Just to clarify, I wasn’t talking about watching the races…I was referring to news and media outlets. Red Bull TV is essentially preaching to the converted.
There is very little broad-base coverage of MTB races generally.
It’s also a little ridiculous to name your event a World Championships when it really isn’t.
Ironman, NBA, NFL, MLB, it’s a very American thing I guess for another debate.
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It’s technically Gravel Worlds, not World Championships. You don’t get rainbow bands, you get a sword.
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I know, and I’ve got nothing against colloquially calling the local Wednesday hammer fest Wednesday World’s or whatever. It’s just a huge pet peeve, and it’s a small jump to calling the Gravel World’s winners “World Champions” on the podium.
Believe me, no one is mistaking it for an actual World Championships. It’s just a great event started as a grass routes, local challenge by the same guys still running the thing.
The point is had they not received the trade mark protection, I am sure the UCI would have been all over them - I wouldn’t be surprised if they still attempt to come after them.
I’m hopeful that a gravel event might actually have watchable live race coverage.
Hoping to see bonus seconds for mullets and penalty seconds for curly mustaches and whining about aero bars.
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Give this individual a job on the UCI gravel rule book committee.
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Except it will change things. Unless organizers start wave starting the UCI race portion (and then what is the right amount of time distance between UCI men, UCI women, “mass start”), how will having UCI and non-UCI work? And then what happens - theoretically - if a non-UCI male / group of men “caught” the UCI women, could the UCI women work with the non-UCI men?
There are plenty of other places to ride gravel other than Nebraska. And there are gravel races at many price points from free to expensive.
Oy. Forget penalty seconds, some of those are a first offense lifetime ban.
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I think the simple fix is as it is with other UCI championships:
Separate the men’s race and women’s on their own day (pro race)
Keep non-pro/non-UCI on separate day with all gender mass start (it’s current format minus elite riders).
This would fix the issues from a different thread as well when there was the controversy about male doms acting for elite women (which I agree is unfair that believe the only realistic solution is completely separate races for the genders - at least in the elite field).
This would fix the issues from a different thread as well when there was the controversy about male doms acting for elite women (which I agree is unfair that believe the only realistic solution is completely separate races for the genders - at least in the elite field).
I think this will have to happen, even though it kinda sucks. I don’t want to dig up the other thread, but I was at a major gravel event a few weeks ago and became aware of another one of these situations. I found out from my (male) training partner that he was on the wheel of a couple where a woman was being escorted by a particular man about 95% of the time. The woman ended up on the podium and took home some prizes and bragging rights. I didn’t personally witness the situation and can’t verify the man’s identity (as a teammate/husband/friend), but it just tickles me the wrong way. This event has a category for pairs of people to ride together and its own podium/prizes/placings, which I believe is intended to encourage people to ride their own race in the main event or use this category if they want to ride with their spouse/partner.
Personally, not super excited about the UCI having its own foray into gravel, especially if they try to hand down any changes to licensing rules.
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That’s it. I’m canceling my TR over this.
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The UCI will probably ruin a few big gravel events. Or I should say I would mint be surprised if they did. But there are tons of grassroots type gravel events who I highly doubt have any interest being UCI events.
Just keep the “Cat” Categories out of gravel/mix surface racing PLEASE! I won’t line up to one of these events unless Simon Burney himself is on the start line to pull back my tape.
I agree with those who compare it with UCI GF series and WC…they haven’t made it mandatory for all GF to be part of UCI, all other GFs are run independently. Instead the UCI have their own series and rules which I recall are quite light…I don’t think this is UCI taking over gravel
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While I agree with the overall sentiment of the people in this thread, there is another perspective to this: Gravel has been very much USA-centric, and while I cannot speak for the rest of Europe, in this particular corner of it where I happen to live, Gravel is not a thing. As far as I know, there is one single Gravel event here.
All this to say that, one possible upside of UCI creating their league is that it will bring Gravel to more countries. Let’s just hope they don’t ruin the spirit of it by adding rules to make it more competitive or serious.
Disclaimer: I’m a roadie and a racer, and I’m starting to get more curious about this Gravel thing for its less serious tone.
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Would that really work though? Would UCI being able to create the demand?
IMO the best part of gravel in the US is the demand came from the cyclists. Not some organization. There are still so many small US gravel events created by locals who just enjoy riding gravel and just want to share their routes in some fun race. I don’t see why that can’t happen in Europe. I know US does have massive amounts of gravel roads.
At least in the US there is room for grassroots gravel events and the big gravel events that have a more race like feel.
What if none of the races sign up to run a the race under uci?
Gravel is really fun, its also frustrating since promotors try to make every race more epic. In there epicness of charging $100-$300 for an event that I ride alone on free road with no corner marshals it has its short comings.
fat racer frustrated by lack of flat races
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