Putting on a UCI Gravel World Series race is no small task but in 2026 it's just the entree for organisers of the SEVEN race in Nannup, Western Australia, although it's a generous starter given the event is drawing more than 2,000 riders keen to test out a course that later this year will host the UCI Gravel World Championships
"To have participants from 29 countries heading to Nannup, is a testament to the reputation the race has built as one of the world's premier gravel events, and the excitement that is building for the 2026 UCI Gravel World Championships," said event and race director Stephen Gallagher in a media statement.
The race which joined the UCI Gravel World Series in its very first year, 2022, has grown from 235 riders in 2018, then first passed the 1,000 rider mark in 2021 before making the leap to what is expected to be over 2,000 riders on the start line this year on Saturday May 16.
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That's a scale likely not too far off the numbers which will be seen for the World Championships event on October 10-11, with 2,954 riders across the divisions lining up at the 2025 UCI Gravel World Championships in Bolero.
"It certainly grows the prestige around SEVEN, the fact that the World's is coming down, but I think it's all a snowball effect," Gallagher told Cyclingnews last month.
"I mean the reason the Worlds is here is because of the growth of SEVEN, the growth of SEVEN is about the community that were coming and turning up every year. And again the reason we started SEVEN right right at the beginning was because of the landscape and the beauty of the places that we have that we wanted to show off, so that snowball effect has continued from there right up to a World Championships."
As well as drawing an increasing number of riders from around the world this year, SEVEN includes a strong contingent of Australian competitors. Defending champions Tiffany Cromwell and Mark O'Brien, who are also both Australian national champions, are among the UCI Gravel World Series round winners returning to the start line in the small town in the southern section of Western Australia.
Former winners Brendan Johnston and Tasman Nankervis will also be on the start line, along with Adam Blazevic who is coming back from a long injury recovery process after he was hit by a car while out training in 2024. Then there are the second place finishers from a year ago, Mark Chong and Cassia Boglio, as well as Kane Richards, who was tenth in the Australian National Championships road race this year, Australian Cyclo-cross national champion Tristan Nash and also 2023 Dirty Warrny winner Matilda Raynolds.
The 125km SEVEN course starts and finishes in Nannup, running through the Blackwood Valley and packing in more than 3,000m of vertical ascent along the way on the course which is more than 80% gravel. Along with the SEVEN gravel race, there are the shorter events of FIVE at 85km, THREE at 49km and the 25km ONE.
