In recent years, gravel sports have become more and more popular, culminating in the current worldwide gravel boom. Gravel offers new challenges and mainly takes place on unpaved paths and roads. Gravel, forest and field paths, cobblestones are just some of the faces of gravel.
The UCI gravel series in detail
The concept of the new Gravel series is based on the existing and very successful UCI Gran Fondo World Serieswhere participants can qualify for the annual UCI World Championships. This will also be the case for the UCI Gravel Series. At each event in the series, the top 25 per cent of women and men in each age group will qualify for the UCI Gravel World Championships. The UCI World Champions in each age group will ultimately be crowned at this Gravel World Championships.
Professionals can also take part
The only difference to the Gran Fondo concept is that professional riders can also take part in the series' events. This means that professionals can also qualify for the UCI Gravel World Championships.
Venues of the Gravel Series
The new series will open on 3 April with an 85 km event in the Philippines. The series will comprise a total of 12 events: After the Philippines, the series will continue with two races in the United States, two in Australia and one event each in France, Poland, Holland, Sweden, Belgium, Italy and Spain.
Regulations
The UCI has decided not to make the regulations too strict in the first few years, so that participants can compete on all types of bikes without electric assistance (gravel, cyclocross, mountain bike, road...). This approach will be evaluated in the coming years.
Trek as title partner of the UCI World Gravel Series
Trek Bikes will be the title partner of the Trek UCI Gravel World Series from 2022 to 2024. Given the exponential growth of gravel in recent years, the bike brand is excited to associate its name with the series. Trek believes that the gravel bike offers new experiences for both competitive and recreational riders and is the perfect bike for a variety of uses.
Organisation
The Trek UCI Gravel World Series is organised by the Belgian sports and health company Golazo, which has also been coordinating the UCI Gran Fondo World Series since 2011.
Race dates of the UCI Gravel Series 2022
An overview of the dates of the UCI Gravel Series and further details can be found at here.
The first Gravel World Championships - October 2022 in Veneto
The organisation of the first Gravel World Championships is in the hands of PP Sport Events, who also organise the Veneto Classic, the Giro del Veneto and the Serenissima Gravel. We will have to wait a few more weeks before the exact venue is announced.
Sandra Schuberth
Editor
