UCI Gravel World Championships 2024

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Day 2: Mathieu van der Poel dominates with solo victory / As it happened

Pre-race favorite Mathieu van der Poel delivered a commanding performance at the UCI Gravel World Championships, securing a decisive solo victory in the elite men's race. The Dutch rider launched several attacks, whittling down the number of Belgian riders in the front group from seven to four, and eventually just one. With less than 13km to go, van der Poel distanced his breakaway companion, Belgian rider Florian Vermeersch, on a short climb, powering on to claim his eighth elite men's world title.

The Belgian team had to settle for silver with Vermeesch, and bronze for Quinten Hermans out of a small chase group.

Day 1: Marianne Vos overpowers Kopecky to seize elite women's title / As it happened

The third edition of the elite women's race at the UCI Gravel World Championships came down to a duel between two titans, Marianne Vos (Netherlands) and Lotte Kopecky (Belgium). The duo powered away from a small lead group in the final 50km, and stayed together until the final dash to the line where Vos was able to outsprint her rival to claim her fourteenth world title across three disciplines, road, cyclocross and gravel. Silver went to Kopecky.

Lorena Wiebes (Netherlands) dropped her chase group companions in the final kilometres to take the bronze medal.

UCI Gravel World Championships 2024 overview

The 2024 UCI Gravel World Championships will be the third edition of the rainbow jersey battles in the discipline and is the first outside Italy. Riders qualify to take part in the event through qualifications at one of 25 events on the Trek UCI Gravel World Series through the year or, for the elite racers, can also gain spots if nominated by their national federations.

The introduction of the Gravel World Series and World Championships in 2022 by the UCI marked a considerable alteration to the nature of gravel racing, which up until that juncture had been a largely grassroots phenomenon operating outside the UCI structure. An unofficial Gravel Worlds race was born in Nebraska as part of an informal approach in 2010 and has been running since with its pirate-inspired trophies as the prizes rather than rainbow jerseys.

The formalisation and, so far, European-based races for the world title with shorter courses than traditionally found in the US scene – but perhaps more in common with much of the gravel racing in Europe and other places like Australia – have so far largely played to the hands of the road professionals who have given the discipline a tilt at the end of their WorldTour season. 

The winners of the 2023 edition of the UCI Gravel World Championships were Matej Mohorič (Slovenia) and Kasia Niewiadoma (Poland) while the first title was won by the multi-discipline women's talent of Pauline Ferrand-Prevot (France) and on the men's side by Gianni Vermeersch (Belgium).

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UCI Gravel World Championships 2024 route

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The routes of the UCI Gravel World Championships will cover rolling terrain between the start in Halle and finish in Leuven taking the riders through the the heart of the Brabantse Wouden National Park. The elite women will race 134km and the elite men 181km, the difference being extra local laps for the men.

So far in the short history of the Gravel World Championships the courses have eschewed the long distances found in top US gravel races and equal course distances for men and women that are the hallmark of the discipline. The distances fall closer into line with those found in road racing – and to an extent gravel racing in Europe and other places like Australia – as do the differing distances for the elite men and women. Courses, so far, have also included a significant amount of paved road surfaces and this trend will continue into 2024.

Gravel, cobblestones and unpaved surfaces comprise around 60 percent of the 2024 course, with riders already having had a preview of many elements of the route of the World Championships in Belgium at last year's European Gravel Championships. 

There is a small local loop after the start before riders head out onto a course that takes them through the Forests of Brabant and into a local loop in Leuven, with whether they take on one or two loops depending on the category. There is a little over 1,000 metres of elevation gain for both routes.