Looking At Gravel Racing With A UCI Viewpoint

Image courtesy of UCI Gravel World Championships Series.

Over the past decade and a half I have spilled a lot of digital ink here concerning the UCI and gravel events. Maybe you'd rather listen to me rant about this instead? The new podcast episode "UCI vs US Gravel" is for you then. Okay with my digital ink? Here is some more of that then...

I was recently pointed to a podcast by 'shiggy', who I interviewed recently for the "Guitar Ted Podcast" (episode is HERE) . He asked me to take a listen to this podcast and so I did.

 It was an episode of the "Marginal Gains" podcast by SILCA. (HERE) The episode was an interview with Erwin Vervecken, who was a three-time cyclo-cross World Champion and is working with a company called Golazo. This is a Belgium based corporation that does event activations and owns its own portfolio of events. Via the discourse on the podcast, I was able to learn a few things and make some important notes. My comments follow...

It is important to note that the UCI does not put on its own events, it merely charges a fee to sanction an event and have it licensed by the UCI as an "official event". Golazo helps the UCI connect with promoters and other entities to facilitate the production of these Pro and amateur road and gravel events. 

Image courtesy of Gravel Worlds. (The USA based one!)

This is an important distinction to make from how events are done in the USA. In Europe, a promoter will typically lean on a government entity, such as a tourism department, for the monies to pay the UCI, afford infrastructure, fees, and the like, to put on a successful event. In the USA, this is either afforded through entry fees or by association with a company like Life Time Fitness, or as in the case with Gravel Worlds now, by its association with Goodlife Brands. Sometimes events in the USA are getting sponsorship dollars from cycling companies to help facilitate events. Sometimes there is a long list of various backers for an event combining cycling and local businesses. 

The main point here is that because the money has a specific origin, in general, and due to how events are "legitimized" in Europe, (guaranteed to be "professional", executed at a certain baseline/high level) the UCI has found it difficult to crack the US gravel scene. That's because here, in the USA, independence and creativity, especially in the gravel event sector, has birthed a varied palette of events, and each director, or company that owns/facilitates these events has a vested interest and exerts its own controls over their events. This independence and individualism has stymied the UCI, who work in a much more standardized, rigidly set way, from gaining any inroads with US based gravel events. 

Not that they haven't tried. According to Vervecken, the UCI and Golazo team have been in contact with several high-profile events here in the USA since 2019 in hopes to convince the leaders of these varied US gravel events to come under the umbrella of the UCI's Gravel World Series. Obviously that has not been a successful endeavor. Vervecken claims that there have been meetings with all the big gravel events you would know about such as SBT GRVL, the Belgium Waffle Ride, and Unbound/Life Time. 

This would explain the obvious omission of North American based events on the UCI's Gravel World Series calendar of events and why there has not been a Gravel World Championships, (UCI version) on US soil. Firstly, because the UCI does not put on its own events, and secondly because no event worthy of a "worlds" will work with the UCI.

While the UCI's presence in the US gravel scene is lacking, that may change in the future.

Vervecken hinted at the possibility now that there will be UCI Gravel World Series events coming to the USA. He hinted that there are promoters, connected to "up and coming" events, that would be willing to leverage the UCI's capabilities to bring a high-profile status to their event by associating with the UCI. Thus bypassing established large and prestigious gravel events currently entrenched in the US gravel calendar. 

That is a pretty big deal, and if the Vervecken/Golazo/UCI team can actually pull that off, the media and cycling industry will get sucked right into the draft of that move. Keep in mind that this would not necessarily need any "grassroots" help to get off the ground because it would be focused on the Pro racers, primarily. That and ....... Yeah, the biggest question mark here is where does the money come from? In Europe they would leverage a governmental entity, but that is not happening in the USA. Not any time soon. So, there are hurdles yet for the UCI, but they are definitely going to try to make something happen here in the USA, because the legitimacy and authenticity of a "gravel series" or "gravel world championship" is pretty much contingent on the UCI holding at least one, or perhaps more, events here. 

The women's sprint to the finish at the recent UNBOUND 200. (Image courtesy of Life Time)

The way that the UCI sees gravel events being done is perhaps one big stumbling block for US based promoters and certainly will be a big hurdle for fans to jump if the UCI holds true to its values. Those values seem to be driven by tradition and perhaps by media to an extent. 

Mr. Vervecken made a few interesting comments on the podcast I listened to which made me do a double-take. Especially in light of recent events at Unbound in the Pro women's field. That event saw high praises for its level of competition and the unprecedented 9-up sprint finish which was, arguably, the highlight of the event weekend. The separation of the Women's field was something Vervecken could get behind and seems to be where the UCI would go with a gravel event here, even to the point of having women race on a different day. However; that's where the similarities end.

Vervecken said that, for one thing, women are not expected to race the same distances as men because the women's event, in his words, would start out being "an endurance event" until getting closer to the finish. Not the tactical, sophisticated style of racing seen on the men's side in Europe. Vervecken claims a shorter women's course would make the event for women be more like the men's racing. 

Then further regarding overall distances for gravel events, expect the UCI to not go as long as many gravel events here are. Vervecken mentioned that he would rather see a 3 - 4 hour time limitation on the event length, (spoken as a media person, it would seem), which would be a pretty short distance given that the Pro men were averaging well above 20mph at the most recent Unbound 200. Based upon Vervecken's comments, it would seem that a 100K-ish event is what he is speaking to here, and then shorter for the women. 

Image courtesy of Unbound

Vervecken claimed on the podcast that he is in touch with 4 - 5 organizers in the USA and would eventually like to have an East coast event, (he mentioned New York), a more centrally located event, and one in California. His goal was to end up with events that draw three to four thousand participants in the USA. Vervecken promised that these events would have a much more professional look and feel. 

Of course, we've thought that the UCI was coming into gravel for years. This was evident when the UCI sent the cease and desist order to the Gravel Worlds event directors nearly ten years ago for their use of the rainbow stripes on their winner's jerseys. The activities behind the scenes has been percolating and increasing in intensity and consistency ever since. 

Now will we see the UCI finally crack the barriers to the US gravel scene? Will new events pop up to rival the Unbound, SBT GRVL, and Belgium Waffle rides? Are thousands of people going to flock to events to ride the same courses as the UCI Pro racers? It could happen. Of course, the money to do this has to be a huge obstacle, and the peccadilloes of Euro gravel/road racing must be forgiven by US racers if that is going to happen as well. 

Are these barriers insurmountable? No. But keeping in mind that history has shown us that the Euro road racing model has had a difficult past here in the USA, There have been many tries at having Euro-style events here only to have them fade away.  Gravel, in particular, has always been built upon a renegade, independent platform here in the USA which is not conducive to oversight by a sanctioning body. In fact, it is one of the reasons for the creation of gravel events here in the USA - To escape that sort of oversight. 

Time will tell, but one thing is for certain, we have not heard the last from the UCI in gravel events yet.