A year of dirt and gravel - 2025 winners of the most epic off-road races select their favourite photos

Gravel and off-road racing showed no signs of easing from a meteoric rise in popularity in 2025. High-profile races across mud, rocks, sand and soil in Europe and North America featured deep fields among the elite riders, while amateurs continued to grind through scenic landscapes and epic personal journeys of more than 100 events around the globe, a number that is a modest estimate.

Events at Unbound Gravel and The Traka continued to reign supreme as the 'monuments' of off-road racing, with Karolina Migoń etching a new level of success with wins at both The Traka 360 and Life Time Unbound Gravel 200. At The Traka 200, both Mads Würtz Schmidt and Sofia Gomez Villafañe won on inaugural appearances at the Girona race. New Zealander Cameron Jones made Kansas feel like home with a signature solo victory in the elite men's race at Unbound 200.

A new record was set at the epic off-road Life Time Leadville Trail 100 MTB, this one by former mountain bike world champion Kate Courtney in the elite women's race, and then she went on to earn a second world title, this time in the MTB cross-country marathon race in Switzerland.

Two of the richest off-road series, Life Time Grand Prix and Gravel Earth Series, earned headlines, with Villafañe winning the Grand Prix a third time and Jones using his Unbound victory to earn a wildcard entry in the series and then winning the overall in the sixth and final race. Former Unbound Gravel 200 champion Rosa Klöser went on a tear with eight victories, half of those in the Gravel Earth Series for the overall title.

In one of the longest gravel races on the calendar, Unbound Gravel XL that comes in at 359 miles (577km), Rob Britton and Heather Jackson powered through the Kansas prairie to score motivational wins.

With these great gravel stories come the personal reflections on the achievements. We asked each of these riders to not just tell us what was their highlight of the season, but show us in one photo what they would remember the most from 2025. A recap of the top achievements was also made possible by the photographers who captured a moment from each milestone, which made an indelible impression.

Kate Courtney

• 2025 team - She Sends Racing
• 2025 key results - wins at Leadville Trail 100 MTB and UCI Mountain Bike World Championship in Cross-country Marathon, silver medals at Pan-American MTB Championships in XCC and XCO
• Favourite photo from 2025 - "It’s just such a crazy image because you can see my flat tire and it’s probably six miles from the finish. What an adventure," she told Cyclingnews about winning Marathon MTB World title in Switzerland on a flat tyre.

Former mountain bike world champion Kate Courtney had wrist surgery in May following a crash at a World Cup round in Nové Město. She rested and regrouped at home in California, and took advantage of an extended stay at home in California to give it a go at Leadville Stage Race and then Leadville Trail 100 MTB. She finished second in the stage race and set a new course record to win the 100-miler.

The Leadville 100 performance became a driving force to return to Europe for MTB World Cups and Marathon World Championships. She explained in her Substack article why her second victory in Switzerland was so special and unexpected:

'One step at a time.' In 2018, as I rode the final descent of the UCI Cross Country World Championships in Lenzerheide, Switzerland, I repeated those words to myself again and again. I started the race as an underdog - a first-year elite who had never stood on a World Cup podium, let alone contended for a World Championship win.

But the result of a bike race is never predetermined, and that uncertainty, I told myself, could be my opportunity. I crossed the finish line to bring a rainbow jersey home to the USA for the first time in the XCO discipline in almost two decades.

Seven years later, those words returned to me. Again, I found myself in Switzerland. And again, I was leading the final descent of a World Championship, now in the marathon discipline. Except this time, I had a flat tire.

When I reached the top of the last little climb on the course, there was no one in sight. I crested the climb, hopped on my bike and began my descent into the mountains with tears in my eyes. Around a corner, my rear tire felt soft underneath me. "I am sorry," shouted the cameraman [riding an e-bike] behind me, "but you are flat."

And that is when familiar words entered my mind. One step at a time. I could win. Or I could flat. In the end, I did both.

That is the truth of chasing big dreams. The power isn’t in controlling the outcome, but in choosing to step forward anyway. To keep going, no matter the circumstances. - Kate Courtney

Mads Würtz Schmidt

• 2025 team - PAS Racing
• 2025 key results - winner at The Traka 200, Monaco Gravel Race, Turnhout Gravel, Blaavands Huk, Houffa Gravel and European Gravel Championships
• Favourite photo from 2025 - "I’ve chosen this picture from The Traka. I know it’s easy to pick a photo where you win a race. But it was a very emotional victory."

Before turning 31 years of age last March, Mads Würtz Schmidt moved from a 14-year road career, with of those seasons at the WorldTour level, to a new career on gravel. He told Cyclingnews that it was a one-year trial, one that was outside his comfort zone, both physically and financially.

How did he do? The Dane would win four UCI Gravel World Series races, The Traka 200 and close out his time on the podium with the European Gravel Championships title. It was The Traka 200, which he said solidified his place on gravel:

I made the shift to gravel very late and hadn’t proved myself as a good gravel rider. So it was a risk to race on gravel.

The major thing this year was financial. It’s been a year that has cost me money. So this year was a one-shot opportunity. If I didn’t succeed, I would have had to end my career as a cyclist.

That’s why The Traka was very important to me. This was my first chance to really prove myself and show that I belong in professional cycling. I had a very successful 2025, and it started with The Traka. With my Traka win, a lot of doors opened, and I have extended my career as a professional cyclist.

The Traka means everything to me. - Mads Würtz Schmidt

Karolina Migoń

• 2025 team - PAS Racing
• 2025 key results - winner at The Traka 350, Unbound Gravel 200, Gravel Locos, Lost and Found, runner-up Wörthersee Gravel, Gravel Race Bern, third at Lauf Gravel Worlds and 66 Degres Sud-Le Gravel
• Favourite photo from 2025 - "I chose this photo because it captures the exact moment everything hit me [to win Unbound Gravel 200]."

Karolina Migoń had a stellar 2024, winning The Traka 360 and Ranxo Gravel, but she poured on the success in 2025, earning top 10s in 13 of 14 off-road races. Among her top results were a defence of her title at The Traka 360, and a string of three consecutive victories in the US - Gravel Locos, Unbound Gravel 200 and Lost and Found.

Winning the two biggest gravel races on the planet - The Traka 360 and Unbound Gravel 200 - in the same year was a monumental achievement. And it was a target for the 29-year-old Polish racer. However, she didn't plan to use a 50-mile solo effort to claim the win in Kansas, saying after the race, "I didn’t know if I was stupid or a genius. I didn’t know if I would make it to the finish, I would say, until the last 5km." She finished 8:35 ahead of her teammate, Cecily Decker, for the solo win:

The emotions, the disbelief, the exhaustion after 10 hours of racing. I’m still covered in mud. Before I even had time to process it, the questions started. It shows the raw transition from pure effort to something bigger than the race itself. - Karolina Migoń

Cameron Jones

• 2025 team - Scott-Shimano
• 2025 key results - winner at Unbound Gravel 200, five podiums and first overall at Oregon Trail Gravel, third at Lauf Gravel Worlds
• Favourite photo from 2025 - "Big Sugar."

From wildcard to overall winner, that sums up the 2025 season for New Zealander Cameron Jones. At 24 years old to start the season, he targeted top results at the first two US rounds of the Life Time Grand Prix, Sea Otter Classic and Unbound Gravel 200, in order to claim one of three elite men's wildcard berths for the cash-rich series.

First, he scored a dominant victory at Unbound, which gave him a berth in the Grand Prix. Then he went on to win another round at Little Sugar MTB and set the stage for the final showdown at Big Sugar, where he just had to outdistance defending series champion Keegan Swenson, and contenders Pellaud and Torbjørn Andre Røed, to win the top prize, and along with that a guaranteed entry into the field for 2026.

“The people that were up there in the front weren't going to beat me in the series. And so, I just had to concern myself with the people who could, and try and make their life as hard as possible," Jones said after his fifth-place finish at Big Sugar. Fifth place was never celebrated so wildly, as it gave him the Grand Prix title. Jones let photographer Wil Matthews describe his favourite photo from 2025, since he is not even in focus:

This year's Life Time Grand Prix finished with a tantalizing 'Winner takes all' battle between four riders. After a chaotic, shortened Big Sugar Gravel [down from 100 miles to 54 due to storms], the overall title came down to a 25-man bunch sprint on the main street of Bentonville. This photo shows Cameron with so much of a gap he escaped focus, with the other three contenders (Pellaud, Røed and Swenson) watching the $20,000 top prize sprinting up the road. - Wil Matthews

Heather Jackson

• 2025 team - Herbalife/Canyon
• 2025 key results - winner Unbound Gravel XL, fourth The Traka 360
• Favourite photo from 2025 - "Definitely Unbound XL"

Heather Jackson amassed six Ironman wins and 16 Ironman 70.3 wins across 15 years, then became a standout performer with just the bike in gravel racing. After wins at Belgian Waffle Ride California and Stetina's Paydirt in 2023, she raced Unbound Gravel 200 in 2024 and finished fifth, mixing it up with the eight others in a first-ever mass sprint to the finish. One year later, she took on Unbound XL, the 350-mile overnight endurance contest across the Flint Hills of Kansas, and won the women's division, finishing eighth overall.

Unbound XL victory, in 20 hours, 57 minutes, 57 seconds, was double the effort from the 200-miler. She called an all-out time trial effort, and after the race revealed the chaos of her headlamp going out, a crash and mud stuck in her wheels. Her win and suffering will remain as one of the most special memories:

So many things can happen in off-road gravel events, especially the longer the distance, and so when one comes together, it's an absolute dream come true. And that was Unbound XL for me!

This picture always speaks to me because I specifically remember seeing Linda leaning out of the Life Time vehicle, screaming the most congratulatory of things - she has been one of my biggest supporters, and she looked truly so happy for me. So it's more that I remember Linda [Guerrette] behind the lens more than this photo itself, and that I wanted to yell something back but there were only about five miles left here and I literally could not lift my head or neck.

It hurt so bad from time trialling for 20 hours, and I was honestly questioning whether I could make it to the final few miles, but I just tried to internalize Linda's happiness. - Heather Jackson

Rob Britton

• 2025 team - Factor Bikes
• 2025 key results - winner at Unbound Gravel XL
• Favourite photo from 2025 - "The photo Thomas got of me from Unbound was unreal and with the result to match its really hard to beat!"

Canadian Rob Britton moved to gravel racing four years ago after 11 pro seasons on the road. In his first effort in Emporia, Kansas in 2022, he finished sixth at the prestigious Unbound Gravel 200, competing as part of the inaugural Life Time Grand Prix invitation-only roster of riders. He dropped out of the top 10 on the next two editions of that signature race.

With a solid second place in 2024 at The Traka 360, he made his mark at Unbound in the XL race in 2025, chasing favourite Lachlan Morton through the night, passing the Australian with 10 miles to go and winning in 17 hours, 49 minutes, 51 seconds. It was a new course record for the XL distance. It was a major win for Britton, calling it "a cool day of racing – a full day and night".

The photo by Thomas Prehn took as much effort to capture as Britton's ride, with setups at four different locations, mainly on the second half of the 350-mile course. It was at 1:30 in the morning when he captured 'the' shot. Here's a little bit about how the one photo you see here rose to the top for the Canadian rider, in the words spoken in a video recap by Prehn:

I went there [Kansas] with a specific photo concept in mind. I wanted to capture my friend Rob Britton at night with a long exposure so you could see the stars. Because of the logistics of the course and the limited roads, I had very limited opportunities to capture them.

With the camera on a tripod and also mounted on a tripod with a rogue modifier, to narrow the focus of the strobe, I took a couple test shots. Lachlan Morton comes up, I completely missed the shot. I hit the shutter too soon. Next, Rob Britton comes up, I miss again. The strobe missed him.

At Kansas 150 and C Road, now after 1:30 in the morning [a third setup for the shot]. I set up, I take more test shots. I get the framing right and the strobe right. Lachlan Morton approaches, ah, just a fraction of a second too early [for the right image]. To my shock, Rob Britton is fast approaching. Because of the thirty-second exposure, I have only a few seconds to review the shot, see what I need to do differently. I get the shot I'm looking for.

Rob told me after the race that as he was approaching, he saw this tripod, and that's why he looked over at me. Perfect shot. - Thomas Prehn

Rosa Klöser

• 2025 team - Canyon-SRAM zondacrypto
• 2025 key results - winner at The Rift, CORE4, Ranxo Gravel, Hegau Gravel, Eislek Gravel Luxembourg, Alentejo Gravel and German Gravel Nationals; second at The Traka 200 and fourth at Unbound Gravel 200
• Favourite photo from 2025 - "The Rift."

Riding for Women's WorldTour team Canyon-SRAM zondacrypto, Klöser had a tough decision to make about one image to convey a top achievement in 2025, from road racing with her team at Paris-Roubaix Femmes and Tour de Suisse Women to winning the German Gravel National Championship and the overall title at Gravel Earth Series.

In order to secure the GES title, having already won three series events and finding the podium on two others, she outdistanced rivals Morgan Aguirre and Karolina Migoń at Ranxo Gravel to maintain her top points in the standings. That victory she called "an amazing reward after a tough week", as she had thought she would take the European Gravel Championship the weekend before, but flatted in the final seven kilometres to finish third.

While winning Ranxo and the GES overall on the same day was her top highlight, she selected her most memorable image of the year from her win at The Rift:

The Rift, this race was just an experience in itself and probably one of the victories I am most proud. I was riding 170 of the 200km by myself, and that took a lot of mental effort. - Rosa Klöser

Sofia Gomez Villafañe

• 2025 team - Specialized Off-road
• 2025 key results - winner at The Traka 200, Valley of Tears, Life Time Little Sugar MTB, Life Time Big Sugar Classic, BWR Arizona, BWR California, Cape Epic overall and third at Unbound Gravel 200
• Favourite photo from 2025 - "Holy smokes, I won Traka 200 - I truly didn't see that one coming."

Sofia Gomez Villafañe continued to dominate the Life Time Grand Prix for a third consecutive season, taking top points at Sea Otter Classic and finishing third at Unbound Gravel 200, then finishing strong with wins at Little Sugar and Big Sugar. She also won a second Cape Epic in tandem with Annika Langvad.

It was her first appearance at The Traka 200, wedged between the South African stage race and a packed April of US races, which made an indelible impression. She went to Girona to "check it out, understand the courts, and make it a target for next year".

A race is a race, and she went to the front with one rider, Rosa Klöser, whom she said was "so kind out there helping me navigate the course because I had no idea where I was going. We kept the race super fair…It came down to the end. Unreal."

The memorable breakaway battle with Klöser saw the German crash, but Villafañe waited and grabbed an advantage on the final single-track:

Nothing was going quite right on the lead-up to Traka. Got extremely sick post-Cape Epic, which took a long time to recover from, and I ended up racing four weekends straight, with Traka being the final event. Travel over to Spain was a nightmare, and we honestly considered calling the race off. But alas, we made it to Spain, the legs were feeling surprisingly good, and I was there to enjoy the event.

It was the first time in a long time that I felt the freedom to race for the fun of it and not worry too much about the result; turns out that was a winning formula for me. - Sofia Gomez Villafañe