The UEC Gravel European Championships start schedule packed the release of the elite and age group fields into thirty minutes on Sunday, with the elite men heading off to take on three laps of the course first, while the elite women's start came after the bulk of the men's age group categories had set off.
The interval between the elite women and the 65-74 men in the race, which was also part of the UCI Gravel World Series, was just five minutes. The 60-64 group was also a further two minutes back, and the 55-59 riders also started within 10 minutes of the elite women.
That gave the top women battling for a European title approximately 2km of clear air before they started to mingle with the men's age group categories ahead, leaving a number among the elite women's field describing what unfolded next as more of a 'slalom' or 'game of Pac-Man' than a gravel race.
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"I completely agree that the current situation can still be improved and that the concerns raised are legitimate," said Erwin Vervecken, UCI Gran Fondo & Gravel World Series manager, in reply to an email sent by Cyclingnews requesting comment on the situation.
"However, based on the feedback received from the elite women's survey and the practical limitations related to permits, road closures and available time frame, we currently believe that this was the best achievable solution under the circumstances."
"That said, this remains a topic that we continue to evaluate. Experience has shown that after several successful editions, local authorities can sometimes become more receptive to longer road closures and larger gaps between start groups. Wherever opportunities arise to further improve race conditions and safety for all participants, we will certainly explore them."
The survey Vervecken is referring to was one conducted at the end of last season, coming about after concerns were raised following Gravel One Fifty in the Netherlands, where the elite women started behind the elite men and ahead of the age group categories, leading to a situation that drew criticism after they were caught relatively early in the race by some of the nearest starting men's age group categories.
The survey question, shared by the UCI series, asked: 'In an ideal world, women have a separate race starting long before or after the men, but in reality, few organisers get the authorisation to close down roads for a long period. Given this remark, how would you suggest to best apply the starting procedure to have a fair and safe women's race?"
Of the alternatives offered, the one chosen most often among those who responded to the survey was "Women should start after all male age categories, with an interval as big as possible. It's better to pass slower men's age groups than being caught by faster men."
This was written into the series start procedure for events with more than 1,500 riders, the regulations stating that "women’s elite start must take place after all male age‑group starts, also those doing a shorter distance" and specified that the gap before the elite women's start "must be the largest possible, considering traffic-management limits and overlap-prevention".
The five minutes the elite women's field had as a gap at the European Championships, which had 1,800 riders, was the biggest of the starting margins between categories – they were mostly at three minutes – but it was also considerably less than at many key series events.
At Gravel One Fifty this year, the elite women's field started after all the men's age groups doing the same distance, which ends at the 55-59 age bracket, with a 13-minute gap. For another of the bigger events in the series, SEVEN, the gap was 15 minutes, while at The Gralloch it was closer to an hour, and other events even have a separation of days, not minutes.
"The ideal situation for the elite women's race is, of course, one where the athletes can compete in their own race with as little influence as possible from other categories," said Vervecken.
"Whenever this is organizationally feasible, such as at the UCI Gravel World Championships or at events held on separate race days like Graean Cymru (Wales), this approach is indeed implemented. Other events organised within fully controlled and closed venues, such as The Gralloch (Scotland), also have the possibility to start the women's race significantly earlier or later than other categories, as there is no impact on traffic management.
"At the same time, one of the greatest challenges in organising UCI Gravel events is securing sufficient road closure time from local authorities. In that regard, the situation has progressed considerably over the last few years. Where start intervals of only one minute between categories were common in the past, we now increasingly see gaps of three to five minutes between different start groups."
There have long been issues around mixed fields in gravel, where the increasing ranks of professional riders line up alongside amateur athletes and drafting or interference among categories is an issue of contention, with several solutions being proposed and implemented across the varying strands of the discipline.
"The success of gravel is due to the combination of elites and age group participants who all share the same road and course, and we want to maintain that concept for future years, but also expect some understanding from the top-level elites," said Vervecken. "The men's elite have overtaken lots of lapped riders in the last part of their race, but we never heard any criticism from them."
The elite men, however, faced different circumstances. They set off first, so had a clear full 47km lap of the course before hitting the then more spread-out traffic through their second and third laps, while the elite women's field had just a couple of kilometres before tackling the groups ahead which, that early in the race, had not had as much time to spread out.
Vervecken said further meetings were being arranged with riders from the elite women's field to discuss the issue.
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