The fifth edition of Houffa Gravel, the 4th as competitive UCI event taking place tomorrow can present a new course as the race has been redesigned to fit better for next year’s European Championships on the same course.
Riders now tackle a 47km course totalling 141km after three laps with 2320m of elevation. The older categories finish after two laps or 1540m of climbing.
The start remains on the Côte du Saint Roch. The rest of the course has new paths, but remains challenging, especially with the extra distance. Downhills are less technical and paths are in general wider with three passings over the finish line.
At the start, we see topstar Connor Swift (GBR), the leader in the ranking Mathijs Loman (NED), Jordan Habets (NED), recently winner in the Netherlands and Sweden and Mads Würtz Schmid (DEN), winner of three legs earlier in the season. Also Matthew Holmes (GBR), Alexander Miller (NAM) and Lukas Malezsewski (BEL) have a UCI Gravel World Series victory this year. Greg Van Avermaet has nothing to prove but can he still put his foot next to the young talents at the age of 40?
The female race will be a hard battle between the best ladies of this season with ranking leader Wendy Oosterwoud (NED), Nicole Frain (AUS), Tessa Neefjes (NED), Annabel Fisher (GBR) and Annika Langvad (DEN). Let’s see what cross-star Annemarie Worst (NED) can put up against the specialists.
