More gravel and fewer WorldTour stars: schedule and favourites for the 2026 Gravel World Championships

The 2026 Gravel World Championship completely changes its venue and likely also the type of race. After four editions held in Europe, the rainbow jersey will travel for the first time to Australia, specifically to Nannup, Western Australia, where the Elite women's and men's races will take place this Saturday, October 10, and Sunday, October 11.

And it will not only be a geographical change. The routes used so far by the UCI have allowed great road specialists to play a leading role, but Nannup features more than 80% unpaved terrain and over 3,000 meters of elevation gain, on forest tracks and gravel roads where specific experience may prove much more important.

This is precisely what can make this fifth edition particularly interesting. Alongside names from the WorldTour like Florian Vermeersch, Marianne Vos, Stan Dewulf, or Connor Swift, there will be some of the best gravel specialists in the world, including Mads Würtz Schmidt, Keegan Swenson, Matt Beers, Sofia Gómez Villafañe, Tiffany Cromwell, or Rosa Klöser.

Dates, times, and where to watch the 2026 Gravel World Championship

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The two Elite races will start at the same time, and due to the time difference with Western Australia, it will be necessary to wake up quite early to follow them.

• Saturday, October 10: Women's Elite, 125.6 km and 3,179 m+. Start at 04:10 h (CEST), with an expected finish around 08:10 h.
• Sunday, October 11: Men's Elite, 144 km and 3,713 m+. Start at 04:10 h (CEST), with an expected finish around 08:10 h.
• Where to watch it: HBO Max will offer both races live between 04:00 and 09:00 h.

The time is important because some prior information has published an incorrect conversion. The races start at 10:10 AWST, Western Australia time (UTC+8), while mainland Spain remains in CEST (UTC+2), so the difference this weekend will be six hours.

The most demanding Gravel World Championship yet

The environment of Nannup is not new to international gravel. The town has hosted the SEVEN Gravel Race for years, and in 2026 the World Championship will use a good part of those tracks. It will also be the first time the World Championship is held on the same terrain as a qualifying event of the UCI Gravel World Series.

The women will face 125.6 kilometers with 3,179 meters of positive elevation and 84% gravel, while the men will have 144 kilometers, 3,713 meters, and approximately 85% unpaved terrain. The main difference will be an additional loop that only the men's race will complete.

There is no major climb that concentrates all the difficulty. The wear will come from accumulation. After about 9 initial kilometers of undulating asphalt, climbs of between one and three kilometers will begin to appear, occurring throughout the race.

One of the first references will be Brockman Farm, 2.4 km at 8.2%, while later Ellis Creek, with 2 km at 9.1% will appear. In the men's race, there will also be a passage through the Arcadia loop, with an initial climb of 2.7 km at 7.5% and sections of pea gravel, that small, rounded gravel that offers little grip when dry.

There will also not be much margin to save energy thinking exclusively about the finish. The last 24.5 kilometers form a loop south of Nannup with two new climbs. The last significant climb measures about 2.4 km at 4.8%, although it becomes particularly tough in its final kilometer, and its summit is located just 3.5 kilometers from the finish. From there, there is approximately one kilometer of descent on gravel before finally entering the asphalt.

The profile allows for attacks from quite a distance, but the tracks are wide enough that some organization among groups can also exist. This could create a World Championship different from both the European road classics and much longer gravel events like Unbound.

Marianne Vos returns for the rainbow, but the course opens up the women's race

Marianne Vos will inevitably be one of the major references on Saturday. The Dutchwoman was already the gravel world champion in 2024 and has plenty of experience in elimination races, but the 3,179 meters of elevation gain in just 125 kilometers present a very different scenario than what this World Championship has typically offered.

The reigning champion Lorena Wiebes is not on the start list published this week, so she will not defend the title she won in 2025 in Maastricht.

Due to the characteristics of the course, one of the most interesting candidates will be Sofia Gómez Villafañe. The Argentine is a pure off-road specialist and has built much of her season with this event in mind. The elevation, the wide tracks, and a race of endurance seem to fit her profile particularly well.

Australia also has two important cards. Tiffany Cromwell starts with a difficult-to-quantify advantage: she knows these tracks perfectly and has won the SEVEN Gravel Race in Nannup in 2023, 2025, and 2026. Nicole Frain, on the other hand, arrives after winning four events in the UCI Gravel World Series this season.

They are joined by Rosa Klöser, Wendy Oosterwoud, Geerike Schreurs, Riejanne Markus, Erica Magnaldi, Sophie Wright, or Ashleigh Moolman-Pasio, in a race with only 54 Elite participants and much less presence from the WorldTour than in previous editions.

Florian Vermeersch defends his title against a powerful trio from Specialized

The men's race presents an even more particular situation. Of the great road professionals who have starred in previous editions, only a few names remain. Florian Vermeersch, Stan Dewulf, and Connor Swift are the three highlighted WorldTour riders in a list much more oriented towards gravel specialists.

Vermeersch arrives as the reigning champion after winning in Maastricht in 2025 and will try to become the first man to repeat the title since the creation of the World Championship in 2022. But the main threat will likely come from the Specialized cyclists.

Mads Würtz Schmidt, Keegan Swenson, and Matt Beers will compete for Denmark, the United States, and South Africa respectively, but all three are part of the Specialized Off-Road structure. This is a particularly relevant circumstance in a gravel World Championship, where national teams do not necessarily operate with the usual tactical discipline of road racing.

Würtz Schmidt arrives as European champion and Unbound Gravel winner, while Swenson has been one of the major references in American gravel for years. Beers also brings experience in endurance events and top-level off-road races.

The system of the World Championship itself favors these situations. Many riders qualify individually through the Gravel World Series, some even pay their own expenses, and others receive direct support from their commercial teams. Therefore, although everyone competes in their country's jersey, the interests of professional structures can still weigh during the race.

If the three Specialized riders collaborate at certain moments, Vermeersch could find himself facing a block that is very difficult to control.

Additionally, there is a list of specialists capable of taking advantage of any movement: Petr Vakoč, Lukas Pöstlberger, Daan Soete, Andreas Stokbro, Paul Voss, Freddy Ovett, Henrique Avancini, or Martin Stožek have enough arguments to enter the fight if the race breaks apart early.

A World Championship that could change the hierarchy between road and gravel

Since the UCI created the Gravel World Championship in 2022, the titles have almost always been in the hands of riders from other disciplines.

In that first edition, Pauline Ferrand-Prévot and Gianni Vermeersch won. A year later, it was Kasia Niewiadoma and Matej Mohorič; in 2024, Marianne Vos and Mathieu van der Poel triumphed, and in 2025, the rainbows went to Lorena Wiebes and Florian Vermeersch.

Nannup possibly offers the best opportunity yet to break that trend. Previous editions resembled a road classic partially held on tracks. In Australia, there will be more gravel, more elevation, fewer road riders, and several of the best specialists in this discipline specifically prepared for the race.