Australia Bids Farewell to World Championships, Reaps New Harvest

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Australia Bids Farewell to World Championships, Reaps New Harvest

The exact location of the 2022 UCI Gravel World Championships, which will be held for the first time, remained a mystery even in the early stages of World Series qualifying. At the Road World Championships in Wollongong, the calendar of events through 2027 was announced.

The UCI Gravel World Championships will be held in Italy for the next two years, but will be held in Flanders Brabant, Belgium in 2024, Nice, France in 2025, and Nanap, Australia in 2026.

The 2026 Western Australian event will not only be the first UCI Gravel World Championships outside Europe, but will also bring world-class cycling to a new corner of Australia, as the recent Road World Championships in Wollongong were held over 3000 km away It will be.

"All SEVEN teams are excited and proud to announce that the 2026 Gravel World Championships will be held in Nanup, Western Australia," Stephen Gallagher, race director for SEVEN in Nanup, told Cycling News. ... [The world's best male and female riders will take on this epic course.

The race, which will be the second race of the World Series season opener in 2022, is one of the largest and longest-running of the world's 11 events; it has been announced that it will host the World Championships in 2026 and will also compete in the World Series. Organizers announced that they expect more than 1,500 riders to participate in 2023, and more than 4,000 riders in 2026.

"The announcement of the World Championships is a boost to the gravel scene here in Australia and we want to be part of the growth of this great discipline within Australia and see our sport grow in different regions," Gallagher said. Being part of the gravel "family" here in Australia is very important to us.

"We can't wait to plan a celebration of all things cycling for the World Championships and introduce new and innovative courses and projects for 2026.

In 2022, the men's elite race, a 125-km, uphill-heavy course, will be a battle between nationally based multi-discipline riders Adam Blazevich and Nathan Haas, with Blazevich coming out on top. In the women's race, Maria Madigan took her first World Series win, her third, and again it was a dominant performance. The first UCI Gravel World Championships will be held on October 8 and 9 in Veneto, Italy. The women's race will start in Vicenza on Saturday on a 140km course with an elevation gain of 700m, while the men's race will be held on Sunday on a 190km course with an elevation gain of 800m. The route passes through Padua and consists of Italian white gravel and cobblestones for about three-quarters of the way until reaching the Citadel.

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