Gravel Earth, a new globetrotting racing series for professionals and amateurs, has been unveiled for 2023.
The series will include 6-8 gravel events around the world and will end with the ‘Dirt Final’, a championship-style race at the end of the cycling season.
The series, organized by the Girona-based promotion company Klassmark, is, they say, designed to reach a global audience.
Klassmark’s gravel endurance event, the Traka, will kick off the series in April, with the Dirt Final wrapping up in late October or November, also hosted by the Spain-based promotion company.
The other events will be hosted by a variety of different promoters around the world.
So get yourself one of the best gravel bikes, train up and get ready to ride.
Cristina Freixes, co-owner of Klassmark, said that the idea and thinking behind Gravel Earth (opens in a new tab) was to expose more cycling fans to off-road racing far from civilization.
She said: “What we wanted is to choose different types of racing styles, but all in amazing places.”
“Provide more of an experience than a competition.”
Despite Freixes’ promise to make the event more of an experience than a competition, there is still a slight competitive element built into the event.
A points system has been set up so that the top male, female and non-binary finishers of each event receive a certain amount. Each gravel event will also be weighted differently based on the difficulty of the course.
Gravel has been booming in recent years, with the UCI now organizing its own Gravel World Championships. The event was held for the first time this year and was won by Belgian Gianni Vermeersch.
Belgian superstar Wout van Aert recently said that he was considering a possible involvement with gravel worlds in the coming years.
Since each event is ranked differently, Gravel Earth gives riders the opportunity to select events that are particularly suited to their riding style and skill set.
For example, winning the Migration Gravel Race in Kenya will earn you 12,000 points, while The Rift and Nordic Gravel Series events in Sweden will earn you 9,000 a piece.
Freixes explained that she and the Klassmark team took advice from riders like Nathan Haas and Lachlan Morton in developing the points system. The general classification of the series will be determined by adding the two highest scores of a rider, as well as the result of the Earth Final, which will involve more points than the other events.
“This classification format rewards the most regular and versatile cyclists of the year”, added Freixes.
2023 GRAVEL EARTH SERIES QUALIFYING EVENTS
(Image credit: Gravel Earth Series)
LA TRAKA – SPAIN
Dates: April 29 and 30
race format: Three single stage options
Career structure: First stage, 100 km/1000 meters Second stage, 200 km/2000 meters Third stage, 360 km/4500 meters
GRAVEL MIGRATION RACE – KENYA
Dates: June 20-23
race format: four stages
Career structure: 650 total km, 8,000 meters of unevenness
NATURE IS BICYCLE – FRANCE
Dates: June 26
race format: single scenario
Career structure: 300 km, 2,640 meters of elevation gain
OCTOPUS GRAVEL – SWITZERLAND
Dates: July 1
race format: timed segments
Career structure: 155 km, 4,450 meters of elevation gain
THE RIFT – ICELAND
Dates: July 23
race format: single scenario
Career structure: 200 km / 2165 meters of elevation gain / 100 km / 1050 meters of elevation gain
NORDIC GRAVEL SERIES: BERGSLAGEN – SWEDEN
Dates: August 12
race format: single scenario
Career structure: 180 km, unevenness to be determined
