Within the days earlier than the first UCI Gravel World Championships final yr, the specialists who had spent a lot of the yr competing in and supporting the brand new UCI Gravel World Sequence found their outcomes had been price nothing when it got here to the all-important beginning positions within the race for the rainbow jersey. In a controversial determination, they had been being trumped by highway, mountain bike and cyclocross athletes, who had not raced a single one of many gravel collection occasions. In 2023, the principles are set to vary.
A publish flagging the alterations to the rules was put out on the Gravel World Sequence Fb web page, outlining that elite riders on the 2023 UCI Gravel World Championships in Veneto, Italy on October 7-8, would line up primarily based on a factors system. On first look, this appeared to lean in favour of these racing gravel all year long.
Positions will probably be allotted, organisers stated, primarily based on a cumulation of factors gained through the Gravel World Sequence occasions and the earlier yr’s Gravel World Championship, together with “50% of the factors within the UCI rankings highway, mountain bike cross-country (XCO), mountain bike marathon (XCM) and cyclocross”.
The early broadcasting of the beginning grid coverage, might maybe allay a number of the controversy from final yr, with last-minute discussions leading to riders like collection spherical winners Piotr Havik and Adam Blazevic, finally, moved as much as the second row within the males’s occasion. Nevertheless, they nonetheless sat behind a entrance row dominated by highway professionals, together with Mathieu van der Poel, Peter Sagan and Miguel Angel López. Within the girls’s race, mountain bike world champion and eventual winner Pauline Ferrand-Prévot, who hadn’t raced within the gravel collection, was additionally distinguished on the entrance of the grid.
Begin place had been a problem final yr, as races started with an early climb to separate the fields, and slender sections following, that made shifting up a problem.
The significance of place on the beginning line is a key consider mountain biking and cyclocross. too. Riders who come into the race from the highway, like Tom Pidcock or Marianne Vos, don’t discover any concessions given for highway factors however as a substitute should combat their approach up if they need a greater placement.
That raises the query, is it sufficient to chop the weighting of factors from different disciplines in half for the Gravel World Championships?
The factors awarded for the UCI Gravel World Sequence – operating from April to September with 17 occasions – will vary from 200 for the occasion winner by to five for twenty fifth. For the World Championships, factors will vary from 1,000 all the way down to 10 factors.
Moreover, the top-finishing riders from qualifier occasions should request entry to a ‘precedence begin field’. “Riders can apply for this primary field submitting their candidature to the completely different organizers who will then resolve and choose a most of 25 riders over each genders,” stated the UCI Gravel World Sequence publish.
2022 versus 2023
To place the proposed factors system in perspective, we did a fast tally on the place a few of prime riders and common individuals within the Gravel World Sequence would have been positioned underneath this technique as they headed into the primary Gravel World Championships in 2022.
Choosing out the trio of males’s riders who every gained two rounds in 2022 – Adam Blazevic, Svenja Betz and Piotr Havik – they might have gone into the World Championships with 700 to 720 factors tallies primarily based on the brand new system.
After all you must understand that there have been no World Championships factors thrown into the combo given it was the primary version, however 700 odd factors within the males’s class would have truly put the highest UCI Gravel World Sequence riders on the grid forward of lots of the highway riders, together with Sagan, Greg Van Avermaet and López. Nevertheless, Van der Poel would have been safely ensconced on the entrance row even along with his halved highway factors alone – which in October of 2022 had been already over 2,000 factors – and that’s even with out his swag of factors from cyclocross added in.
In truth, even with the 50% rule in place, any of the highest 25 riders within the males’s highway rankings, given all of them had been sitting above 1,440 factors earlier than the 2022 UCI Gravel World Championships, would have topped one of the best riders of the gravel collection.
Ferrand-Prévot, along with her halved mountain bike UCI factors, would have additionally been simply forward of two-time gravel World Sequence winner Svenja Betz. In truth, any rider within the prime 18 of the ladies’s highway rankings might have probably walked onto the entrance row forward of the highest performers within the gravel collection.
Then there are gravel specialists like 2022 Unbound Gravel 200 winners Sofia Gomez Villafane and Ivar Svilk, who don’t have any factors to point out for that race because it is not UCI categorised. They did truly get a entrance row slot in 2022, however the brand new rules do not seem to make sure a spot on the entrance of the grid this outing.
Factors system for 2023 UCI Gravel World Championships begin grid
On the UCI Gravel World Championships, riders of the Elite class could be lined up firstly primarily based on a factors system which is a cumulation of the next factors, the very best quantity listed for the winner:
- Factors gained through the UCI Gravel World Sequence occasions within the total male/feminine outcome per race for prime 25 : 200-180-160-150-140-130-120-110-100-90-80-70-65-60-55-50-45-40-35-30-25-20-15-10-5 factors
- Factors gained through the UCI Gravel World Championships of the earlier yr within the elite class for prime 25 : 1000-750-600-500-450-400-350-300-275-250-225-200-180-160-140-120-100-80-70-60-50-40-30-20-10 factors
- 50% of the factors within the UCI rankings highway, mountain bike cross-country (XCO), mountain bike marathon (XCM) and cyclocross
