The winner of the 2025 UCI Gravel World Championships elite men's race, Florian Vermeersch, has decided to make the trip out to Australia to defend his world title on the gravel roads of Nannup.
The Belgian UAE Team Emirates-XRG rider won the title in the Netherlands with a solo effort of nearly 20km on the 180km course with 1,650 metres of climbing, with the victory finally coming after two years of taking the runner up slot at the event. This year he'll be lining up in prime position on Sunday October 11 and with the number one on his back on a decidedly different course, and one which is also considerably further from home.
The race in the remote location of Nannup will unfold over one lap of a 140.7km loop that is heavy on gravel and also throws in 3,625m of elevation gain across a series of climbs.
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"Going to the Worlds as defending champion is a special feeling, but it doesn't put any extra pressure on me. I just love to do gravel races and when it fits my calendar. I'm always in," said Vermeersch in a release from the Australian race organisers.
"It would be awesome to be the first two-time winner but I'm aware that it’s not going to be easy. There are very strong competitors on the starting line.
"The course looks very hard and demanding so I expect a very hard race with big time gaps."
In the lead in to the race Vermeersch has been racing in Canada for his trade team at Grands Prix Cyclistes de Québec et Montréal, helping support teammate Isaac del Toro to the victory at the latter.
Vermeersch is one of the riders in the field that spends the vast majority of his time on the road, though he did give the jersey of the gravel world champion an outing at the Marly Gravel race in May, where he finished fourth in the race won by Wout van Aert (Visma-Lease a Bike).
This time Vermeersch will be lining up against some key gravel specialists, who were absent last year, with South Africa's Matt Beers and Keegan Swenson set to be on the start line. Their Specialized Off-road teammate – as well as The Traka 360, Unbound 200 and European Championships winner – Mads Würtz Schmidt will also be another key favourite on the start line.
The confirmed entries so far for the elite women's race on Saturday October 10 are also setting up a charged battle between the gravel specialists and riders crossing the discipline boundaries. The Dutch multi-discipline master of Marianne Vos (Visma-Lease a Bike), who won the gravel world title in 2024, is among the confirmed starters, as is the dominant figure in the un-sanctioned world of gravel, Sofia Gomez Villafañe (Specialized Off-road).
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