This One Brought Me To Tears | UCI Gravel World Championships

After 16 years away, GCN’s Dan Lloyd pulled on a Great Britain jersey to tackle the UCI Gravel World Championships! Join Dan as he takes on the demanding 181km course in Limburg, Netherlands, alongside the world’s best gravel riders. His goal? Simply to finish and to do his mother, who sadly passed away just before the event, proud.

Chapters: ⏱️
00:00 – A Special Race: Dedication & Emotional Return 😔
00:51 – Pre-Race Chat, Tactics
02:43 – Course Preview & The Challenge Ahead
05:58 – The Race Kicks Off & A Thrilling Start
10:29 – Mid-Race Struggles
10:46 – Dan’s Custom Canyon Gravel Race Bike
15:07 – Zwift Preparation – FTP Test
18:11 – Hitting A Wall & Thoughts from Dan
20:05 – The Final Emotional Lap & Finishing Strong
23:46 – Race Stats & Post-Race Reflection

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Dan went out hard and paid for it later—what’s the biggest mistake you’ve made in a big race or challenging long ride, and what did you learn from it? Let us know below! 👇

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[Applause] [Music] on the golden 459 world. [Music] Oh, thank you. [Music] Why are you filming me sleeping? You per get out my room. [Music] The time has come. I’m in Lindberg in the Netherlands for the UCI Gravel World Championships where I’ll be representing Great Britain at a bike race for the first time in 16 years. The good news is that all I need to do to improve on that 2009 World Championship performance is actually get to the finish line this time. The bad news is it’s over 180ks of racing to get here. I qualify for this championship through my result at the Grow in Scotland, one of the UCI World Series races. Finish in the top 25% of your category in one of those qualifying events. And you have the opportunity to compete for your country in the World Championships. How cool is that? As such, I will be ditching the GSN kit today and wearing GB colors instead. So, I ordered a Tom Pidcock from Wish, and this is what turned up through the post. I want a refund. My category is the 45 to 49 age group. Hard to believe, I know, but here we are. Uh, in that category, there are almost 300 competitors, but across the whole weekend, there are almost 3,000 riders from 53 different countries. There are some really big names here this year as well. Pitcock who raced Lombodi 24 hours ago. Former world champions Mahoric and Voss. Plus Floron Vish, Vibes, Bardday, and Lloyd. Unfortunately though, my name wasn’t quite big enough to get myself gritted at the front of my age group as I’ve arrived here with well over an hour before the start, but I’m about 250 riders back. I mean, goodness only knows how long the people at the front have been lining up for. This is the fourth edition of the UCI Gravel World Championships. Italy hosted the first two, Belgium last year’s, and now we’re in the Netherlands. The Lindberg area will be familiar to a lot of cycling fans as it plays host to the Amstel Gold Race each April. As such, this course is full of repeated short sharp climbs, albeit mainly off-road rather than on. My race is 181 kilometers or 112 miles which is the same as the elite men even though we’re much older and much slower. From the starting bake there’s a 5 1/2k tarmac section including the ad steak climb which does feature an Amstill gold that should thin the fields out a little before we hit the first of the gravel. Once on it, we’ll be completing three and a half laps of an undulating 50k circuit with gravel, tarmac, sand, and dirt. And then after around 160ks, we’ll head south towards the finish line in Mustri. And it’s on that homewood stretch that will tackle the hardest climb of the day, the Bronze Dale. However, at just 1k and an average gradient of 7.2%, it sounds more than doable. From there, it’s 14k to the finish line on the Grunal Lopa or Green Ribbon in MRI. despite the distance is actually less than 2,000 m of elevation gain today, which is less than the Jirona Gravel series race I did a few weeks ago and also less than the Growlex series race back in May. And that is music to my ears because that Jirona gravel genuinely cracked me both mentally and physically. But in theory, today’s race should suit me better in terms of the parkour and also with the weather, which is a lot chillier than it was in Jerona. Uh we’re about to find out though because it’s not long till the off. [Music] We need to talk serious now. Team meeting. Um most important thing gets to start on time. Uh generally at these big gravel events, people line up super early, like 3 hours before. It’s an hour and a half before the start now. Yeah, you messed that up already. So you’re basically going to start at the back. Yeah, we got a big road section at the start. Yeah, there’s like a thousand people or something going to be in your way. Well, I’m just going to hit him. I’ll go from like 300th to second or the gravel. The whole shot, isn’t it? Yeah, I think that’s what 5 and a halfk whole shot. Yeah, I wouldn’t I wouldn’t hang all your hopes on it. Um, serious chat though. So, I’m going to be doing food and bottles and the position I’m going to be at, you’re going to pass me at kilometer 21 71 120k. Okay. You’ve got your gels and stuff. Yeah, I’ve So, I’ve got 500 g of gels in that bad boy at the back. I know it doesn’t match and you’re not very happy after all the work you’ve done on the bike, but it’s going to get me through. Um, and then I’ve got another 100 g or so gels down my back there in a pouch. So, I’m good to go, I think, with fueling. Thanks very much. Let’s go. [Music] You will you want me to stay? Uh, like the other gravel race I’ve done, goal number one was finish. Goal number two was don’t crash. Goal number three was don’t get a puncture or mechanical. And then goal four was get everything out of myself. 3 2 1 [Music] So, we had that 6 km of tarmac that you did the first time and my aim, as I said in my briefing with Alex beforehand, was to make up as many places I could on that opening road station. I had no idea how that would go. There was a hill there and I was thinking, well, obviously everyone here is fit because anyone that’s got here finished in the top 25% of another race. But actually, it went really well and I had the time of my life over that first 6 km. [Music] Like in the initial flat bit, I didn’t make up many positions on the climb itself. I thought, right, let’s just dig deep. And I did go around quite a few people. And then as it crested over the top and there was a slight downhill, all these memories of being a pro rider just flooded back because I felt able to sort of navigate through that pelaton, see where spaces were about to open up, go through them and make up free places. And I was loving it so much. I was like, I I think I might get to the front. you sound. And so I carried on and then this gap opened up. I’m I was like, I’m there. I’ve gone from 250th to pretty much first. [Music] In my pro days, I would say I was the annoying rider that could always be in the right place at the right time, and more often than not, I was. But because I then didn’t have the power to follow through afterwards, I’d been then be that bllard that basically got in the way of everybody else. And that’s exactly what happened in the race today. I got there, I went backwards. Everyone had to find a way of going around me. But that was my aim. I was like, well, I’m going to be out of trouble now. And everyone can go around me, but I’m going to be in front of all the crashes, all the mayhem, all of the traffic that suddenly slows down, the harsh breaking. So, yeah, aim completed basically. And I just needed to find a group to settle into. [Music] [Applause] Okay, the race within the race has started. We’re on our way to get to the point where we’re going to be handing out Dan’s bottles of food and just generally looking after him, which is going to be the first time he’ll be there 21 km into the race. So, it’s only going to take him 30 35 minutes. We’ve got 10 minutes to go. So hopefully we get there before Dan does. Then we’re going to see him two more times. We can offer all the support we can. So it’s a very different race to the two that I’ve done already this year. A, as I explained beforehand, it was far less hilly. So longer, similar elevation gain, but over a longer distance. So lots of short punchy clims, but nothing too long. And that really suits me. And actually the nature of the course itself suited me a lot because a lot of it was about positioning, maintaining momentum through corners. You could open up gaps if you’re a good bike handler and know that you’re going to sail back onto the wheel of a rider in front. And again, it sort of brought back memories of my pro days where I had to be efficient cuz I wasn’t as powerful as a lot of the other riders there. And I felt like that on the race today that in the init initial stages I I went way too hard because it was exciting to feel like I was racing properly again. That makes sense. Like at the at the Grow I was racing but I was gradually passing people towards the end. In Jerona I just wasn’t racing really. Those climbs were so hard and it was so hot. It just I I just got through it. But in the initial stages of this race I was racing. Yeah. It felt good. [Applause] [Music] 50ks in. I haven’t done much vlogging yet because it’s been very intense. I just got dropped from a group I was in through the start finish straight and I’ve just been caught by another group. Long way still to go though, so I’m trying to pace it. Anyway, the bike I’m on today is flawless and it’s had a couple of upgrades. Check it out. He’s not looking great in the race at the moment, is he? But we’re going to talk you through his bike for the day. Uh, I actually used this one in Jerona a few weeks back, but since then, Alex has pimped it out. You can watch a full video on G10 Tech, but talk us through briefly what you’ve done to this bike that was yours. Well, let’s start with the most striking visual change, right? White saddle, white handlebar tape. This is looking absolutely off the charts. Not only a performance gain for you mentally, also possibly detrimental to your competitors cuz they’re going to think you’re going to be on mega form. They’re going to be properly psyched out. So there’s no actual data to suggest that a white saddle and bar tape is faster. Absolutely not. Just psychologically. Just psychological. Happy days. In terms of things that are actually probably going to help you go a little bit faster. Well, I’ve given you a new rainbow chain. The color is not going to help you go faster, but it’s waxed with silk speed chip. So, some speedy gains there. We got a ceramic speed bottom bracket. And if you look carefully down there at the back, you’ll notice we have a OSPW system from Ceramic Speed. Anything of particular note written on there that stands out to you? Uh Dan Lloyd 2025 gravel world champion ships. You missed a little bit off at the end there. Amazing. I sort of covered both bases. You know, if you win, you can just permanent marker out the ships bit at the end. Yeah. You didn’t bring a permanent marker with you, did you? No. No point. Okay. That That is pretty cool. I’ve got to say some changes. Yeah. Tires made some changes, too. So on the rear, we’ve still got a 40 mil wide tire, but I’ve gone for a less aggressive tread pattern. So this should help speed you up. Also, it’s of the slightly faster and thinner tire casing. So that’ll help you. And on the front, we’ve gone for a slightly bigger chunky boy with a more aggressive tread pattern on. So larger volume is going to help smooth out the bumps a little bit. And because we got fresh um a fresh tire with this wider tread pattern, you should get a bit of extra bite in the corners because I’m assuming given your incredible form, you’re going to be having to overtake a lot of people. I’d imagine so. I think we’ll start out with pressure cuz you’ve been doing some calculations with the Silka online pressure calculator. Yes, as Sean Kelly would say, I have made the calculations and and in the back tire, you want to have about 43 PSI. Yeah, it’s a bit low at the moment. I think I might need some more more in there. Yeah, we’ll we’ll get a pump on that. And then the front, you going to want about uh 36 PSI. The reason there’s such a big difference because we got 40 on the back and 45 on the front. Amazing. Well, it looks fast. Yeah. I don’t know whether it’s going to be fast. By this point in the video, our viewers will know, but thank you very much. It looks great. So, he pimped out my bike, but as I’m gradually finding out, I could have done with him pimping out my body. Maybe tried and didn’t get any offers. Anyway, for the haters out there, mainly people from North America, it’s got to be said, who said that we can’t do proper gravel in Europe, check this out. So lavishly. I’m not sure if you can see on camera how gnarly this is. I think I’ve got my tire pressure too high. 70k in. [Music] I I had the sense that I was going too hard for the duration that the race would be for me. I knew it was going to be close to 6 hours. And I think my normalized power over the first hour of the race was close to 290 W, which is my threshold. And so at some point I was going to pay for that and start going backwards. [Music] 81ks in. So, not quite halfway, [Applause] 230 watts average so far. Might pay for that later. Uh, just before this event, I did an FTP test on Zift. This is what happened. [Music] So, most of my preparation for this race has been doing sessions on Zift. I’ve done a bunch of group workouts, 12 in total. The last of which was a warm-up for a final FTP test. As I did earlier this year, I chose the grade client to perform that FTP test. So, I knew it well. I started off at around 320 W, and I managed to maintain that and even more in the first half. However, I did pay for my early efforts and faded slightly. But at the end of that climb, I had an FTP of 287 W, which is very close to what I had back in June, just before that charity ride. So, I was pleased with that. But I would have to bear in mind what power I could do during the race itself. [Music] I don’t think it matters what the sport is. It’s always a privilege to represent your country, right? And it was a privilege back then and it still felt like a privilege to do it today. Uh and I would recommend anybody that’s motivated on the bike that’s half decent on the bike, go and do a gravel world series next year because if you finish in the top 25%, you have the opportunity to represent your country at the World Championships. And there aren’t many other disciplines in cycling where you can do that. And everybody raced on the same weekend. Like yesterday I got to see the women elite race. Didn’t get to see much of the elite men’s race today. I’ve got to say the only chance of that happening was if they’d lapped me, which thankfully they didn’t. But yeah, pulling on a GB jersey feels great. And I’m sure for every Dutchman, every Belgian, all the other countries as well. Just feels good, you know. Ben Job done. That was so stressful. [Music] Another update. 100k iss done. I’ve been sort of dropping back through the groups if I’m honest. Don’t feel too bad, but I’m cramping a little bit every time I get out the saddle. But what a great event. Like so many people, so many spectators all representing our country. Amazing. And thanks to all of you at home for the support along the way. Means a lot. [Music] And yeah, I started to cramp. Um, which I was surprised about because in all of my time as a cyclist, I’m very rarely cramped and it kind of got worse and worse and I mean I was sort of fatigued anyway and I I dropped from a couple of groups but I’d got into this one that felt like right this this is my kind of level. I should be able to stick in this group. It’s hard. I’m still racing but I should be able to stick in this group. Oh, but out of my limit trying to hold on to this group and I got out the saddle over the top of a climb and just cramped so badly I just stood still and I was like, “Well, that’s that then. I just have to wait for the next group.” So, I tried to look behind to where the next group was. And because everything was hurting so much, I couldn’t actually I couldn’t actually turn my head enough to see what was behind. So, I just had to ride slowly until another group came up. And the next group that did come up, I I think I was with that group pretty much to the end. And I would say it was a group full of people that felt quite sorry for themselves. I think we’d all got to this point where we were like, “Yeah, we’re not really racing anymore, but let’s get through to the end of this together.” And that’s what we did. I’ve come to the conclusion in age category gravel racing there is no pacing. You just start off too fast and then gradually fade. A bit like we’re doing in life at this point. But it’s all good fun. Okay, Dan’s going to be a couple of minutes now. He’s doing a blooming good job. Mate, we absolutely nailed that. I’m so happy. I mean, the last bit was like a half lap and then then you turned off and you had 19ks to go and uh like I said, by that point in the race, it was less intense because everyone in my group was just shattered and we wanted to get through. And because it was less intense, I guess there was a there was a bit more time to think. [Music] Give me a sec. [Music] So, there was a bit more time to think. And as you all saw at the start of this video, [Music] you know, I had I had some sad news a few weeks back [Music] and it wasn’t unexpected because mom was 98 and she’d lived a really good life. and she passed away in her own home. Everything there in her mind still with my sisters. You couldn’t ask for a nicer way to go, you know, and she had a really long life. Like I said, it was unexpected, but it still comes as a shock because when when somebody lives that long, you just take it for granted like this is going to go on forever. But yeah, I thought about her a lot on the last lap because she had a really tough early part of her life. Like her mom and dad split up. Her mom didn’t want anything to do with her and her dad didn’t have enough money to have a place. So, she was in a convent and she didn’t get to go home the summers and then she spent her teenage years living through World War II. [Music] And I just sort of thought, what the are you complaining about with crab? [Music] I never heard my mom complain about anything in her life once. And obviously I wouldn’t be here without her, you know. She gave birth to me. Uh but I wouldn’t be doing what I’m doing without her support and guidance. She wasn’t like pushy or hands-on really, but uh she just supported me and my sisters and everything that we did. And yeah, I wouldn’t have had the career in cycling that I did without her. And I wouldn’t be doing what I’m doing now without. So, thanks mom. I love you. [Music] couldn’t fly, couldn’t stay. I don’t know what makes them think that a bunch of 45 to 50 year olds want to do 182k race. I’ll finish this video with a few numbers for the fellow stats geeks. The 181ks took me 5 hours 44 minutes and 46 seconds to complete. An average speed of 32 kmh or 20 mph. My average power for that duration was 206 W normalized to 248. Average heart rate was 147 with my max at about 175. That effort gave me a finishing position of 141st from 268 riders. So about midpack. And yes, I did start too hard. My normalized power for the first hour was 288 W. Bang on my FTP. And it gradually went down from there. They say you live and learn, but at this point I’ve lived a lot and I just don’t seem to be learning. Going to finish with a few thank yous. Like I’ve just won a BAFTA. Uh, thank you to Alex first and foremost. Mechanic bike was amazing. Like I’ve done three gravel races this year. I’ve not had one puncture or one mechanical or one crash. So I’m going to retire from gravel racing, I think, after the world championships. But the bike was brilliant. I didn’t have any problems with it at all. I want to say um thanks for having me along as well. I’m actually I’ve had a mega day out and I feel like pleased to be like the tiniest little part of what I think was a really successful race. It was great. I’m not great with bike mechanics these days. To have that stress taken away before the start was a massive benefit to me. Also, was that the second bottle good? The second one was Yeah. for the other gripe with the first one. Let’s ignore the first one without that first one mistake. I probably could have got like top 100. Oh yeah. No, I enjoyed it. I enjoyed it. And thank you at home for watching. I think I said this on one of my vlogs, but just in case it didn’t get in the edit, uh thanks for all your support. Uh the comments mean a lot and the support ahead of the event and actually from a lot of people around the event was uh was massive as well. Really makes a big difference. Yeah, we’ll see what we do next year.