Who has the savvy and skills to win elite races at 2025 UCI Gravel World Championships? A look at the contenders

Gravel is all about grit and embraces variety. That applies to both race routes and the competitors themselves, where variable conditions and terrain often present unpredictable equipment and fitness challenges to even the most experienced pro riders.

The fourth edition of the UCI Gravel World Championships in Zuid-Limburg this weekend hits the mark for fast, Classics-style competitions this Saturday and Sunday. There is Dutch territory that has been featured in the Amstel Gold Race, which lures the legends of the WorldTour and Women's WorldTour this year - Lorena Wiebes, Marianne Vos and Tim Merlier (Netherlands), Tim Wellens (Belgium) and Romain Bardet (France).

Riders with long pedigrees on gravel desperately want the rainbow stripes, however, so look for a clash of titans from the likes of gravel 'veterans' like Gianni Vermeersch and Greg Van Avermaet (Belgium), Tiffany Cromwell (Australia), Geerike Schreurs (Netherlands) and Rosa Klöser (Germany) to kick up the dust at the front of the elite races.

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Some of the top women not expected to line up are 2023 women's champion Kasia Niewiadoma-Phinney (Poland), last year's fourth-place finisher Puck Pieterse (Netherlands) and three-time US women's gravel champion Lauren Stephens. On the men's side, last year's winner Mathieu van der Poel (Netherlands) takes time off from a hectic road and MTB season, so the podium is wide open. While 2023 winner Matej Mohorič (Slovenia) is on the start list, he is questionable to start due to struggles at Road Worlds and European Championships.

Perhaps missing from the action will be many of the gravel stars who have performed consistently on longer and more mountainous courses, such as US riders Keegan Swenson, Alexey Vermeulen, Cole Paton, Cecily Decker and Melisa Rollins. They are expected to race the final two rounds of the Life Time Grand Prix in Arkansas across the next two weeks. Also absent from the Netherlands for the prize-rich Grand Prix are gravel standouts Matthew Beers and Haley Preen of South Africa, Simon Pellaud of Switzerland, Torbjørn Røed of Norway, Cameron Jones and Courtney Sherwell of Australia, Haley Smith and Andrew L'Esperance of Canada - all of them also in Arkansas.

The elite women start proceedings on Saturday morning in Beek with 131km and 1,190 metres of climbing. The elite men will cover 181km and gain 1,650m of elevation on Sunday morning. Both fields will open with local 50km circuits, the women with two-and-a-half laps and the men with three-and-a-half, with a final 18km stretch to Maastricht, the 1km Bronsdalweg ascent with an average gradient of 7.2% providing the perfect launchpad for attacks into Maastricht, which finishes on a packed gravel path in the city.

Here's a look at a few of the top names which should move to the front of their respective elite fields for gravel glory.

Marianne Vos (Netherlands)

Marianne Vos will line up as the defending champion, having won last year's title in Leuven ahead of Belgium's Lotte Kopecky and her Dutch compatriot Lorena Wiebes.

Vos opted not to compete at the recent Rwanda Road World Championships, citing a personal matter at home, but had had a strong summer season, winning a stage and finishing twice on the podium at the Tour de France and then taking second place at GP Plouay in August.

Although she hasn't had an extensive amount of gravel racing on her calendar this year, even as the World Champion, she did compete at the UCI's 3Rides Gravel Race, where she secured the victory ahead of compatriot Larissa Hartog and Germany's Romy Kasper.

Vos' strength and capabilities across multiple disciplines have led to 14 elite world titles: eight in cyclocross, three in road, two in track, and one in gravel.

Still at the top of her game, Vos will be the favourite on the start line in Limburg.

Tom Pidcock

Add gravel to the list of disciplines at which British rider Tom Pidcock wants to excel. The 26-year-old has a pair of mountain bike cross-country gold medals from two Olympic Games and gold medals from MTB and cyclocross World Championships.

Another rainbow jersey is possible, where he'll take on familiar roads and punchy climbs he conquered last year to win Amstel Gold Race.

This year, Pidcock earned his first Grand Tour podium, riding aggressively for Q36.5 Pro Cycling at the Vuelta a España for third overall. At the Road World Championships, he finished 10th in the challenging Kigali race, which saw only 30 riders complete the 268km course. Just a week ago, Pidcock was second at Giro dell'Emilia.

A jump into the gravel fray will be interesting, as the Dutch course may not have enough technical trails to his liking, but the constant barrage of small climbs should help him disrupt any front group and make the race interesting.

Tim Merlier (Belgium)

This is a second appearance at Gravel Worlds for Tim Merlier, who was eighth last year in Leuven. He was one of 12 Belgians in the top 20 on home soil last year, all going into chase mode when winner Mathieu van der Poel launched a solo attack for the victory. The big Dutchman is absent this year, so Merlier will be one of the leaders of the Belgian squad to watch this time out.

The 32-year-old is in his 16th pro road season, winning two stages at the Tour de France this summer and following a month later with the bronze medal at Belgian Gravel Nationals. He also has one-day race wins at Scheldeprijs and Brussels Cycling Classic this spring, with a runner-up at Gent-Wevelgem, so he'll have a rich appetite for the rolling roads and dirt lanes across the Limburg hills.

Rosa Klöser (Germany)

German national champion Rosa Klöser will be one of the key riders to watch, having competed across a range of gravel and road races under the Canyon-SRAM zondacrypto banner this season.

Klöser claimed one of her best results, winning Unbound Gravel 200 last year, and standing on numerous podiums, before signing a two-year deal with the WorldTeam for 2025 and 2026.

Klöser had another successful season this year, competing across 12 top-level gravel races and securing 11 podiums, including victories at Eislek Gravel Luxembourg, Hegau Gravel Race, The Rift, CORE4, Lauf Gravel Worlds, Ranxo Gravel, and the elite women's title at the German National Championships.

She hasn't had her best showing at the Gravel World Championships, finishing just outside of the top 20 in Veneto in 2023 and Leuven in 2024, but this year she lines up as a much more experienced racer, having won four consecutive events on the Gravel Earth Series for that overall title. She told Cyclingnews that the course is not super technical or super hard, with lots of punchy climbs. She's done a recon and liked her chances.

Mads Würtz Schmidt (Denmark)

One of the newest road pros to make a splash on gravel is Mads Würtz Schmidt. The Dane most recently won the European gravel title in Italy last month, but it is the scope of the entire season that makes him a major player versus the riders he used to face on the WorldTour when riding for Katusha Alpecin and Israel-Premier Tech.

Schmidt started 2025 on a tear for PAS Racing, winning the first three UCI Gravel World Series races he started - Turnout Gravel, Monaco Gravel and Blaavands Huk. In between, he won The Traka 200, part of the Gravel Earth Series, finished third at Rule of Three and used that US race as the tune-up for his debut at Unbound Gravel 200, where he finished two seconds off the podium in fourth.

Before he took a signature victory in the European championships, Schmidt competed at three more World Series races, stamping his authority at Houffa Gravel ahead of six Belgians. He could replicate that performance in the Netherlands this Sunday.

Lorena Wiebes (Netherlands)

Lorena Wiebes gives the Netherlands a second major contender for the elite women's world title in Limburg, and having finished third last year in Leuven and fifth the year before in Vento, she will undoubtedly want to secure the rainbow jersey this time around.

Wiebes has also only competed in one gravel race, so far, this season, winning the Marly Gravel Race ahead of compatriots Quinty Ton and Ilse Pluimers.

She has also had a full road racing campaign, securing 25 victories, including Milan-San Remo, Brugge-De Panne, Gent-Wevelgem, and two stages at the Giro, as well as two more at the Tour. Most recently, she won Binche Chimay just days before travelling to the Gravel Worlds.

It's hard to believe that Wiebes has only won one elite world title - on the track - but that could change on Saturday in Limburg.

Romain Bardet (France)

This year's Critérium du Dauphiné was the farewell road event to close a 14-year pro career for Romain Bardet (Picnic-PostNL), where he was able to enjoy the start of stage 3 from his hometown of Brioude. His contract with the WorldTour team, where he has competed for the last five seasons, allows him to continue in the blue and orange colours in gravel competitions, where he has won twice in the UCI Gravel World Series - La Monsterato and 66 Degrés Sud-Le Gravel - securing his spot on the start line for his first UCI Gravel World Championships this Sunday.

As for his transition to gravel in August, Bardet said it has been smooth, but he has not trained for gravel, "I just like to ride my bike". The versatile 34-year-old earned his living as a climber at stage races in the past, and he's up for the challenge on gravel, which he says can be like a breakaway day on a Grand Tour. He told Cyclingnews that even though he is retired, he's "still feeling relatively good and in good shape".

He has had close battles recently with compatriot Hugo Drechou, who has focused the early part of his season on the Life Time Grand Prix in the US. Bardet was far better at the UCI Gravel World Series contest on home turf, 66 Degrés Sud-Le Gravel, beating Drechou by four minutes for the win. The tide turned at the French Gravel Nationals, where Drechou outsprinted Bardet for the title.

The duo will most likely have to work well together to compete against the bigger Belgian and Dutch teams.

Tiffany Cromwell (Australia)

Also part of the Canyon-SRAM zondacrypto team for both road and gravel racing, Tiffany Cromwell will represent Australia at her fourth Gravel Worlds in Limburg.

Her best placing so far has been sixth in sixth in 2022 and 10th in 2023, both in Veneto, while last year she didn't finish the race in Leuven.

One of the top and most consistent gravel racers, Cromwell kicked off her year with a winning RADL GRVL and the Australian national title, before taking second in the Devils Cardigan and first in Seven, and then travelling to the United States to win Unbound Gravel 100.

She spent much of the summer months racing on the road before turning her attention back to gravel with fifth places at Gravel, Grit 'n Grind and La Monsterrato.

A combination of gravel racing and end-of-season one-day races on the road will have prepared her well for her rainbow-jersey attempt in Limburg.

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