I’m racing UCI World Gravel Champs
Belgium, I swore I’d never be back, but here we are.
I’m excited. A Belgian World Championships - there are few times in my life that I’ll get to witness a spectacle like what awaits me this weekend. Belgium is the home of cycling, it’s where I learned to race my bike, and it has been a constant of my bike racing life.
All year, I haven’t been one bit excited for the UCI Gravel World Champs. It’s a race that, even with the best fitness of my life, and all of lady luck on my side, I’d never win. It’s a race that is effectively a UCI 1.1 or .PRO road race that I’ve done oh so many times. But, now I’m on the plane and on my way, I feel like a kid.
I feel just as I did six years ago. As a seventeen-year-old, I’d leave school on a Friday lunchtime, load up my Dad’s car and head towards the Eurotunnel. It was those weekends racing in Belgium that I look back on so fondly. At the time, it must’ve been hell for my parents, but they were some of the most formative trips of my teen years. You grow up fast when you race in Belgium. You learn to be a man.
Maybe my excitement is linked to having zero pressure on myself whatsoever. I know I’m not going to win, and my fitness levels aren’t high enough to even put me at the pointy end of the race. I’ve had a rough last six weeks, some recent blood tests showing that I have COVID antibodies were actually a relief as I finally figured out what has been wrong with me. My training has been inconsistent and I haven’t raced since the end of July. All of that said, the closer Worlds got, the more I realised I couldn’t miss them.
The course looks crazy. I’m flying in pretty late, so won’t have masses of time to recon it. From what I’ve seen so far it’s very Belgian. Completely nonsensical. It’s bike paths, canal roads, single track, double track, woods, cobbles, steep climbs and even a train station, yes a train station. It’s not your typical gravel race, and that’s why I think it’s going to be so good.
The beauty of gravel is that it doesn’t have to make sense. If you race in Girona, you know you’re going to get some crazy trails that is borderline mountainbiking. If you race in the States, you know that it’ll mostly be long stretches of nothingness. It’s horses for courses. When it comes to Belgium, gravel is a mix of everything and that’s not a bad thing.
It’ll be mental. There are apparently three hundred elite men on the start line, and then just after hundreds of age-groupers are going off too. I can’t begin to imagine how the first 50km is going to be. I hate to use war analogies when talking about racing, but I feel we’re going to see some examples this weekend.
Win rainbow, finish one-hundredth, two-hundredth, DNF or whatever, I’m going to be stood in Leuven city centre with a smile on my face and a beer in hand come Sunday afternoon. 751 days ago, I finished my final road race as a ‘pro’ and didn’t know what was going to happen next. I sat in Brussels Airport feeling a little empty. I couldn’t imagine that my path after Axeon would take me to months and months in the US, racing a Gravel bike, setting up my own road team and ultimately back to an Elite World Champs in Belgium.
A lot has been said about the big name American gravel pros not coming over. But, if you look at the course, it makes perfect sense. Most of the top US Gravel pros were mountainbikers first, and don’t have the bunch skills to navigate a Belgian peloton. Add in the fact that the Lifetime Grand Prix is heating up and it just doesn’t make logical sense. I don’t think USA Cycling should get a bad rep for not taking a squad either. Gravel is great because for most of the year, we can play without the National Federations. USAC are damned if they do, damned if they don’t.
We’re not taking an official team as Great Britain either. It’s very much a privateer set-up, but you were national team kit. I last pulled on a Great Britain jersey in September 2018. The Junior World TT Champs remain my favourite ever day on the bike. That ride is what allowed me to dream of doing this crazy bike racing thing for a living. I remember pulling on the jersey at the hotel in Innsbruck, I couldn’t keep the smile of my face. Writing this now, I still have goosebumps. I remember going out for a ride with Alan Murchison, someone who I now class as a close friend, and smiling ear-to-ear.
I’m not sure this time will have the same impact. I’m no longer that naieve junior who had to ask his headmaster for a few days of school to go to World Champs. These days, being able to race at the top is what I spend my whole life doing. It helps me pay the bills, and my life revolves around it. But, whatever I say, I know pulling that jersey on will still be special.
My life is full of insecurity. It causes sleepless nights, it causes untold stress, especially at this time of year. But, I love it too. Things are still up in the air for 2025. I have my plans in place, but I don’t have all my sponsors, or all my budget secured. Next year is make it or break it.
751 days ago, I pinned on my last number for Axeon, and had no clue what was next in life for me. Who knows what’ll happen in the next 751?
I vowed I’d never race in Belgium again, I’ve made an exception, just this once because it’s Worlds. I now renew my vows, I never want to ever race in Belgium again after this Sunday…or do I?
Belgium, you and I have a beautifully toxic relationship.
Project TAG, proudly partnering (both for my athletic and influencing ability) with…
While you’re here…
I’ve added a paid subscription and a ‘Buy Me A Coffee’ link to this post. As the year progresses, I’m planning on building this blog and putting out articles which I’ve always wanted to write but for whatever reason, haven’t wanted to pitch.
Any money that I make from either my Substack or BMaC link will go straight back into supporting my 2024 racing project. I am planning on keeping all content on here free to view though.
Best of luck Joe! Sounds like you going into it with the best mentality of just see what happens!