Cycling News has learned that the first edition of the UCI Gravel World Championships will be held in Tuscany, Italy. The races will take place on the same gravel roads and strade Bianche as Gaiole in Chianti and Leroyca, a famous vintage bike race near Siena in central Italy.

The Gravel World Championships in Tuscany will most likely be held in mid-October, perhaps a week after the 25th edition of Leroyka and after the first round of the UCI Gravel World Series.

Details of the 14-event UCI Gravel World Series were revealed this week, and Cycling News understands that an official announcement of the series will be made soon, once final details are agreed with the UCI. outsourced to the Belgian event company Golazo.

The UCI Gravel World Series will be sponsored by Trek and is likely to start on April 3, 2022 in the Philippines, with the Jingle GX gravel race in Iowa on September 24 being the last event. Five UCI Gravel World Series events will be held in the U.S., including the Garmin Gravel Worlds in Nebraska, although no major events were named from the established gravel events in the first year of the UCI World Series.

The first Gravel World Championships was reportedly to be held in the U.S., but after a series of meetings, reviews, and offers, Tuscany was chosen, according to Cyclingnews. The event will be run on a sponsorship basis, with the UCI receiving a substantial entry fee from the organizers, as it does for other world championships.

Giancarlo Brocci, founder of L'Eroica, first offered to host the UCI Gravel World Championships in Tuscany in 2020 when he visited UCI headquarters in Aigle, Switzerland, to meet UCI President David Lapartient.

Brocchi refused to confirm to Cycling News whether Tuscany would host the UCI Gravel World Championships, but has always maintained that it would be an ideal location for such an event.

"There is no more ideal place than the Strade Bianche gravel road here in Tuscany.

"We have created something special with L'Eroica and events around the world. We have a proven track record in organizing events and I think we can put on some great world championships and events."

"We have a lot of experience in organizing events.

The Eroica series has now been held all over the world, copied many times, and has inspired a wider gravel movement: the Nova Eroica in late April will feature modern gravel bikes on many of the same Tuscan strade Bianche (white roads). The Strade Bianche pro race was founded after the success of the Leroyka, and riding the gravel roads of Tuscany has become a year-round attraction for many cyclists.

"Some call it gravel, but I prefer to call it eloico (heroic). Because for me it is a return to cycling's roots and core beliefs and a departure from the modern robotic sports that have developed. I don't want to look back. I want to help the sport move forward," Brocci told Cycling News.