In the medieval city of Citadella in Italy’s Veneto region, gravel racers will for the first time be awarded a UCI rainbow jersey. The inaugural 2022 UCI Gravel World Championships will take place this weekend, October 8th and 9th.

The elite women will race 140-kilometers from Vicenza to Citadella, racking up 2,175 feet of elevation gain on a mixed-terrain course. 

Saturday will also feature amateur competitions for 50+ men and age group women. Unlike American gravel races, the different fields will race separately at the world championships. The women’s race sets off at 12:00 PM local time. The age group events get underway fifteen minutes later.

The elite men’s world championships begin at 11:00 AM local time on Sunday October 9th with two waves of age group men to follow. The elite men race 194-kilometers with 2,525 feet of elevation gain. Their race will conclude with finishing circuits in Citadella.

Course

With the relatively light amount of climbing on course, the gravel itself poses the greatest challenge to the racers. Classic white Italian gravel roads are on tap for the racers, similar to the ones featured in Strade Bianche. 

The course is mostly gravel, but not entirely. About 25% of the route is paved. Cobbled sectors are also interspersed throughout. 

The opening section of the course appears to be the most challenging. Two punchy climbs accentuate the first ten miles of the route. With the vast majority of elevation gain accomplished in the first hour of racing, the championship races should be both fast and tactical. 

Unlike the grueling races of attrition seen in North America, which often splits the peloton into groups of ones and twos, it appears that the UCI will present a course which might lend itself to more dynamic group racing in the closing hours. 

With plans to televise the event coming to life in the eleventh hour, broadcasts of those final hours will be available on FloBikes, but the exact schedule has yet to be determined.

Contenders

Matheiu van der Poel will attempt to put his Australian troubles behind him this weekend. The multi-discipline star has never before competed in a gravel race, but he tops the list of favorites.

Van der Poel will be up against the likes of Peter Sagan and Daniel Oss, both of whom traveled to Kansas to experience UNBOUND Gravel earlier this year. Other contenders include Greg Van Avermaet, Gianni Vermeersch and former Strade Bianchi winner Zdenek Stybar.

The women’s field is headlined by Pauline Ferrand-Prévot, current UCI mountain bike world champion, and a former world title holder in both road and cyclocross. A fourth discipline win for Prévot would be historic.

American duo Lauren Stephens and Emily Newsom enter the race as two of the most experienced gravel racers in the peloton. Lauren’s husband Mat Stephens, winner of UNBOUND (DK200) in 2017 will also represent the U.S. this weekend.

The full startlist can be found here.