Summary
- Fifth edition, 10 and 11 October 2026, Nannup, Western Australia. The first Gravel Worlds outside Europe after Italy, Belgium and the Netherlands.
- Elite women race 123.1 km with 3,100 m of climbing on the Saturday. Elite men race 140.7 km with 3,625 m on the Sunday. Organisers promise a minimum of 80% gravel, the highest share so far.
- Defending champions are Florian Vermeersch (Belgium) and Lorena Wiebes (Netherlands). Vermeersch has confirmed. Wiebes had not been named in the reports we read by 21 September.
- The Australian date favours gravel specialists: Matt Beers, Keegan Swenson, Mads Würtz Schmidt, Sofia Gomez Villafañe and Marianne Vos are on the confirmed lists.
- Vermeersch won the 2025 title on a Colnago G4-X with 40 mm tyres. The 2027 gravel race bikes clear 57 to 58 mm. Nannup is the first Worlds where that gap could matter.
First Worlds outside Europe
The UCI Gravel World Championships started in 2022 in the Veneto, moved to Flemish Brabant in 2024 and to South Limburg in 2025. Nannup, a small town in the south of Western Australia, is a deliberate change of scale. The course is built on the SEVEN Gravel Race, a UCI Gravel World Series round since the series began.
Qualification is unchanged. Riders finishing in the top 25% of their age group at one of the 45 World Series events of 2026, across 32 countries, earn a start. National and continental champions and the defending world champions qualify automatically. Cyclingnews reports that federations can add up to ten elite wildcards and the host nation ten more.
The course: 140.7 km, 3,625 m and over 80% gravel
Race director Stephen Gallagher described the courses to Cyclingnews in April 2026. Every route starts with 9 km of tarmac, then a flat gravel section of similar length. Then the climbing begins and does not really stop.
| Category | Distance | Elevation | Race day |
|---|---|---|---|
| Elite men, men 19 to 49 | 140.7 km | 3,625 m | Sunday 11 October |
| Elite women, women 19 to 49, men 50 to 64 | 123.1 km | 3,100 m | Saturday 10 October |
| Women 50+, men 65+ | 89 km | 2,000 m | Saturday 10 October |
Source: UCI Gravel World Series, 15 April 2026.
The climbs are 1 to 3 km long at 5 to 8%, according to Gallagher, with flatter sections offering 15 to 20 minutes of recovery between them. Named climbs from the SEVEN race return: Brockman, Ellis Creek and, for the men only, an extra loop over Arcadia. The finish is new. Instead of heading straight home, riders turn left onto a 27 km loop around the town with two more climbs before the paved run into Nannup.
The 2022 course in the Veneto was reported at only 18% gravel. Nannup inverts that. It is the first Worlds where bike choice is a genuine gravel question rather than a road bike with wider tyres.
Who is going and who is not
The date works against road professionals. The Road World Championships run in Montreal from 20 to 27 September, so a rider doing both faces a full day of travel and two weeks to adapt. Cyclingnews noted in August that the location and the terrain would discourage the last minute entries that produced Van der Poel's 2024 win from a wildcard.
The confirmed men's list, from Cyclingnews reports of 14 and 16 September, reads like a gravel specialists' race.
- Florian Vermeersch (Belgium, UAE Team Emirates-XRG), defending champion. He raced the GP de Québec and Montréal in support of Isaac del Toro before flying out.
- Matt Beers (South Africa), four Cape Epic wins, second at Unbound 2026, absent from the Worlds since 2022.
- Mads Würtz Schmidt (Denmark), European champion, winner of The Traka 360 and Unbound 200 in 2026.
- Keegan Swenson (USA), three Life Time Grand Prix titles, and Henrique Avancini (Brazil), former mountain bike marathon world champion.
- Daan Soete (Belgian champion), Felix Stehli (fifth in 2025), Petr Vakoč and Lukas Pöstlberger.
- Australians Mark O'Brien, Connor Sens, Tasman Nankervis and Freddy Ovett. Brendan Johnston, who won the SEVEN on this course in May, was undecided because of the Little Sugar MTB clash. Registration closes on 30 September.
On the women's side, the confirmed names include Marianne Vos (Netherlands, 2024 champion), Sofia Gomez Villafañe (Argentina) and Erica Magnaldi (Italy, 2025 European champion). Maddy Nutt (Great Britain), Carolin Schiff (Germany) and Ashleigh Moolman-Pasio (South Africa) join Australians Nicole Frain, Tiffany Cromwell, Holly Harris and Ella Bloor. Lorena Wiebes, who won the 2025 title in a sprint over Vos, was not named in the coverage we read. Neither was Van der Poel. Treat both as open questions until the startlist is published.
Four editions, four different winners
| Year | Host | Elite men | Elite women |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2022 | Veneto, Italy | Gianni Vermeersch (BEL) | Pauline Ferrand-Prévot (FRA) |
| 2023 | Veneto, Italy | Matej Mohorič (SLO) | Katarzyna Niewiadoma (POL) |
| 2024 | Flemish Brabant, Belgium | Mathieu van der Poel (NED) | Marianne Vos (NED) |
| 2025 | South Limburg, Netherlands | Florian Vermeersch (BEL) | Lorena Wiebes (NED) |
Source: Wikipedia, UCI Gravel World Championships.
No rider has won twice. Vermeersch took the 2025 title solo after attacking 120 km from the finish of a 180 km course with 1,650 m of climbing, per Cyclingnews. Wiebes won a Dutch sprint after Shirin van Anrooij was caught inside the last 500 m. Nannup has twice the climbing and none of the Limburg tarmac, so neither script transfers.
What a fast 140 km gravel race asks of a bike
Vermeersch won in 2025 on a Colnago G4-X with 40 mm Continental Terra Speed tyres on Enve SES 4.5 wheels, per brujulabike. The G4-X clears 45 mm. That setup was right for Limburg. Whether it is right for 140 km of Western Australian gravel is the technical question of this edition.
The 2027 generation of gravel race bikes has already answered for itself. The Ridley Kanzo Fast 2.0 clears 58 mm, the Factor Elara 57 mm in a 1x setup, and the new Canyon Grail 57 mm according to BikeRadar. All three are single chainring only. Ridley's wind tunnel figure is the useful one: at 36 km/h its 2.0 on 55 mm tyres costs 2 W more than the original on 38 mm, bike alone. That is a manufacturer claim, but it explains why racers now pay almost nothing in drag for a tyre that rolls faster on rough ground.
Three things the Nannup course rewards, in our reading of the route.
- Tyre volume. Over 110 km of gravel with descents between climbs favours 45 to 50 mm over the 40 mm that won in 2025.
- Gearing for repeated 5 to 8% climbs. A 1x13 setup covers the range, but the steps between gears are larger than on a 2x. On climbs this regular, riders who care about cadence may notice.
- Aero still counts. The 9 km paved start, the flat gravel sections and the run in to Nannup will be ridden in a bunch.
What it means for a buyer
If you race European gravel on hardpack and white roads, Nannup changes little. A 2024 to 2026 race bike with 42 to 45 mm clearance and a 2x drivetrain remains the quick choice, and the gravel category on Bikeroom has plenty of them. If your calendar includes rougher, longer courses, study the bikes racers will bring to Australia. The Ridley Kanzo collection lists both Kanzo Fast generations and the Factor collection has the Ostro Gravel next to the Elara.
Our explainer on the 2027 gravel race bikes goes through the 57 mm, 1x and aero pattern in detail. The Montreal time trial preview covers the Road Worlds that come first. We will update this article with results and pro bike details after the two race days.
If you are unsure whether the tyres you race on need a frame like these, or whether the bike you own already does the job, talk to our concierge.
Sources: Cyclingnews, route, 16 April 2026; UCI Gravel World Series, courses, 15 April 2026; UCI Gravel World Series, 45 events, 21 November 2025. Startlist: Cyclingnews, 27 August 2026; Cyclingnews, Vermeersch, 14 September 2026; Cyclingnews, Australian team, 16 September 2026. History: Cyclingnews, 2025 elite men; Cyclingnews, 2025 elite women; Wikipedia. Bikes: BikeRadar, 17 September 2026; brujulabike, October 2025. Cover photo: Calistemon, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
