The talents and backgrounds {of professional} gravel racers are simply as numerous because the occasions themselves. This dynamic self-discipline now boasts a variety of races, from the quick, mixed-terrain Belgian Waffle Experience California to gruelling 200-mile epics like Unbound Gravel in Kansas. These occasions entice athletes from each nook of biking: mountain bikers, roadies, gravel specialists, and hybrids of every kind.
Highway biking has well-established classes of riders. Sepp Kuss is a climber. Felippo Ganna is a time trialist. Jasper Philipsen is a sprinter. Gravel racing isn’t as neatly outlined, however related archetypes exist, albeit with extra crossover.
Take Keegan Swenson for example. Usually lauded as the perfect off-road rider within the nation, Swenson began his racing profession as an XCO mountain biker earlier than discovering a expertise for the longer-distance disciplines of marathon racing and gravel. He has the technical prowess you’d anticipate from his mountain biking roots, mixed with an engine that seems nearly unbeatable. He can climb, excelling in programs like Crusher within the Tushar and the Leadville 100, which each function lengthy, steep climbs at excessive altitudes. He has additionally gained the 200-mile Unbound, which he did in a bunch dash. For these causes, we would label him an all-rounder. Meet the archetypes of the gravel peloton.
The all-rounders
(Picture credit score: Life Time Grand Prix)
Like Swenson, the all-rounders are deadly on practically any course profile. It’s this variety of ability and skill that makes them well-suited to gravel, be it fast-paced off-road races with pack dynamics to tough singletrack terrain the place most would favor a mountain bike.
Lachlan Morton may also be thought of an all-rounder. When he was a roadie, the Aussie-turned-American was thought of extra of a climber, however the EF rider can do greater than go up hills along with his featherlight body. His greatest victory so far got here at this yr’s Unbound, the place he outmatched Chad Haga in a tactical finale.
I’d additionally place a rider like Sarah Sturm on this class. Sturm’s background ranges from mountain biking to cyclocross, and the American has discovered success in races just like the Gravel Earth Collection’ Migration Stage race in Kenya and the Life Time Grand Prix circuit. With two total victories within the Life Time Grand Prix, Sofia Gomez Villafaňe has additionally confirmed herself to be a formidable all-rounder and a podium risk regardless of the course.
The climbers
(Picture credit score: Life Time Grand Prix)
Some riders use their power-to-weight ratio to their benefit. This doesn’t imply they’ll’t win in different eventualities, however they actually shine when the grime street factors skyward. Pete Stetina made probably the most of his reported 63kg body to internet a second-place end on the vertiginous Crusher within the Tushar, and his WorldTour background offers him the facility and group racing expertise to be deadly.
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Cole Paton and Howard Grotts are additionally examples of light-weight males who can climb like mountain goats. Each are mountain bikers at coronary heart, giving them excellent technical expertise along with their climbing expertise.
Within the girls’s peloton, Haley Smith‘s one other instance of a mountain biker who can climb. She showcased her distinctive climbing capacity in profitable the 2023 version of Crushar within the Tushar on her technique to clinching the general title of the Life Time Grand Prix that yr. Leadville winner Melisa Rollins earns a spot within the climbers membership as properly after her race-winning transfer on the Columbine climb. Former soccer participant Iz King burst onto the biking scene after claiming Strava QOMS throughout Southern California and is one to be careful for on the climbs as properly.
The Gravel Specialists
(Picture credit score: Life Time Grand Prix)
From Lauren Stephens to Lauren De Crescenzo and Paige Onweller, some racers are most at dwelling on rolling gravel roads. Stephens raced a blended calendar of street and gravel this yr, which led to a implausible summer season within the grime profitable the U.S. Nationwide Gravel Championships, the unofficial Gravel Worlds and SBT GRVL. De Crescenzo additionally has a street background however has discovered her area of interest on gravel roads, profitable Unbound in 2021 and racking up marquee gravel wins yearly since.
Onweller has discovered a distinct segment in profitable races like Large Sugar, the place she gained in 2022 as an unknown identify to many.
One other rider who might match into this class of specialists is Alexey Vermeulen, who got here to gravel after a brief U23 stint on the WorldTour. Vermeulen was among the many first to succeed as a gravel privateer, discovering extra pleasure and a greater earnings on this new avenue than he did in conventional biking.
The Large Guys
(Picture credit score: Pinarello)
Names like Matt Beers, Brennan Wertz and John Borstelmann is perhaps thought of the rouleurs of the gravel peloton. These bigger riders can nonetheless go uphill at a speedy tempo, however they discover probably the most success on rolling or flat terrain the place they’ll actually lay down the facility. Beers has been identified to take some large pulls, whereas Wertz gained the U.S. Nationwide Championships in Nebraska this yr. Borstelmann is a multi-time (unofficial) Gravel Worlds winner which additionally takes place within the rolling terrain of the American Midwest.
The domestiques
Tobin Ortenblad retains Keegan Swenson protected as Leadville 100 will get underway
(Picture credit score: Life Time Grand Prix)
Domestiques and staff ways in gravel are a gray space that can spur many opinions, however there’s no denying that alliances (each official and unofficial) exist within the gravel peloton.
At Unbound in 2023, Howard Grotts gave Russel Finsterwald his wheel after his then-Specialised teammate punctured. At this yr’s event, the Pas Regular staff was out in full power, with riders fiercely attacking early within the race to permit Chad Haga to finish up within the race-defining break and end in second place.
After which there’s Santa Cruz rider Tobin Ortenblad, who typically works for his teammate Swenson. Their partnership was most notable at Leadville 2023 the place Ortenbad set a blistering tempo early on to assist Swenson break the course document. We wouldn’t say that anybody rider has made being a domestique their sole identification as a gravel racer but, but it surely’s one thing to keep watch over.
The Euros
2023 gravel world champion Kasia Niewiadoma
(Picture credit score: Canyon-SRAM)
As gravel racing develops, variations in terrain and race types between the U.S. and European scenes change into more and more obvious. The U.S. thinks of itself as a insurgent, with quite a lot of completely different races and little enter from sanctioning our bodies.
In Europe, races are extra road-like, with WorldTour ways and UCI-sanctioned races. The final two editions of the UCI Gravel World Championships have seen winners in Matej Mohoric, Kasia Niewiadoma, Marianne Vos and Mathieu van der Poel. These riders put on the gravel rainbow jersey, however are they actually gravel riders? Many would think about them roadies who occurred to win a gravel race, influenced by programs and race dynamics that suited their street backgrounds.
In fact, there are many European gravel specialists, too. And there’s a rising presence of them at American races like Laurens ten Dam and his so-called Dutch mafia.
Nonetheless, gravel is anybody’s recreation
(Picture credit score: Life Time)
Because the above examples illustrate, gravel attracts riders from all backgrounds, and the classes have appreciable overlap. The purpose isn’t to place labels on riders for the sake of placing a label on, however relatively to level out their expertise and what sorts of races they usually succeed at. Gravel has blurred the traces of biking disciplines. Likewise, this dynamic self-discipline remains to be defining its archetypes. Is Lauren de Crescenzo really a climber? Ought to there be a mountain biker class? What in regards to the ultra-endurance racers and bikepackers who journey gravel like Lael Wilcox and Lachlan Morton? Maybe it’s this lack of onerous definitions that makes gravel so enjoyable to observe – anybody can win.
