The SEVEN gravel race in Nannup isn’t any stranger to attempting one thing new, it was in spite of everything one of many early gravel occasions on the Australian scene when it began in 2018 and now the race is reaping the rewards of one other leap into the unknown.
Final yr when near 1000 riders lined as much as style the gravel gold of the small Western Australian city within the midst of an unlimited forest and a labyrinth of unpaved roads, few knew what the introduction of a UCI Gravel World Collection would imply – though judging by how fast the Western Australian occasion was to get on board they clearly had an inkling.
Now in 2023 the race is heading towards its largest subject ever, with the power of the Could 13 occasion being bolstered by the introduction of excessive profile members resembling Tiffany Cromwell (Canyon-SRAM) and Nicolas Roche. It could actually additionally boast a returning defending champion, Adam Blazevic, who’s now a daily among the many high rows of the outcomes tables at Gravel World Collection races.
The collection itself has additionally received greater, with seven new occasions, and as an alternative of being the second spherical because it was in 2022, Nannup is now the fifth of 16 races that can act as qualifiers for the 2023 UCI Gravel World Championships, and there’s additionally one other spherical late in October, which can open up the record of 2024 qualifiers.
The fields additionally appear to be rising throughout the collection and the variety of devoted gravel groups are on the rise, with the Alejandro Valverde lead Movistar a key instance.
“That is going to proceed to develop … and we really feel like we have been a part of that journey proper from the beginning,” SEVEN race director Stephen Gallagher advised Cyclingnews. “Being a part of that new foray into gravel with the UCI collection I hope that our progress continues together with the expansion of the collection.”
They appear to be heading in the right direction to just do that, as not solely has the occasion secured its place within the collection for the approaching years, however the information additionally got here late final yr that additionally it is locked in as the placement of the UCI Gravel World Championships in 2026. That in itself is anticipated to attract increasingly more riders because the rainbow jersey will get shut, however already the worldwide highlight is constructing depth, with riders from throughout the globe set to line up in Nannup on Saturday and already 4 occasions as many worldwide members on the beginning record.
Readying for a gravel gold rush
Even properly earlier than race day, the gravel roads round Nannup have been teaming with tons of of cyclists on the weekend, some coaching for SEVEN – or maybe the shorter FIVE and THREE – and different’s simply having fun with exploring the myriad of gravel decisions on supply.
“The profit that we now have is that Nannup and Western Australia is so remoted and we now have so many 1000’s of kilometres of pure gravel,” mentioned Gallagher.
“We’ve not even touched on you understand a fifth of what we may do. There’s so many choices on the market, it’s simply thoughts boggling so I believe there is a lure of that for the journey bike owner or journey vacationer.”
And naturally, the gravel racer. With SEVEN having readily available a large pallet it’s no shock that there have been a couple of tweaks to the route this yr. There additionally might be extra within the editions forward because the course is refined, for the good thing about spectators and riders alike, earlier than the World Championships in 2026.
“The ethos and the overall location of the course continues to be the identical, together with the enduring climbs, however we do have fairly refined adjustments coming into the end line,” mentioned Gallagher of the 2023 route.
”Now we have received two climbs from about 15 kilometres to 10 kilometres to go so I believe they’ll play an enormous half within the finale for the frontrunners.”
The route that emanates from and returns to Nannup, about 250km south of Perth, contains solely the smallest whiff of paved highway, only a handful of kilometres in a 125km race with 3,200m of vertical ascent.
Riders will principally encounter well-formed roads with a mixture of grime, gravel, hard-packed clay, quartz grit and mica because the race winds by means of the seven sectors that gave it its identify.
These sectors embody 12 categorised climbs. The ascents vary in size from 1.2km to 4.5km lengthy and gradients incessantly contact, and even exceed, 20%. In addition to the 2 climbs from ten to 15kms from the road, there’s a more difficult closing run in to Nannup – a reputation that stemmed from a phrase within the Noongar individuals’s language that means stopping place.
“There’s a little little bit of uphill coming in to the end, in by means of a wee little bit of gravel, in order that final 300/400m is certainly more durable than final yr,” mentioned Gallagher.
The contenders
The riders that might properly be battling for supremacy on that end line this yr embody Tiffany Cromwell, with the WorldTour rider who isn’t any stranger to a gravel diversion making Nannup her opening Gravel World Collection race of the season. Cromwell completed sixth within the UCI Gravel World Championships in Veneto, Italy final yr and can be robust to beat, significantly with the winner of the final three editions, Maria Madigan, not on the beginning line.
Within the males’s class it’s exhausting to go previous defending champion Adam Blazevic because the favorite, significantly given he has by no means executed something however stand on the highest step at an Australian spherical of a Gravel World Collection race as he additionally swept to victory in Beechworth final yr. It is the opening gravel race of the season for Blazevic, however this yr he will definitely be a marked rider not simply allowed the leeway he was given in 2022.
Tasman Nankervis, who has signed up for Lifetime Grand Prix collection this yr, is one Australian rider who will possible be eager to problem and set out on his very gravel focussed season with a UCI win underneath the belt, whereas final yr’s third positioned finisher Matthew Hen can be anticipated to be on the beginning line and chasing the rostrum once more.
Former Irish skilled Nicolas Roche may even be heading out together with his NR Gravel group and is bound to be carefully watched regardless of the place he’s within the subject, although if the jetlag and fast turnaround from the Blaavand Gravel World Collection Race in Denmark the week earlier than do not weigh too closely, that is more likely to be proper up on the pointy finish of the race.
