Preview Gravel World Championship 2025: Pidcock, Vos & the stars in the dust around Maastricht

It will be a dusty affair next weekend (11 and 12 October 2025) when some of the world's best professional cyclists and hundreds of amateur cyclists battle it out for the gravel world championship titles. The venue is the Limburg region, the southernmost and hilliest corner of the Netherlands. The start is in the municipality of Beek, after a transfer route, the riders set off on a circuit that is cycled a different number of times depending on the race category and finally from there to the finish in Maastricht.

Tom Pidcock leads the men's star line-up

Tom Pidcock will be the top star at the start of the Gravel World Championships next Sunday (12 October). The Olympic mountain bike champion and former cyclocross world champion will start the 181-kilometre race with the number 1. Although the Tour of Lombardy, one of the most important road races of the season, is on the calendar for the same weekend, some top pros have decided to start in what is officially the most important gravel event of the year. Pidcock is even planning to compete in both races within 24 hours (see message). His main rivals include the leader of the Gravel World Series, the Czech Petr Vakoc, Milan-San-Remo winner Matej Mohoric, former gravel world champion Gianni Vermeersch, Tour stage winners Tim Merlier, Niki Terpstra and Romain Bardet as well as 2016 Olympic road champion Greg van Avermaet and multiple cross world champion Zdenek Stybar. From Germany, Tour stage winner and Roubaix runner-up Nils Politt, Giro stage winner and former track world champion Roger Kluge and ex-Bora pro Paul Voss will be at the start. Lukas Pöstlberger will be there from Austria. Defending champion Mathieu van der Poel will be missing, having taken a longer break after the road season.

The racers compete in national jerseys. Belgium has the strongest contingent. And yet, some things are different from the usual cycling world championships - such as on the road or in cyclocross. "There is no Belgian team. All Belgian riders start on an individual basis," emphasises World Championship press spokesman Guy Vermeiren, who normally looks after the Belgian selection as press spokesman.

Will Marianne Vos defend her title at the 2025 Gravel World Championships?

In the women's race, one of the most versatile and successful cyclists of the current generation wants to defend her title: Marianne Vos from the Netherlands, who defeated two-time road world champion Lotte Kopecky (Belgium) at the last Gravel World Championships in Belgium after an intense duel. While Kopecky is not registered, Vos will have to contend with the 2023 gravel world champion and 2024 Tour de France winner Katarzyna Niewiadoma. Lorena Wiebes, currently the fastest female road sprinter, could also have a realistic chance of winning a medal on the relatively flat 131-kilometre course. Germany is sending the winner of the Unbound Gravel 2024 and current European Championship bronze medallist Rosa Klöser and Jade Treffeisen into the race as strong specialists for races on gravel. One of the strongest off-road specialists, Dutch rider Puck Pieterse, will be missing. Although she is on the start list, she will be missing like team-mate and defending champion van der Poel. According to her team Alpecin-Deceuninck and Fenix-Deceuninck respectively: "Puck and Mathieu (van der Poel) are both on a season break to recover after a long season. They will soon start their preparation for the cyclocross season."

Johan Museeuw and Udo Bölts fight for age group titles

The start lists for the Gravel World Championships in the age groups, i.e. for amateurs and amateur cyclists, include a host of prominent names: These include the Belgian classics specialist and former road world champion Johan Museeuw as well as ex-professionals Nicolas Roche, René Haselbacher and Udo Bölts. Among the men, two starters in the 85-89 age group will also take on the rough terrain. A total of around 370 women and around 2200 men are registered in the various categories.

Gravel World Championship 2025: This is the route

The route is considered to be technically easy. "There could be a bunch sprint," says former Lotto pro Matthew Holmes after inspecting the route. 45 per cent of the route is on tarmac, the rest on wide dirt tracks with a hard-packed surface. Sharp 90-degree bends are the most difficult sections. After the start in Beek, the route leads on tarmac (green on the map) to the World Championship circuit (blue), which has to be ridden two and a half times in the elite women's class and three and a half times in the elite men's class. From there, the final 18 kilometres (red section) lead to the finish on a sandy track on the edge of the Koningsplein in Maastricht. The route passes several fan zones along the way, such as the castle in Wijnandsrade.

Gravel World Championship 2025: TV broadcast & live stream

There will be no live coverage of the races on free TV in Germany. Eurosport 1 will be showing a one-hour summary of the women's competition on Saturday from 17:15-18:15. The men's race on Sunday will be shown live on Eurosport 2 from 14:15-16:15 - a free TV summary will be shown on Eurosport 1 from 18:15-19:15. If you want to watch both races live, you can find paid live streams on Discovery Plus.

Gravel World Championship 2025 - Broadcast times