It is a sight to behold – lots of of small lights dancing their manner up and over the primary of many small hills alongside the 150 miles that make up the official unofficial Gravel Worlds. Daybreak has but to hit the rolling hills of Nebraska, however the race for the off-beat rainbow jersey and steel sword that awaits the winners of one in every of America’s oldest gravel races is nicely on its manner.
Whereas the UCI has muddled the waters not too long ago with the creation of its personal sanctioned Gravel World Championship because the style of biking has grown, Gravel Worlds in Nebraska has been going sturdy for nicely over a decade, bringing the mid-western spirit and a particular model of struggling to the gravel roads and punchy climbs round Lincoln. (Dwelling additionally to the USA Biking Nationwide Gravel Championships.)
It would now not be essentially the most recognized gravel world championship anymore, however the occasion has doubled down with its identify, going so far as trademarking the identify earlier than the UCI might swoop in and undertake it. Within the nicest manner potential, Gravel Worlds’ defiance to vary its branding asks an enormous query: who’s the UCI to say what the actual Gravel Worlds is?
What are the American Gravel Worlds?
(Picture credit score: Logan Jones-Wilkins)
Gravel Worlds started in 2008 because the Goodlife Gravel Journey by Corey Godfrey earlier than it became Gravel Worlds in 2010 as gravel started to realize traction within the American Midwest. From there, the race grew in proportion with the remainder of the game of gravel biking. Gravel Worlds, Midsouth Gravel (previously Land Run 100), Barry Roubaix, and Unbound (previously Soiled Kanza) fashioned the spine of gravel racing within the heartland, whereas occasions like BWR California, Vermont Overland, and Misplaced and Discovered gravel helped spark pleasure for the game alongside the coasts.
After which gravel biking exploded.
Races grew large, and new occasions popped up throughout the nation. The little area of interest of biking that Gravel Worlds had light-heartedly poked enjoyable at with its tongue-in-cheek identify abruptly had the legacy and competitors to be one thing extra. It was a chance to turn into a extra critical model of its earlier less-than-serious self.
Now, with the notoriety of the UCI Gravel World Championship encroaching upon Gravel Worlds’ standing, the latter is upping its recreation with extra prize cash, an enormous charity initiative, a brand new venue, and dwell protection from begin to end.
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One of many greatest examples of how Gravel Worlds has advanced in 2024 is within the professional races. Gravel Worlds has reconfigured its professional fields into two separate begins for the women and men. The professionals will nonetheless have their pre-sunrise 5:55 a.m. begin, however now the boys will set off first earlier than the ladies start ten minutes later. The 2 fields might be racing for $15,000 in prize cash cut up amongst the highest 5 of the professional races.
Furthermore, the Gravel Worlds group is matching the prize purse, pledging a $200 charitable donation for every of the professional racers who attends to a U.S.-based 501 c3 nonprofit of the rider’s selecting. The rider may even have the identify of the charity on their quantity plate.
Professional discipline remedy apart, the race continues to be very a lot in regards to the hundreds of riders who will make the trek to the corn fields of japanese Nebraska and the proverbial “gravel seas” that head in each path in rolling hills that appear to be waves heading out over the horizon.
The course
(Picture credit score: Route as proven on Experience with GPS)
After over a decade of staging from the northwest nook of Lincoln, Gravel Worlds has outgrown its previous stomping grounds and is shifting to the northeast finish of Lincoln to the Sandhill International Occasion Middle for a much bigger dwelling.
However irrespective of which nook the race begins from, gravel racing round Lincoln will all the time embody one factor: hills.
As a substitute of the mountains of Colorado, Gravel Worlds is a ‘loss of life by 1,000 cuts’ as curler after dusty curler awaits the peloton all through the programs. The Lengthy Voyage, the weekend’s 300-mile extremely possibility, does make its method to flatter floor, however the different distances all keep nicely inside the hill zone of the Lincoln space. Whereas rollers don’t appear a lot, in years previous the climbing at Gravel World’s 150-mile race has surpassed the 13,000 ft of elevation gained mark, that means it has extra climbing than Unbound’s 200-miles or SBT GRVL’s 140-mile course of earlier years.
This yr, the stats are down barely at 10,500 ft for the 152 miles of the primary occasion, however that ought to nonetheless be sufficient to cook dinner the legs of any riders, because the mushy, pebbly gravel all the time makes the uphill going sluggish.
Nevertheless, the warmth could be tougher this yr, because the temperatures in Lincoln are set to be scorching and windy. The highs for Saturday at present sit at 92 levels, with 13 mph winds from the south anticipated all day. In Nebraska, the place the summer season local weather is scorching and humid, that’s not uncommon, however it would nonetheless shock the system for a lot of. The situations are conducive for quick racing, which might be a reduction for the riders who raced final yr, the place a pre-race deluge slowed the speeds manner down, including hours to many riders ending instances.
Technically talking, the Gravel Worlds course is maybe the l; least demanding of all the large races in North America. The downhills are, for essentially the most half, easy and straight. The gravel isn’t that giant or sharp, and technical decisions might be made round rolling resistance and aerodynamic considerations. It is going to be attention-grabbing to see how broad the tyres go, as Gravel Worlds has usually been a course the place prime riders have survived nicely on tyres 40mm or much less.
The contenders
(Picture credit score: USA Biking)
The elevated standing of the professional discipline, to not point out the prize purse, has introduced a group of proficient execs that rivals any non-Life Time Grand Prix discipline this yr with established gravel names in each the boys’s and girls’s fields.
For the ladies, Lauren Stephens is the girl to beat. She gained final yr and is coming contemporary off a win at SBT GRVL final weekend. She would be the large favorite, however the girls’s discipline continues to be deep, with potential spoilers Whitney Allison, Emily Newsom, Kyleigh Spearing, and Emma Grant.
Within the males’s race, John Borstelmann is one thing of a Gravel Worlds specialist. Not solely is he the defending champion and three-time winner, however Borstelmann additionally calls Lincoln, Nebraska, dwelling. However, he has by no means had a begin listing like this to deal with as sturdy riders like Russell Finsterwald, Micheal Garrison, Simen Nordahl Svendsen, and Tobias Mørch Kongstad make their debut in Nebraska.
The race might be professionally streamed dwell in its entirety, a novel endeavor by a gravel race made potential by 5G protection across the complete course because it circumnavigates a big midwestern metropolis. You’ll find the stream right here on the race’s web site with protection starting at 5:55 a.m. Central Time, on Saturday, August twenty fourth.
