, Radcliffe, etc. But in cycling it seems that only the road riders are sufficiently well known to make it viable to market the events. In XC, how many mainstream praise has Schurter or Absalon generated among the years compared to the hype generated by Pidcock being able to be a MTB world champion while being top-10 material at road events and cross world champion?

Putting it in absurd terms, this is like an athletics federation who focused on track events, due to the rising popularity of road running, start organising road championships consisting of 400m road runs with the jamaican sprinters at the start due to being more known.

The athletics example does not have the same physiological overlap at all.

 

[Didinho]

Greg Mathieu and Cort riding now at the finish.
Some Italians still with them. They're also taking turns now.

 

[Savant12]

Looks like a tarmac road race that's taken a wrong turn onto a hurriedly made XC course.

 

[Red Rick]

Who are all these elite gravel riders getting deleted by washed up GvA

 

[ice&fire]

Who are all these elite gravel riders getting deleted by washed up GvA

They're trying to figure out a new sport discipline to keep ruling it.

 

[Didinho]

The 7 are gaining time fast.
3min gap

 

[HelloDolly]

GCN comms is soo boring ...

 

[Ricco']

The athletics example does not have the same physiological overlap at all.

Yes, probably a bit more absurd but maybe comparing Marathon vs. 3000m runners would be more adequate.

The thing is, I don't think any of the guys who are now fighting for the win, with their preparations that lead up to this race, would have any chance, regarding endurance, in a event closer to the distance that are run in the traditional US gravel races and against riders who focus on that.

 

[RedheadDane]

Well, now we got some nice graphics.

 

[lemon cheese cake]

GCN comms is soo boring ...

To be fair they don't have much to show and discuss other than two pro riders out for a nice ride around some italian gravel tracks.

Even more boring now there's no pictures

 

[Pirazziattacks]

maybe, Tiffany Cromwell seems to enter a few gravel races every year whilst in the US that arent quite ultra endurance length, just with lots of climbing, and Valterri has created a kind of gravel sportive event in Finland which seems to be that same kind of mix, so its doable.

Id prefer it not to turn into just another event a bunch of roadies turn up at, I like it to be more a specialism that requires bike skills that dont make you the best road racer.

as for the tv coverage Id guess the problem, which may link into the course format, is youve got to use vehicles that can cope with off road, that means chunky tread tyres, which inevitably rips up the surface especially if the route is laps of the same course, so it starts to become a bigger influence in the race , if the tv bike sits infront of the riders, its potentially hampering or even destroying the lines they want to take, if it sits behind its affecting them less though not giving you the coverage you are used to.

I kind of see it as an experiment really for the UCI to learn what works and what doesnt with it

I think the problem is that it's difficult to define gravel racing because gravel roads are so varied, at least outside of Western Europe. Anything from a wide, smooth road with lower rolling resistance than some paved roads to steep, rutted and loose gravel that's very difficult to ride at all without a full suspension bike. Gravel bikes are also a bit all over the shop- endurance road frames with more tyre clearance, cx bikes, drop bar mtb etc.

 

[HelloDolly]

I know there isnt much to discuss its just all the tech stuff on gears and ratios .....

 

[Samamba]

Who are all these elite gravel riders getting deleted by washed up GvA

Other washed up pros... Isn't that what the gravel scene is?

 

[RedheadDane]

Even more boring now there's no pictures

You don't think they can commentate on some nice wavy blue lines?

 

[carolina]

Why am I watching a worst version of Paris-Tours

 

[Red Rick]

Yes, probably a bit more absurd but maybe comparing Marathon vs. 3000m runners would be more adequate.

The thing is, I don't think any of the guys who are now fighting for the win, with their preparations that lead up to this race, would have any chance, regarding endurance, in a event closer to the distance that are run in the traditional US gravel races and against riders who focus on that.

Probably not. But I also don't really believe that they'd auto win against top roadies if they focused on it unless road cycling somehow completely failed to select for endurance in some way. The fact that gravel is relatively full of retired road riders doesn't speak very higly of the level to me.

I don't think gravel should cater to road cycling, but they should not gatekeep it to stick in a bubble where weaker athletes can win because they excluded everyone else.

 

[King Boonen]

Other washed up pros... Isn't that what the gravel scene is?

You forgot the 'never pros but quicker than others on the local scene so act like they're superior humans'.

 

[King Boonen]

Probably not. But I also don't really believe that they'd auto win against top roadies if they focused on it unless road cycling somehow completely failed to select for endurance in some way. The fact that gravel is relatively full of retired road riders doesn't speak very higly of the level to me.

I don't think gravel should cater to road cycling, but they should not gatekeep it to stick in a bubble where weaker athletes can win because they excluded everyone else.

Oh you should have heard the gravel influencer complaints when pros started taking part...

 

[Escarabajo]

So what's wrong with MVdP?

 

[lemon cheese cake]

You don't think they can commentate on some nice wavy blue lines?

I guess they could talk about the arcs and curves or the rhythm of the background music

 

[Red Rick]

Oh you should have heard the gravel influencer complaints when pros started taking part...

I do love a good salt mine.

 

[lemon cheese cake]

So what's wrong with MVdP?

Nothing it would appear