The ranks of the gravel continental champions will grow in 2026, with the Oceania Cycling Confederation announcing on Tuesday that the region will join Europe and Africa in awarding a title. The first set of jerseys will be handed out at RADL GRVL on Friday January 23.
The growing discipline of gravel will join the ranks of track, road, mountain bike and para cycling, with the new Oceania title introduced in a year that will also see the first UCI Gravel World Championships outside Europe heading to Western Australia on October 10-11.
"With Australia hosting the 2026 UCI Gravel World Championships in Nannup in October, the Oceania Gravel Championships provide an important opportunity for riders from our region to qualify, with the elite and age group winners automatically securing their place at the World Championships," said OCC President and UCI Management Committee Member Tony Mitchell in a media statement.
Australia has been quick to embrace the UCI incarnation of gravel racing, with the Nannup SEVEN event being one of the very first World Series races in the opening year of 2022, and there are also three series rounds in Australia in 2026. The country, too, first introduced a national gravel championships in 2018, so it should be little surprise that the Oceania Cycling Confederation is now kicking off its next step into gravel in Australia.
Choosing RADL GRVL presented by Quad Lock as the venue for the first championships also has the advantage of offering an early-season time slot, when many of the key gravel riders from the region are home for the southern hemisphere summer. Popular gravel races like Unbound and the Life Time Grand Prix series draw a number of key competitors to the United States later in the year, from Australia's Brendan Johnston and Courtney Sherwell to New Zealand's Samara Maxwell and Cameron Jones, while the road racing season draws others like Tiffany Cromwell to Europe.
The 115km gravel race around McLaren Vale takes place as one of the events surrounding the season-opening road racing at the Tour Down Under, which has already turned the spotlight of the national and international cycling world onto South Australia. Now, with a title up for grabs in 2026, there will be an added reason for cycling fans and riders to make the trip.
"As a junior racer, the Oceania Road and Track Championships were always a season highlight," said 2025 winner of RADL GRVL, Australian gravel champion and race partner Cromwell (Canyon-SRAM zondacrypto). "Adding gravel to the Championships creates new pathways for emerging talent and elite athletes alike to qualify for the world stage.
"We're honoured to welcome riders to RADL GRVL p/b Quad Lock for what will be a defining moment of the Australian gravel season."
