Olympic Mountain Bike Champion Tom Pidcock recently confirmed that he will be mixing up his road race-dominated schedule at the end of this year with a crack at the UCI Gravel World Championships, which take place in Southern Limburg, Netherlands, over the weekend of 11th-12th October.

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Following his second consecutive Olympic XCO gold medal in Paris last year, it was widely announced that he was putting the brakes on his off-road racing for the foreseeable future. Having also taken the much-prized Alpe d’Huez mountain stage in the Tour de France back in 2022, and with a string of other top-draw road victories added to his tab, it was of no surprise that the multi-talented British ace would choose to focus on the biggest prize and discipline in pro cycling – that being road racing and the Tour de France. However, he did somewhat defy that with a 3rd place ride in the XCO World Champs last year in Andorra, and his Gravel Worlds debut signals never say never to re-evaluating plans. 

Tom Pidcock tail whips over gap jump at Les Gets, 2022 UCI MTB World Championships, by Red Bull Content Pool

The Yorkshire star of tar and trail, Pidcock, announced his intent to ride the gravel title race a few weeks back, although in cycling terms, October is a lifetime away, and a whole lot can change in that time. As we’ve seen many times in the past nothing is written until it’s on the start sheet in the hand of the riders themselves.

Having switched teams and ethos from the British INEOS Grenadiers squad to the smaller Swiss-registered Q36.5 team this year, Pidcock decided early on that he would take the long road to the Tour, as in aiming first at a good overall GC performance in the Giro d’Italia this year rather than the Tour. Unfortunately, that didn’t work out so well for him, plus his team was also not rostered to the Tour this year.

In an après Giro re-assessment, he announced that Vuelta a España (23/8-14/9) would be his next grand tour, mostly as a build-up towards the UCI Road Race World Championships in Kigali, Rwanda, on 28th September. This will be followed by the late-season Italian single-day road classics, and then the gravel title bout, although we’re not sure if that will include an attempt at the biggest of those classics, the Tour of Lombardy, which is the day before the gravel worlds.

Tom Pidcock performs at UCI XCO Tom Pidcock World Cup in Nove Mesto na Morave, Czech Republic on May 14, 2023, by Suvi Loponen

Should he take the start in Limburg, we would anticipate that he will be one of a handful of prime favourites for the men’s race. It’s way too soon to assess who will take part in either the men’s or women’s elite races, though given the star-studded fields of last year, the end of season scheduling, the course, and the region’s cycling importance, we would guess that this year the field will have more depth is numbers of top road pros battling it out.

Browsing the results of the UCI Gravel World Series so far this year, it’s clear to see an ever-growing prominence of top pro road riders topping the results. This is partly to ensure they qualify for the World Champs, but also as recognition of the growing profile of gravel racing, and of course, of its importance to sponsors, especially those within the bike industry.

This “trend” also goes to show something of a change of attitude within pro road cycling, where mixing in any form of off-road riding and racing was deemed as heretical and risky. These days, thankfully, it’s more widely accepted that it is indeed possible to add a little dirt and fun to the mix, although it also has to be acknowledged that for some riders, and with certain focusses – particularly with grand tours, it’s still somewhat stretching the elastic to vary the pure focus required.

Even so, venturing beyond the official UCI badged and uniformed series is still rare amongst elite road pros, although the odd few have taken on Unbound and other gravel races, and we would expect to see that number increase marginally in the near future.

The Tour de gravel?

Over the weekend we also saw the current UCI Gravel World Champion, Mathieu van der Poel, take a stage win and the yellow jersey in the Tour de France. Despite being one of the very best road pros in the game, the Dutchman has nailed his 2025 season largely around a personal goal – that of adding the MTB XCO World Championships title to is long and varied list of victories, and although it’s a slightly long shot, few would bet against him pulling off, and then also tackling the gravel title on home turf.

Mathieu van der Poel, by off-road.cc

Van der Poel is by no means the only mountain bike/gravel racer to top the Tour charts in recent – or more distant times. Looking way back, it was mountain bike World Cup winner turned road racer Cadel Evans who became the first prominent off-roader to win the Tour in 2011, in an era when it was highly unusual and not so acceptable to mix it up. Now there are a whole bunch of riders at the Tour with either mountain biking heritage, or who unsuccessfully mix it up and win on and off-road, including the current women’s Tour de France Champion Kasia Niewiadoma, who also won the Gravel World title in 2023. It would probably be fair to assess that there’s even more of a crossover of disciplines in the women’s pro peloton when compared to the men's.

Are the lines between gravel and road racing blurring? We would say that to a degree, in certain areas yes, which some purists have an aversion to, and which others relish. Even the mighty Tour de France itself started out as what might now be framed as a gravel road heavy multi-day ultra-marathon, with riders being self-sufficient, riding steel roadster bikes, insanely long stages, and largely on gravel roads, simply because that’s all there was back then. 

Mathieu Van Der Poel performs at UCI XCO in Albstadt, Germany on May 9, 2021, by Redbull

In recent times, we’ve also seen a growing number of gravel sectors on certain stages of the major grand tours, and epic single-day races with gravel sectors have also grown in prominence. Why? Likely because the fans love to watch them, and there is no doubt that they have livened up the sometimes flatter, boring stages and races, turning them into an epic spectacle, which keeps those all-important eyes on screens, and also boosts the profile of the sport overall. 

I guess, this also adds a sublime sense of epic and adventure to cycling by adding a little grit and jeopardy to races, and I can only see this becoming more so in the future – which, again, may not be to everyone’s taste.

When it comes to gravel racing, there is no question – the lines between what many considered to be true original gravel racing and the elite version we now have are ever blurring. There is a sense of inevitability about this, as that’s what happens when sport gets serious and the stakes rise, and there’s no side-stepping that. 

Thus far, it seems that there is still room within the competitive side of gravel racing for the sport to evolve in various ways. Hopefully this diversity within the discipline, and keeping the mix laced will allow it to thrive, and will not be quashed by rules, regs, and uniformity in the future – “race against the machine?”

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