'The year where someone who's primarily a gravel racer would win – Maddy Nutt representing the specialists at the World Championships

It’s been a great year for British gravel racer Maddy Nutt. A shift in focus has seen her race some of the longest events on the calendar, racing for 24 hours and coming away with some top results.

At the start of May she was the first woman home - and 17th overall - in the Traka 560, covering the 560km route in 26 hours 30 minutes. Then, later that month, she took on the 574km of Unbound XL, finishing as second woman, 34 minutes behind winner Svenja Betz.

Now she’s in Western Australia preparing for an all together different challenge: the UCI Gravel World Championships.

For 2026 the UCI Gravel World Championships leave Europe for the first time, with the previous four editions held in Italy twice, Belgium and the Netherlands. The 2026 event heads to Western Australia, and the town of Nannup, some 250km south of Perth, the elite women racing on Saturday, October 10, the men the following day, with the age-group events spread across the two days.

At 'only' 125.6km in length, Nutt’s race will tackle less than a quarter of her two epic successes earlier in the year, so she’s been forced to alter her training to try to at least be competitive, though with a decent number victories and top five finishes in shorter races, including UCI Gravel World Series events, she’s hardly a stranger to those distances and their increased intensity.

"I’ve kind of switched up my racing this year to try some new stuff, and then I've kind of switched back in the second half of the season," Nutt explained when we called her before she headed to Australia.

"Early season, I was prioritising doing a couple of ultra races and giving, and I actually really enjoyed them, and then I always wanted to do world champs in Australia.

"So at a certain point, I said I need to switch my training up because otherwise I'm not going to have the upper-end power to be able to race shorter stuff. But I've really enjoyed mixing my calendar up with different stuff, it's very different to stand on a start line knowing you're going to be racing for over 24 hours versus standing on a start line knowing you're just going to suffer for a few hours. They’re very different kinds of pain."

Not a lifelong cyclist, Nutt came to cycling relatively late, and after a couple of years dabbling in road racing, she headed off the tarmac for the growing gravel scene. She raced the first edition of the Gravel Worlds in Veneto in 2022, finishing 29th behind Pauline Ferrand-Prévot, and has taken part in every edition since. Being an ever-present is part of the attraction for her to pack up her bike and head to Australia for another tilt next week.

"To date I’ve done four out of four and finished four out of four, I think the only other rider that has is Tiffany Cromwell, so we'll both have done five out of five, but I think she's retiring this year, so maybe if I do the one next year, I'll be the only person who's done all of them!

"I feel like if I'm fit and capable of going, it's quite nice to go and do another one. I've been to Australia once before, and I loved it, so it’s an excuse to go to a place that I really enjoyed riding my bike."

Professional road riders have won both men’s and women’s races in all four editions to date, but with this year’s races taking place so far from Europe and coming at the end of a long, hard season, it’s expected we’ll see fewer of them on the Nannup start line, increasing the chances of a gravel specialist winning the jerseys this year. And then there are the routes, both of which comprise well over 80% gravel, something the true off-road regulars will be well used to.

"This course seems like the most gravelly Gravel World Championships that we've seen, so I'm really intrigued to do a Gravel World Championships that could actually suit gravel specialists," says Nutt. "The gravel is meant to be actually quite champagne gravel, so I think it's not overly technical, but there are sections with what they describe as pea gravel, and pea gravel's super slippy, it’s like ball bearings instead of gravel.

"Of any year, this would be the year where someone who's primarily a gravel racer would win, I think, even if it's someone like Rosa Klöser or Gee [Geerike Schreurs] who have had that road experience as well. But someone who really prioritises this discipline and then takes the jersey would be really awesome because also we don't see the winners ever wear that jersey."

The privateer life

While Nutt is part of clothing company Q36.5’s Off-Road Racing Expedition, that’s not quite a team, and riders arrange many of their own sponsors themselves. And with no administrative support they are responsible for running their own race programmes and expenses.

That won't change for the World Championships. Whilst raced in national teams, most federations offer little to no support for the Championships, so most racers are left fending for themselves in terms of aid during the race.

"A privateer is the most entrepreneurial way to be a bike racer. You need to find someone to take photos of you or find someone to hand you bottles," Nutt explains. "I’ve gone to a race and not found someone to hand me bottles, then I was the only person with a hydration vest on the start line. Even just psychologically, I'm thinking I've got an extra two kilograms on my back, and that's really hard."

Luckily for Nutt, one of the other Q36.5 riders lives in Perth and is injured and unable to ride, so she has one recruit to help with hydration, though Nutt is hoping some of her social media contacts can help her out too, as getting round the entire 125.6km course could prove difficult.

That entrepreneurial approach to racing means managing more than just who’s handing your drinks. There are photos needed for social media, essential for sponsor exposure, booking travel and running a budget. And with no support from British Cycling for this Championships, that budget has to extend to cover the trip to Nannup for Worlds.

"My sponsors will pay me and then I can choose how much of that I'm putting towards race budget. Some athletes are very specific, I'm more flexible and if I really want to go to a race I'm going to spend some of my budget on it, and then what I end up with at the end of the day is my take-home salary. But I don't mind spending more money to go to races like, for example, World Champs in Australia, and then take home less money at the end of the year because I think it's an amazing opportunity."

As for her set up for next Saturday’s race, Nutt is keeping it simple, riding the rigid fork Lauf Siegla. "The course isn’t technical in theory and is super hilly, so weight is something I need to think about. Tyres-wise, I’m going for the Panaracer GravelKing X1s in a 40 [millimetre]. I raced them in Finland and was super happy with them there. I might pack a set of 45s with me in case I change my mind."

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