The status of the Nannup-based UCI Gravel World Championships as the first running of the event outside Europe raised one question from the beginning: How many of gravel's big names from there would be prepared to make the long trip? Then the timing of the Life Time Grand Prix Little Sugar MTB round on the same weekend delivered another: Would any of the competitors in the lucrative US-based series take part?
The early waves of rider names being released by organisers as starters at the Western Australian race are beginning to make the answers to those two questions clear, with the emerging picture boding well for a hard-fought fifth edition. This time, however, it appears that the discipline specialists may play a more prominent role in the race for the rainbow jersey, which so far has largely been claimed by road professionals.
Key figures in the Life Time Grand Prix series, Matt Beers and Sofia Gomez Villafañe, have both been named on the race social media as confirmed participants as, even though the race clashes with Little Sugar MTB, riders can be absent from the start of one of the six events in the series and still be eligible for the prize money. Plus, the October 10 and 11 date of the World Championships will still leave riders time to turn around and head back home for the mandatory series finale of Big Sugar on October 17.
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Beers hasn't been on the start list since the very first edition in 2022 while Villafañe has been absent since 2024, and given the off-road results of both their presence will add considerably to the lustre of the event as a true test of the best in gravel on a course that is heavy on it.
After all, in the world of gravel that exists outside the UCI sanctioned events Villafañe is hard to dispute as the Queen of the discipline, having won Unbound 200 and The Traka 200 twice, claimed overall victory in the Life Time Grand Prix series three times and delivering a gravel race winning tally this season that has only just been broken at Lauf Gravel Worlds - the unofficial version of the World Championships that pre-dated the UCI event. On the mountain bike she also has two Cape Epic wins under the belt.
Beers is a four-time Cape Epic winner who finished second at Unbound this year, won Lauf Gravel Worlds last year and has hit the podium at The Traka the past two years, once in the 200 and then this season in the 360. On top of that the South African has a long list of victories at other gravel events, from Big Sugar to the Belgian Waffle Ride California.
Then there is Danish Specialized Off-road teammate Mads Würtz Schmidt who may not, yet, have been named among the wave of confirmed starters but right from the start of the year the winner of the two most prestigious gravel races of the season so far – The Traka 360 and Unbound 200 – has made no secret of his intention to head to Nannup.
The flow of names expected to be the start line from organisers has also included other key names in the discipline, from home nation riders to top European gravel specialists. They include Oceania Champion Nicole Frain, Australian champion Tiffany Cromwell, who has long juggled road and gravel, along with 2023 Unbound 200 winner Carolin Schiff and 2026 The Traka 560 winner Maddy Nutt.
Then there is Felix Stehli, who came fifth last year at the Gravel World Championships; 2024 The Traka 200 winner Petr Vakoč, new Belgian champion Daan Soete and 2026 The Traka 200 winner Lukas Pöstlberger.
The announcements from among the more road focussed riders have been thinner on the ground so far, although 2025 European champion Erica Magnaldi has joined Cromwell on that list. However, there are of course still many more rider announcements expected to be rolled out through the next six weeks.
Still, there has always been potential for there to be less cross-over discipline riders on the start line given that the terrain may discourage some – with this being the most gravel heavy edition to date – and the location others. There are no easy last minute decisions to squeeze in the race among a busy calendar in another discipline like there have been other years, given the full day of travel required from Europe where most road professionals are based.
Though, from what we can see so far, a strong contingent of the top gravel specialists are making the trip to be on the start line of the event in a remote corner of Western Australia, which looks set to deliver a battle for the gravel title unlike any we have seen before.
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