2025 Gravel Worlds, Nice. The ultimate qualification thread

I agree it’s odd. My understanding is that if you win the gravel national championship in your category , you may race gravel worlds. The qualifier races ( which US nationals is not )only require a top 25% finish in category.

Qualifying for worlds trough national championships only applies for Elite. Age groupers only way is the world series.

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Thanks. And just to clarify, its a top 25% finish in a single race, or the entire series?

Any single race.

I only did Gravel Grit n Grind in Halmstad Sweden and qualified through that.

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Calendar updated: Calendar 2025 - UCI Gravel World Series

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Yeah, I heard on the Fun-Bound podcast this AM that the Mammoth Tuff was going to be a UCI qualifier for the US…

Still pretty disappointing for US riders. Either an early-season race (that is not in a very accessible location for many athletes) or a very late season race at altitude.

So much for 3 or 4 races for the US. :man_shrugging:t2:

Pretty bummed there’s only one qualifier for Canada (P2A), and its early in the season.

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The UCI is definitely very EU-focused. The US arguably has a bigger gravel scene than the EU, so only 2 races doesn’t make sense. The same could be said for South America (only 1 race) or Asia (no qualifiers) but the cycling and gravel scene is much smaller there (as far as I know)

As a Belgian, I can’t really complain about this calendar. I have 6 events within a 3.5h drive from home (2 Belgium, 2 Netherlands, 1 Luxembourg and 1 Germany) and many more if I want to drive a couple more hours and stay a weekend at the race.

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I’m a brit but for sure there should be 3 qualifiers in the US, the demand is clearly there for it.

It is expected that they’ll move the dates for the Worlds, currently clashes with the UCI Gran Fondo worlds on the same weekend. UCI gonna UCI.

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No kidding, the snow will barely have gone for some of us, lol.

Has the inclusion of Mammoth Tuff as a World’s qualifier been confirmed?

Yes…it is listed on the calendar above and Amanda Naumann confirmed it on the Funbound podcast before the schedule was released.**

Yes, the calendar now shows the Nice event as “TBC”. Don’t book those flights yet.

Hm I may give it a try with The suisse qualifier as it isn’t that far away… Not that I have a chance at qualifying but could be a nice course.

138.6km and 3376m vertical is going to be savage.

It suits me quite well as I like to climb, but with so much descending, does that open up the possibility of more crashes?

And of course, I have to qualify first! :smiley:

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It depends how they break the field up. Going by Belgium this year, I’m hoping they do it over 2 days, otherwise the descents could be carnage. Nice is also notoriously bad at policing road closures (see every Nice ironman).

Qualification really depends on the depth of the AG fields… ideally you want races that attract weaker/more casual riders. No idea where those places are!

My local qualifier is Gravel Grit 'n Grind here in Sweden. It seems to be quite a high standard and the slowest qualifier in my age group (40-44) averaged 33.3kph on what is a rolling course. I know the guy too and he’s really strong.

I am very tempted to get myself back to the UK for either the Welsh or the Scottish qualifiers. The UK has a lot of very enthusiastic, but not so quick riders. So when I looked at the Gralloch, the qualifying speed was 6kph lower than Sweden. Yes, there is more climbing, but that’s my strength anyway and it’s not 6kph more climbing.

Hard to say though.

Totally agree about the descents at Nice. I’m very happy to climb, but 3400m worth of descending isn’t my idea of fun.

The Gralloch is pretty tough and it has some very slow not-gravel sections. It does have a reasonable number of average riders though. Wales is definitely a good shout, but it’s leaving it quite late…

Thanks for the info there :smiley:

I think I’d only consider Wales if I didn’t do The Gralloch and I didn’t qualify in Sweden. I feel fairly confident though, at least I will do if I learn to corner better!