Am I reading this wrong? US Gravel Nat’s won’t qualify you for Gravel Worlds?
For age groupers, that is correct. Only 2 US races are qualifiers.
UK gravel nats also didn’t/doesn’t quality you for gravel worlds. They’re not really linked in any way.
That seems dumb
You were expecting something different from USAC/UCI? 
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Fair point! USAC Gravel Nats is in my back yard and I was hoping to use that as a potential excuse for a European vacation 
Where are those stats from? the expected course in Nice? Or are you talking about one of the qualifiers?
Now that all the qualifiers are known. What are everyone’s target races?
I’ve made my 2025 training plan. I’ll try to qualify at Turnhout Gravel (last year’s Belgian National Championships venue) and at 3Rides Aachen (GER). I won’t be able to attend Gravel Fondo Limburg unfortunately. I might do Gravel One Fifty (NED) or Legacy Gravel (BEL) if I fail to qualify at the first races.
What W/kg would be required to qualify in the 19-34 group? I’m at 4W/kg right now, but I’m not sure if that’s going to be enough. Anyone who qualified last year that can share some data?
I’m targeting the Gralloch and will desperately add races as I need to if I don’t qualify there. I’m aiming to be around 4.2w/kg (turn 40 in December next year, so will be a very young 40-45) but there are so many variables at play it’s a poor indicator of your chances.
It’s from the first post in this thread. I am not sure if it’s confirmed yet though.
Very hard to say, I’d suggest.
There is so much more in play than just watts. Racecraft being the main one.
In my age category (40-44) I doubt there will be many more people with more watts than me, just on account of my height and weight (203cm, 102kg, 435w FTP currently, but maybe 450-460w by this time next year). But my watts per kilo is still pretty unremarkable, and my bike handling needs a lot of work. It’s not even like I can drop people on the flat because I offer such an epic slipstream! 
But ultimately, it’s about the experience and doing your best. If I can crank out some pb numbers and have a good time, I’ll be happy. The results are not important to me.
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I’m planning to focus more on mountain races - Austria, Poland, Switzerland. However, I’d also love to go to Denmark, as I’ve never been there, and I enjoy combining cycling with tourism 
This year, I qualified at my home race in Jakuszyce (Poland) with an FTP of around 275 (67 kg), competing in the M45 age category. Apart from power on the climbs, the race also required good technique during very fast mountain descents on rocky terrain, minimizing the risk of crashes, and conserving energy while riding in a group. Proper planning of nutrition and hydration was also crucial.
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out of interest how easily did you qualify versus the cutoff point?
I was 9th in cat. - the last available spot
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I wonder how much the size of the field helps or hurts your chances to qualify.
With the cuttoff being 25% of starters in your category, you could say the size of the field doesn’t matter since it’s a relative criterium to qualify.
The 19-34 category will always be way bigger than any of the other age groups (5 year brackets) and I do think this helps the chances to qualify, since there will also be way more people “just participating” instead of “trying to race/qualify”.
Thoughts?
Yeah, ofcourse going to the races and having fun is the main goal!
But it’s also nice to have a big goal, and it would be very cool to participate in Nice. I guess I got some FOMO from watching the race in Leuven and not participating myself 
Not necessarily the case. At the Gralloch this year there were 179 riders in 19-34M, 242 in 50-54M, 171 in 45-49M. Big destination events like gravel races with relatively high costs (entries, travel, accommodation) tend to attract older more affluent riders. Longer, less explosive and safer racing also suits the older demographic vs, say, turning up to a crit race which is cheap, usually local, but can be fairly high risk and requires a lot of anaerobic efforts to do well.
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Unfortunately in Belgium and the Netherlands, that’s not really the case. Elite 2 or 3 riders (as they’re called in Belgium) don’t have to register to ride with the elites, so a lot of them just ride the 19-34 AG to qualify for worlds more easily. I’m over 5W/kg FTP with reasonably good 2-3’ power, my forte is more medium duration power, at 66kg and I have to work a lot harder to qualify in gravel races then most road gran fondos.
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And at the US qualifier this year, Highlands Gravel Classic, the only age group with more racers than 60-64 was 50-54…https://my.raceresult.com/286410/results
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The participation numbers in this event really shocked me. Are the UCI events really that unpopular outside of the EU?
For reference, I looked up some events in Germany, Netherlands and UK for reference:
(I only looked at the events where the results page let me easily determine participation numbers per age group. At Houffa Gravel and Gravel Fondo Limburg, the results page wouldn’t let me filter by age group)
PS: sorry for only checking the male age groups and not the females