Seven new events join the TREK UCI Gravel World Series for its third edition, with a total of 25 events – including the UCI Gravel World Championships – comprising the 2024 calendar.
Gravel is booming, and its popularity was demonstrated at the 2023 UCI Gravel World Championships in Veneto, Italy, last October when hundreds of age-group riders competed on the same course as the Elite.
The battle for qualification spots for the discipline’s 2024 UCI World Championships has already begun, with two events raced last month: the UEC European Championships in Oud-Heverlee, Belgium, which featured sections that will be included in the 2024 UCI Worlds, taking place in Halle-Leuven. Four weeks later, Gravelista, was raced on the other side of the world, in Beechworth, Australia.
Austria will host the first new event on the calendar in early April 2024, in the southern city of Velden am Wörthersee where reigning M40 UCI Gravel World Champion and former pro rider, Dutchman Johnny Hoogerland, will host a race on his post-retirement training routes in the Wörthersee Gravel.
Giro Sardegna Gravel is a new event as part of the Giro della Sardegna week of cycling on the Italian island in the last week of April. The course is designed in the beautiful area surrounding Orosei.
The UCI is also happy to announce a new African event in the series: Safari Gravel Race in Naivasha, Kenya, will welcome riders mid-June.
The southern city of Singen in Germany hosted the UCI Mountain Bike Marathon World Championships in 2017 and will now add the Hegau Gravel festival to their rich history of off-road cycling events on the last weekend of June.
Switzerland will also have a new UCI Gravel race. Gravel Suisse will be combined on the same weekend with the Gran Fondo Suisse early July in Villars-sur-Ollon on the doorstep of the UCI headquarters with quite some climbing.
On the same day, there will also be a second UK event in Wales, in the city of Ruthin, on a course designed in the Clocaenog Forest in Llyn Brenig under the name “Brwydr y Graean”, Welsh for “battle on the gravel”.
Sea Otter Europe in Girona on the Spanish-French border will be the last option to qualify on 21 September. The race is part of a big bike festival weekend with expo and different cycling disciplines.
Sixteen events were already part of the series in 2023, with many attracting more than 1000 riders.
The 2024 UCI Gravel World Championships will be held on the weekend of 5-6 October with the start in Halle and the finish in Leuven, host town of the 2021 UCI Road World Championships. The course is designed in the Forests of Brabant, recently awarded as national park with a mix of forest and farming roads, cobbles and asphalt. Climbs are never very long nor steep, but the elevation starts to count at the end of the race.
The 2024 season also announces some new regulations with a minimum lap distance of 40km for local lap races and an Elite category that will also be introduced for the qualifier events. Riders now must choose prior to the race if they want to qualify for the Elite category or their respective age category.
