GRVL Worlds 2024
Why is this not the pinnacle event it should be?
The UCI Gravel World Championships will be held this weekend in Leuven, Belgium. On the 5th and 6th of October, the best riders will race across the forests of Brabant at the third iteration of the World Champs. I take a look at the controversy of what should be the premier event of GRVL racing, which now in its third year it really should be.
This year it is organised by Golazo Sports who were responsible for the first ever and rather successful GRVL European Championships, held last year also in the same region, it promises a very Eurocentric take on what “GRVL” is.
Unlike the UCI Gravel World Series events, the Elite Women will get their day and will be the first to race on Saturday 5th October across 135km of Flandrien “GRVL” (Women’s Route). On Sunday the Elite Men will tackle a similar route but will cover 182km (Men’s Route) it promises to be a spectacle of GRVL with thousands of riders expected to descend on the area.
For the amateurs, qualification was done via finishing in the top 25% of their age category at one of the UCI’s World Series Events, for the Elite it gets a bit tricky.
The current World Champions, Matej Mohorič (Slovenia) and Kasia Niewiadoma (Poland) automatically qualify, as do the various National Champions, and like most sports the national federations can choose who represents them at the championships and can pick up to 20 riders across all categories. Riders can also qualify themselves through the World Series so you can have a situation where a national federation has over 20 elite riders competing, Laurens ten Dam the new Dutch National Gravel Coach talked about having to manage close to 60 riders for this event!
Then there is the issue of where do these riders start on the grid. Very much like Cyclocross or MTB the place a rider starts is based on the amount of points accrued over the season. However, unlike Cyclocross and MTB, it is not just points earned in the Gravel World Series, but also 50% of points scored across all other disciplines which leads to the ridiculous situation of having current Road World Champion Lotte Kopecky on the front row, despite never riding in a GRVL race. Now don’t get me wrong, she is a badass racer and it is very cool that someone of her calibre is racing but as she said herself “'I've never ridden a gravel race in my entire life but it'll be fun”. Nothing wrong with what she has said, it just gives the impression that the Gravel Worlds is a bit of a jolly at the end of the season.
The mainstream media is not helping either by focusing on the World Tour Riders as favourites rather than talking about the real GRVL racers who have worked hard all season to get enough points to be at the front of the grid. Riders such as current British Gravel Champ Annabel Fisher who has been consistent all year, Piotr Havik who finished 4th in Unbound, Sebastian Schönberger top ten in Unbound, Rose Klöser, Ryan Christensen, Carolina Schiff, the list goes on, all great riders who consistently perform over the world series but when it comes to the final are pushed aside so that established world tour pros can be celebrated.
Now again this is not in any way a dig at the World Tour riders, these are top-level athletes that only make events bigger and can animate any race, what rankles is that they seem to be given priority over actual GRVL racers. I get it, the sport is growing and when Mathieu van der Poel turns up people are going to watch, but the whole system is very unprofessional.
If each federation is given 20 wildcard places it will mean that a full-time world tour pro can just be parachuted in and due to their greater amount of race days their UCI points, even only 50%, are enough to get them to the front of the grid without ever even riding a GRVL Bike - how is this even possible? In no other discipline is this the case, in no other discipline can a national team field upwards of 60 Elite riders, so why GRVL?
Then there is the fact that the majority of federations are not even funding their riders, GB riders have to pay their way and buy their kit, and Team USA is sending an understrength team as most of the big names would rather focus on the Life Time Grand Prix than fund their way to Europe. It would be interesting to know if Connor Swift is paying his way or if van der Poel has to pay for his skinsuit, will Kopecky be paying for her bus fare?
Now you could argue, that if the GRVL racers were any good then the fact that World Tour riders are there shouldn't be an issue, it only increases the integrity of the race. However, it is a bit more nuanced than that. WT riders are full-time professionals who have everything taken care of for them, they have the best equipment, they have a salary, they have the best nutrition they are competing in the top cycling (in terms of numbers, money etc) discipline in the world, they are the best of the best. Compare that with a GRVL racer. The majority do not have a team, they operate as Privateers who must manage everything themselves, they have to organise all the travel, and they also a lot of the time, have to work other jobs to keep it going, there is no prize money and they rely on sponsors to stay afloat. The ability of these riders is excellent, despite all these barriers they perform at a very high level, but to compare them like for like with WT riders is unfair.
These riders should be celebrated and highlighted, they should be the ones at the front of the grid, and they should be the ones getting a chance to wear the rainbow jersey. If it continues to be a fun day out for the establishment then the sport will not grow, as there will be no heroes, no idols. The sport needs champions and there are plenty of them waiting for the chance, but the system is letting them down.
What are your thoughts, how would you like to see the World Champs organised? Comment below!
Agree. I was at the worlds last year.. obviously funded myself and a lot of logistical hurdles to overcome , time off work etc .
To get to sign on and have to queue for over 2 hours while ‘elites’ were ushered through first
The entire weekend, I was made to feel like we were all there to fund the race but celebrations and focus was all on the elites
We didn’t even get a bottle of water at the finish!
I would not go back to one of these races