The new UCI Gravel World Series will have its fourth event this weekend in Swieradow-Zdroj in the southwest of Poland on the borders of the Czech Republic and Germany with a recently updated 98km course qualifying for all men under 60 and women under 50 while a shorter 65km course is the qualifier for all men over 60 and women over 50.
The race center with start and finish will be located in the Ski and Sun Sports Centre of Swieradow-Zdroj, a ski resort in the Polish mountains. From there, riders get a challenging 98km course with a total elevation of 1950m with especially a difficult first part right after the start to reach the highest point after 7km. Most of the course is on wide open gravel roads with some minor technical sections in the Jizera Mountains.
The last 8km towards the finish are mainly in downhill where riders get some technical parts.
Riders from 11 different countries have signed up amongst which Adam Blazevic and Nathan Haas, winner and runner up of the Australian leg in Nannup early May and Piotr Havik, second in Millau in France two weeks ago. In the female categories, Dutch Tessa Neefjes, the winner from Millau is one of the favourites.
