UCI Gravel World Championships 2023, October 7-8, Italy

[Sciatic]

Does Mohoric have any CX/MTB background?

I don’t know, but all I needed to see was him jumping that sewer grating (or whatever it was) in the first few corners of the Poggio descent (which gave him the winning gap) to know he could handle himself on a bike . . . Or that he was crazy

 

[meat puppet]

I think to have a fair comparison you’d have the pros come to Unbound . . . Prepared and peaking as they would for RVV or Roubaix.

With the athlete bio passport suspended and no testing for several months.

 

[Pantani_lives]

Toto, I've a feeling we're not in Kansas anymore.

 

[Bolder]

I think to have a fair comparison you’d have the pros come to Unbound . . . Prepared and peaking as they would for RVV or Roubaix.

We know what the result would be. But at some point you're probably going to see dedicated gravel pros who have the same level of fitness as WT road pros but they choose to race gravel.

 

[Volderke]

Jan Bakelants got 14th in Unbound after spending hours getting the mud off his bike in the first 20K.
He is retired, didn't train specifically and doesn't have a CX background.

If he can do 14th, go figure what some of the current pros can do.

 

[Kubackjeee]

I think to have a fair comparison you’d have the pros come to Unbound . . . Prepared and peaking as they would for RVV or Roubaix.

They wouldn't be a professional pros if they would not prepare I am curious how Pidcock will due in few weeks at Big Sugar race - Lifetime GP season finale. This race will be fire.

As for doping testing mentioned in another post. On the chris miller show Dylan Johnson was answering this. Basically testing is close to none except for the top riders like Keegan who is a part of team USA and has to be tested like any other pro.

 

[Libertine Seguros]

All the bickering about what makes a 'real' gravel race just reminded me of Ash Sowman's two excellent documentaries about Jeffrey Herlings vs. Eli Tomac, and the differences in motocross in the European series and the US series where each treated the other series with some level of snootiness. Herlings rocked up to the US series and rather embarrassed the US series, winning races quite easily and even praising a course with multiple lines and easy overtaking opportunities that other racers had complained was too technical and made it too challenging to overtake - before Eli Tomac went and salvaged the reputation of the American series faster than anybody expected and restored a level of inter-series respect.

I suspect the UCI might be aiming at a sort of halfway house for the time being in the interest of having some recognisable names appearing, because with it being a new(ish) discipline, there aren't too many names known solely for gravel racing (if any at all), and those names that are recognised being the likes of retired road veterans or journeymen Conti pros and those that never really made it leads to many outside of the gravel scene to dismiss it unfairly, but also the exceptionalist attitude that it's only proper gravel racing if it directly clones the exact nature of the US races - down to the startlist - does no favours either. It needs more televising and better televising to be able to catch on to a wider audience, assuming this is the end goal. I'm sure it is for the UCI, at least, I'm not sure how widely that attitude is held across the gravel community though because I haven't really delved into it, but I wouldn't be surprised - given experiences with many other such communities - if there is an element within the fandom that kind of wants it to stay as their little corner of world cycling and don't really want to see riders from other disciplines come in and shatter that.

Maybe for the time being gravel does have a weakness in that the only riders it has with name value are journeymen or road also-rans, meaning that the active specialists are sort of dismissed as such too; but as long as the scene has such a reputation in terms of lax testing, you can't be surprised that the UCI designs its vision of gravel around those riders it already has in the testing pool and views as low risk.

For the moment, the gravel specialists who can actually contend against top pros are only going to come from places where gravel is more lucrative as a career move over a pro road contract at a Conti team, and for the time being that's a very restricted market. In time maybe this will turn into cycling's equivalent of the Ski Classics series, with the Loppet calendar where there are still significant numbers of veterans of the World Cup cross-country calendar who have migrated to the longer, flatter, open style of racing in the Ski Classics and being successful through their late 30s and early 40s - but there are also dedicated specialists who only race this kind of race and occasional moonlighting in endurance races or stage races at the international level, who make good money from their careers as Ski Classics competitors.

That's probably the long term ideal for gravel as a racing format I would anticipate, and what would probably be needed for it not to be seen as something of a novelty format.

 

[Mayomaniac]

Frankly, it's a marketing gag for bike companies to sell even more gravel bikes, the flavour of the month.
I can see why people would buy them in flat regions, but the amount of people buying them in the Alpes instead of an actual MTB is mind blowing...

 

[ChewbaccaDefense]

Frankly, it's a marketing gag for bike companies to sell even more gravel bikes, the flavour of the month.
I can see why people would buy them in flat regions, but the amount of people buying them in the Alpes instead of an actual MTB is mind blowing...

2019 called, they want their post back, grandpa
.

 

[Samu Cuenca]

2019 called, they want their post back, grandpa
.

I did read the other day that Mont Blanc had shrunk, but I didn't know the Alps as a whole had become a flat region since 2019.

 

[ChewbaccaDefense]

They wouldn't be a professional pros if they would not prepare I am curious how Pidcock will due in few weeks at Big Sugar race - Lifetime GP season finale. This race will be fire.

As for doping testing mentioned in another post. On the chris miller show Dylan Johnson was answering this. Basically testing is close to none except for the top riders like Keegan who is a part of team USA and has to be tested like any other pro.

Oh, he has the technical skill and engine to crush everyone, but he's doing Little Sugar, which is the MTB race, unfortunately. My wife and I are pretty big Pidcock fans, so I would love for him to do any of the Lifetime races.

 

[ChewbaccaDefense]

I did read the other day that Mont Blanc had shrunk, but I didn't know the Alps as a whole had become a flat region since 2019.

It was the "marketing gag" line that is almost old enough to be in Kindergarten, and tired enough to be in hospice.

 

[Red Rick]

Honestly, I think the big success of Strade Bianche also plays a role. Road races have been experimenting with gravel sections a fair bit, and audiences seem to love it. I think it scratches that itch for attrition and chaos that's kinda gone from most cycling races nowadays.

 

[ChewbaccaDefense]

Honestly, I think the big success of Strade Bianche also plays a role. Road races have been experimenting with gravel sections a fair bit, and audiences seem to love it. I think it scratches that itch for attrition and chaos that's kinda gone from most cycling races nowadays.

It's also fun to do, so the races are more relatable, at least where I am in N. California. I did a gravel race yesterday, with a couple of bigger names, and we all rolled out together, and while I am more on the ride rather than race side of things, it's still a challenge to do both, and it's all on the same course. I can't enter a UCI WT race, but I can enter gravel races with pros, and be on the same start line. It's also a different mentality in some ways, because yesterday, the scenery was fantastic, whatever speed you were riding. I think the whole "spirit of gravel" thing is overplayed, but in some ways, it is true. I've talked with several bigger named pros at those races, and so far, they've all been really nice people, and everyone's attitude is being competitive, with the base of that being a simple love of being on a bike in nature, and competing in that enviroment. I think I'd describe it as more of a "people's race." I love the sound of tires on a dirt road. I love looking up an seeing Mt. Shasta or the view out over the Yuba River Canyon, and stopping and taking pictures with my friends at those spots, and getting back on and riding hard. We did a 100k gravel ride a couple of weeks ago near Mt. Lassen, and I didn't want it to end. Everything about the ride was fantastic (except for one section that went through a burn scar...hey, we live in fire country). Everyone crossed the finish with smiles, and we all talked about just how fantastic the entire thing was.

 

[Barkintheeye]

Love Mohiric! A superb rider

 

[Barkintheeye]

Gravel deserves a Separate Own section under Off-road

 

[ice&fire]

Frankly, it's a marketing gag for bike companies to sell even more gravel bikes, the flavour of the month.
I can see why people would buy them in flat regions, but the amount of people buying them in the Alpes instead of an actual MTB is mind blowing...

It's not about terrain orography but road/path surface roughness

 

[ChewbaccaDefense]

Gravel deserves a Separate Own section under Off-road

100%

 

[ChewbaccaDefense]

It's not about terrain orography but road/path surface roughness

Exactly, I have 3 sets of wheels for my bike, with different tires, as well as different cassettes. I can go down to a 34-50 if I want to...I can climb walls with that setup, and I can also smoke less gnarly singletrack with it...I've PR's many dirt segments on my gravel bike, where I also ride my MTB. My gravel is a custom frame, so it rides better than any bike I've ever owned, and I cannot recomment enough that you get yourself a custom frame...especially since you can do so for less than you'll pay for a ridiculously overpriced Specialized S-Works, Whatever The F**k, bike, that will not be created to your dimensions.

 

[Kubackjeee]

The story on Velo gives some good insight into Keegan’s race. It sounds like the main help he got from USA teammates, especially Luke Lamperti, was getting from mid-pack to near the front of the race. After that he was on his own. He did crash and lost time and then had to chase back on for a ways, so that definitely cost him some time and energy, but part of racing.

Job well done by Keegan. Right there mixing it up with the best. In a field like this I think most were seeing if he would be able to keep himself in contention and not become pack-fodder.

The fact that even such an elite bike handlers like Keegan or WVA crashed shows that it was not an easy bike path course like last year. And people who still think otherwise just need to chill because the spirit of gravel is messing with their minds

 

[Barkintheeye]

The story on Velo gives some good insight into Keegan’s race. It sounds like the main help he got from USA teammates, especially Luke Lamperti, was getting from mid-pack to near the front of the race. After that he was on his own. He did crash and lost time and then had to chase back on for a ways, so that definitely cost him some time and energy, but part of racing.

Job well done by Keegan. Right there mixing it up with the best. In a field like this I think most were seeing if he would be able to keep himself in contention and not become pack-fodder.

The fact that even such an elite bike handlers like Keegan or WVA crashed shows that it was not an easy bike path course like last year. And people who still think otherwise just need to chill because the spirit of gravel is messing with their minds

Before calling a course easy. Ride it yourself! Last year’s Gravel WC wasn’t really technical but a few shorter sections were challenging particularly if you go as fast as the pros.

 

[Mayomaniac]

2019 called, they want their post back, grandpa
.

Maybe I phrased it wrong, it's not against gravel bike themselfs, they are fine to me. It's just how much the industry is pushing them and how many people who don't really need them buy them.

 

[Kubackjeee]

Before calling a course easy. Ride it yourself! Last year’s Gravel WC wasn’t really technical but a few shorter sections were challenging particularly if you go as fast as the pros.

Are You a part or a family of a disgraced promotor of last years race that you get so emotional and scream? Last year it was a joke, the race was ridden on road bikes. Not saying it is easy to do it at the speed of the pros, but that does not make it a good gravel course mate. It was a flat race full of easy bike path with no technical or challenging parts. Tottaly different then this years course.

 

[memyselfandI]

Jan Bakelants got 14th in Unbound after spending hours getting the mud off his bike in the first 20K.
He is retired, didn't train specifically and doesn't have a CX background.

If he can do 14th, go figure what some of the current pros can do.

It seems that some people think that guys who have done several gran tours and monuments and shorter stage races and maybe pro cx season in the 'off season'.. People think that these guys possibly could find 200 mile gravel race hard somehow, by the scale they get to think what really is taxing , really? Maybe some U.S. races they're technically challenging and that brings something different into the game.

 

[Unchained]

Honestly, I think the big success of Strade Bianche also plays a role. Road races have been experimenting with gravel sections a fair bit, and audiences seem to love it. I think it scratches that itch for attrition and chaos that's kinda gone from most cycling races nowadays.