The UCI announces Gravel World Championship for 2022 and an independent classification for Short Track

During the Road Cycling World Championships being held this week in Flanders, the UCI has announced that in 2022 there will be a Gravel Series and a World Championship. This is the definitive boost that this very fashionable discipline needed.

It has also confirmed that Short Track will have a separate ranking in the XCO World Cup and that we could see an MTB World Cup on snow next year.

In 2022 there will be a UCI Gravel World Championships

At the moment it is known that the UCI has partnered with Belgian organiser Golazo to host the first Gravel Series in 2022, which will serve as a qualifier for the UCI Gravel World Championships, which will also be held next season.

No further details have been released on the events but all indications are that the World Championship will be held in the USA.

The Short Track will have an independent ranking in the MTB World Cup

Along with this announcement it has also been confirmed that the MTB World Cup Short Track will have its own classification and the door has been left open to create a Snow Bike World Cup and World Championship, which would be held in winter and on snow, obviously.

This is how UCI President David Lappartient explained it: "Cycling continues to innovate, this time in off-road with the creation of a very interesting new ranking for mountain bike cross-country short track, the recognition of gravel – an additional and rapidly expanding discipline – the launch of a new team format in cyclo-cross and the exploration of new avenues for the development of snow bike."

In the last 4 years we have seen how the UCI has not wasted time and very quickly has been able to adopt new disciplines such as e-MTB or virtual cycling, which already have their own World Championships. So with the news of the new Gravel Championships we can say that the International Cycling Union continues its policy of expansion that is giving it such good results.