I tuned in with 50km to go and saw no part of this, thank you! I would pay to watch/race this madness any day of the week!
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Might be me… but the “spirit of gravel” was killed off a while ago thanks to $200-$300 entry fees… not pros racing a world championship. 
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I think the perfect balance would be either Girona or Scotland. A variety of tough gravel, champagne gravel and single track but easily accessible for the pros and majority of age groupers.
As an aside, seeing Vos beat Kopecky in a 2 up sprint makes Vollering’s attack that dropped her in the road worlds a few weeks look dafter than ever
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I feel all the US posters here are missing the wins:
- This more live television coverage than any other gravel events has ever had
- past & current road world champions were competing
- MVDP is such a massive star that there’s a big opportunity: Lifetime Grand Prix should pay him whatever he wants to compete in at least Unbound, and maybe Canyon would allow it to show off their bikes. Might even get some live coverage.
I’d agree the course had far too much tarmac - most of the European qualifying events for amateurs (The Gralloch) would make for far better racing, but probably painful logistically.
Also it’s obviously a poor choice to schedule it to clash with lifetime Grand Prix.
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They have very good gravel, but It’s remote and logistics are a pain in the butt.
The most interesting races in the US are the ones that you really want to take a MTB, but a gravel bike is faster.
Let me nominate the best “gravel” race in the US:
Ned Ultra
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Looks like a crazy monster course, would love to do something like this! Lodging looks to be pricey sadly, but comes with the territory and popularity I suppose.
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The course was probably realistic for most European “gravel”. As mentioned, you’re talking remote forest area’s to get a really high percentage of fire road. That’s not going to be viable for a Worlds course. Even the Gralloch that was mentioned is a whole weekend to make the amateur race viable!
There’s a lot of comments about Paris Tours (and potentially next years Worlds). My experience of riding in France is that a lot of these are more unpaved roads than what I’d consider gravel even in an Irish context. Even with my middling bike handling I have had no issue with rim brake road bike and tyres.
Unbound looks amazing to do, but personally I’d rather see the racers race rather than hike, or debate what stick is best to clear the peanut butter mud.
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Congratulations for qualifying and racing!
Thanks for posting. There’s helpful info at the ink.
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I did like GCN’s take on it, though after hearing my commented repeated 4:30 - 5:00 minutes, , and a good comment on tire width around the 7 min mark , I did wonder if they had been reading this forum
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“Oh, but where’s the gravel” say the people far removed from the race 
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I agree about some of the MTB worlds courses. I’ve always loved racing on a natural course ,and we have in past years had plenty in the UK. But that may change , just as the National series has become more technically challenging. I don’t have a problem with this , as usually there are A, B and C lines to choose from. A lot of my (older) friends have turned to Gravel because they feel safer.
No ,tho’ I love M V de P I found the gravel worlds a bit boring to watch. CX is much more entertaining!
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Sounds like the riders enjoyed it but TV failed to capture the fun and chaos.
I don’t agree there…as I noted above, I found the races very entertaining and I enjoyed watching them.
But that doesn’t mean I feel the courses were worthy of awarding rainbow jerseys over.
Both things can be true.
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It doesn’t matter if you raced in the lead pack or don’t even race or own a gravel bike commenting for across the world. It’s hard to consider it worthy of a UCI world gravel race if 50% of the race isn’t gravel. That statement doesn’t take away from its value of participation, entertainment watching it, or difficulty of the course. It’s simply a fact. Very few are arguing that it wasn’t a challenging and demanding course. It just wasn’t a gravel race.
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It wasn’t perfect, I want my money back.
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Absolutely disagree here, but that’s ok because a gravel race has no definition. I don’t think a race requiring 50+mm tires to do well in is a gravel race, but that’s ok 
I’ll also quote: “For all the critics sitting behind computers commenting on the course, trust me this was a real gravel race”
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Lots of gatekeeping in this thread. Kind of surprised for this forum to be honest. Not sure if people really think the US has the only “real” gravel, or just being petty about the WC being in Europe, but a lot of comments just come off as whiny and immature, maybe a little selfish. Get over yourself; doesn’t sound very spirit of gravel of us. I thought it was an enjoyable race to watch. And the people who actually raced it seemed to really enjoy themselves. Sad to read all the snobby comments about what “real” gravel is from the Monday morning quarterbacks.
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