Gravel World Championships 2026 [FULL RACE]

October 11, 2026

UCI Gravel World Championships 2026 🇦🇺 (WC) ME – Nannup – Nannup : 144km – 3713vm – 85% gravel

The 2026 UCI Gravel World Championships races will be held in Nannup, Western Australia. Nannup offers world-class gravel racing characterised by wide gravel roads, breathtaking climbs and encounters with iconic Australian wildlife. Key features of this years World Championship courses include: All courses start and finish in the same location; +80% gravel across a wide variety of unpaved surfaces; A 9 km undulating paved start section which competitors will ride again between 36 km and 27 km before the finish; Course elevation ranging between 100 and 300 meters above sea level; Climbs that are never very long but follow each other quickly, often steep, offering little recovery time; 10ºC (49ºF) to 21ºC (69ºF) average min-max temperatures during October

Gravel specialist Magnus Bak Klaris (Denmark) outsprinted an elite trio of defending champion Florian Vermeersch (Belgium), Connor Swift (Great Britain) and his own teammate Mads Würtz Schmidt to win the the elite men’s title at the UCI Gravel World Championships in Nannup, Australia.

After an attempt at a late flier, Swift was forced to lead out the quartet with 300 metres to go followed by Bak Klaris, Vermeersch and Würtz Schmidt. Swift jumped first, and very nearly led to the line, but the 30-year old Dane was able to come around and get the win.

Vermeersch crossed the line in second place, letting out a curse in frustration a few seconds later, while Swift, who finished third, bowed his head over his handlebars.

Bak Klaris had spent most of the day working for Würtz Schmidt, closing down attacks, until the four riders escaped in the final five kilometres. Then, the Traka 260 winner attacked with Swift on his wheel but it was Bak Klaris who closed the gap.

Putting pressure at the front. Würtz Schmidt then slid out on a corner, but with Swift appearing to ease off rather than press the advantage, the Dane was able to catch back on, as the four riders sped towards the finish line. Bak Klaris also took a moment to look back for his compatriot and take a break from pulling.

Using their numbers, the Danish squad was content to stay mostly at the front of the field, accelerating on the climbs to shed riders off the back while a break of three was up the road. Austrian gravel champion Lukas Pöstlberger, British national champion Jenson Young and Peter Schulting (Netherlands) stayed off the front for 117 kilometres, getting a maximum gap of close to three minutes.

In the finale, Würtz Schmidt made numerous attacks, but it was his teammate that was fastest across the line.

“I can’t believe it right now. It feels like it’s it feels unreal right now,” Bak Klaris said, describing the final kilometres, including Würtz Schmidt sliding, out as “hectic”.

“I think we were all pretty tired at that point, and that’s what we saw yesterday as well [when Rosa Klöser crashed in the women’s race]. That’s when you start to make mistakes. I tried to take advantage of we both from Denmark, so I tried to wait for him and let the other guys do some work, and in the end, everything just turned out.

“I usually don’t have a really good sprint, so I just tried to find the wheel, and I think I was pretty lucky with how Connor Swift did the final, so I could just stay in the wheel, pretty much the last K, and then have a small last kick.”

An exciting edition of the men’s title race
For the fifth edition of the 2026 UCI Gravel World Championships, the elite men tackled 3,713m of climbing on a 144km loop out from Nannup. With 85% of the route on gravel, the demanding course wound through the Blackwood Valley, pine plantations, rolling farmland and forested terrain before returning to the off-road cycling hub of Nannup.

A few brief showers passed through in the morning, but the sun was peeking through as the 79 riders took the start. With little rain forecast and temperatures hitting 16°C, the elite men faced much drier conditions than the women did on Saturday, although some puddles and muddy sections remained on the course.

The first attack came early on the opening 9km paved section, with Austrian national champion Lukas Pöstlberger, British national champion Jenson Young and Peter Schulting (Netherlands) pulling away, with Jo Pirotte (Belgium) falling out of the group. The trio established a one-minute lead as they rolled onto gravel.

The trio saw their lead tumble down to 1:02 from a maximum of 2:33 as the dwindling pack led by Connor Swift crested Brockman Climb (1.7km at 12%). The first two ascents, starting with Killarney Climb, caused splits in the pack, with riders shelled off the back with 112km to go. Some of the riders falling off the pace include defending champion Florian Vermeersch, Matt Beers (South Africa), Daan Soete (Belgium) and Henrique Avancini (Brazil).

The peloton regrouped, with Vermeersch, Beers and Avancini rejoining on the undulating high roads after the climb as the three riders off the front continued to work well together, tackling Mader Climb first and then Shale Climb.

Jonas Lindberg moved to the front of the roughly 25-rider peloton, setting a hard pace for Danish team leader Mads Würtz Schmidt to close the 2:30 gap to the break. His hard tempo began to split the group as he looked to reduce the numbers even more to improve his teammate’s chances.

Schulting had some trouble staying with Young and Pöstlberger on a fast descent, churned with ruts, but he did manage to chase back onto their wheels as they rode through a short paved section, holding their lead with 88km to go.

The lead three riders had a strong three-minute advantage as they started the 27km Arcadia loop added to the course that the women raced on Saturday. Behind them, the Danish team once again drove the pace in the reduced peloton on the Arcadia climb, clawing back a minute by the top of the 2.5km ascent.

The peloton, down to 16 riders, included Beers, Avancini, Swift, Keegan Swenson (USA), Martin Stošek (Czechia), Casey South (Switzerland), Paul Voss (Germany), Dutch duo of Mathijs Loman and Jordan Habets, Mark O’Brien (Australia), Loïc Bettendorff (Luxembourg), Belgian duo of Vermeersch and Stan Dewulf, and Würtz Schmidt and his teammates Lindberg and Magnus Bak Klaris.

Denmark’s Bak Klaris and Lindberg, followed by Avancini sitting in third place, set a blistering pace through one of the course’s toughest sections, where narrow tracks, deep ruts, overhanging foliage, numerous potholes and even a wallaby hopping across the road made for challenging riding. But even though the pace was high, the break’s lead was still holding at 2:30 with 63km to go.

Mark O’Brien (Australia) overcooked a corner, slid out and then had to stop to fix his handlebars before remounting, covered in mud, to try and chase back onto the pack.

Under the impetus of Würtz Schmidt, setting a difficult pace on Ellis Creek Road Climb (2km at 9.1%), the toughest ascent of the day, the gap was down to around the one-minute mark, and only a few riders, such as South, Vermeersch, Stošek, Swift, Bak Klaris and Dewulf were able to stay on his wheel.

Not able to follow on the climb, Beers, Voss, Avancini and Swenson were able to claw their way back into the group with 57km to go. And that led to a lull in the pace, and the gap increased by a few seconds.

Lindberg managed to bridge back to the 13-rider chase group and immediately moved to the front, looking to close the 1:28 gap to the leading trio with 47km remaining. A few kilometres later, Vermeersch swung around to talk to the other riders, while Lindberg gestured for others to contribute to the chase. With three Danish riders in the group, the rest appeared content to leave the work to them, and the pace slowed down again.

With 41km to go, Pöstlberger, Young and Schulting still had 1:50 on the chase group as they tackled the Glacier Climb, but the Brit lost contact on the 3.8km ascent.

Meanwhile, behind, Würtz Schmidt put in a big acceleration, stringing the chase group, forcing his rivals to dig deep to stay with him while shelling a few more off the back, reducing the numbers to 10.

First Stošek and then Swift came to the front of the chase group to set a hard pace, sweeping in Jenson inside of 32km to go, as the duo up ahead still had a minute advantage.

Even though Schulting and Pöstlberger were still hammering at the front on a paved section, the gap had tumbled to 35 seconds with 25km to go, including the final climb of Folly (2.4km at 4.8%). The duo enjoyed the cheers from the fans lining the road as their lead continued to go down.

Stošek attacked on the climb, splitting the chase group and drawing six riders clear, while Swenson fought his way back as the leading duo were caught. The Danes immediately countered, triggering another selection that saw Swift, Würtz Schmidt, Bak Klaris and Stošek break away with 21km to go.

Though the group included two Danish riders, both Swift and Stošek also took turns at the front to drive the pace. The quartet had 10 seconds on a Vermeersch-led five-rider chase group five kilometres later.

Vermeersch, Voss, Dewulf, Schulting, and Swenson connected with the lead quartet with 12km to go, leading to another reshuffle at the front. Dewulf quickly shut down a move from Voss, as they sped back towards Nannup.

As the nine riders started to play cat-and-mouse games, Beers clawed his way back onto the lead group with 8.5km to go but it would a brief journey in the front group for the South African.

Würtz Schmidt attacked on an uphill with Swift covering along Bak Klaris with as Vermeersch worked hard to close the gap. Swenson and Stošek joined together to give chase with 5km to go.

A kilometre later, Würtz Schmidt continued to put the pressure on, with Swift covering his attack and Bak Klaris closing the gap to the duo. Soon after, the Traka 360 winner slid out on a corner, forcing Swift to slow down to avoid him. Neither Swift nor Vermeersch seemed to want to take advantage of their rival’s mishap, and the Dane was able to reconnect with 1.4km to go.

Bak Klaris took the front until Swift attacked on the right-hand side with the Dane jumping on his wheel. Swift was then forced to lead the quartet to the finish line, and Bak Klaris was able to come around to take the surprising win.

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