UCI Gravel World Championships 2026 elite women LIVE - Star names descend on Nannup Australia to battle for rainbows

12 riders down as DNFs including Germany's Romy Kaspar and the Netherlands' Riejanne Markus.

Attack

Ella Bloor (Australia)

The home nation gets the ball rolling with the first attack of the day. No-one keen on following for the time being as we are still on the asphalt with 10km until the gravel begins.

It is a fast start on the asphalt to begin with the tiny peloton bunched together for the moment but when they hit the gravel it'll likely immediately split up.

125.6km to go

Racing begins for the 2026 Gravel World Championships in Nannup with the Dutch team immediately up to the front.

Australian gravel champion and winner here for the SEVEN Gravel race in Nannup earlier in the year, Tiffany Cromwell, is another rider who will be hanging up the wheels after this race.

This will be the final race in the career of South African WorldTour rider Ashleigh Moolman-Pasio despite having a cold.

It is being said that this is a 'true' gravel course with 85% of the course on gravel with intense gradients and a huge amount of climbing. The chance for the specialists to finally have a pure gravel rider in the rainbow bands after road stars have dominated the first four editions.

The riders are beginning to line up on the start line in Nannup with Wendy Oosterwoud of the Netherlands wearing number one.

The gravel is like nothing seen in European gravel racing and is unique to the area in Australia. Pea gravel is what it says on the tin, gravel that is shaped like peas. It can been incredibly slippery when dry but when wet it can be compacted down and become less notable with tyre choice being crucial.

The course itself is extremely challenging. While it is rather short, in the 125.6km of racing there are 3180 metres of elevation gain with the climbs not allow immediate rest after the summits are they tend to plateau for a while afterwards.

For those who may not be familiar with the gravel scene but knows road will have one name screaming out at them, that being former world gravel champion Marianne Vos. However, there are some star specialists are here with Argentina's Sofia Gomez Villafañe, home rider Nicole Frain and many more all lining up to challenge.

>>> True grit specialists primed to challenge the run of road pro rainbow jerseys – Analysing the Gravel World Championships contenders

Racing is due to begin at 10:10 local time in Nannup. Roughly 30 minutes from now.

The women face a challenging but rather short 125.6km of racing on the gravel of Western Australia, what should they be looking out for? Well, we've put together what we think will be the three things that could shape the racing...

>>> Three course features that could be make or break at the UCI Gravel World Championships in Nannup

Info from our Australia Editor Simone Giuliani on the ground is that the course has had some overnight rain, compacting the pea gravel making the route less slippery.

However, the riders will have to contend with puddles, likely not to the same extent seen at Unbound this year, but still an extra challenge for the riders.

Hello and welcome to Cyclingnews' live updates of the women's UCI World Gravel Championships 2026 from Nannup, Western Australia.

The temperatures have been high for much of the week but it is a cool and fresh 16°C, unusually low for spring time in the area.