Pro roadies like Bardet who retire and then switching to gravel with little to no prior experience seem to always beat gravel pros at their own game.
https://granfondodailynews.com/2026/01/23/romain-bardet-wins-radl-grvl-race-in-australia-results/
by OkFlower6124
12 Comments
Who is rating American gravel pros over world tour athletes?
Yes. They are overrated. Hence no gravel “pros” win UCI gravel world championship
Well it’s always been a thing that road racing has the most money so if you’re one of the best of the best (especially if you’re European) then that’s where you end up. Tbh I think a lot of people thought ex world tour roadies would do even better in gravel than they do. To me it’s almost a validation of the legitimacy of pro gravel that Cam Jones is only a minute slower than Romain Bardet. That guy was like really god damn good in world tour very recently.
overrated for sure. unless mvp picked up a gravel bike.
Maybe?? XC has a similar problem where the best riders (MVP and Pidcock) are riding road and dominate when they race XC.
The motor on those elite roadies are unrivaled. If there isn’t something about the course that’s going to cause a skill issue then they are going to dominate
As a has-been runner who was pretty good, gravel cycling always reminds me of guys running ultra marathons. Like yeah it’s impressive that they can do what they do, but if they were more talented or actually good, they wouldn’t go past the marathon distance. I feel like gravel cyclists gravitate to the discipline because they’re not very competitive at other more established disciplines. Obviously, road safety is a big factor of why people get into gravel, as well.
I don’t think they at overrated and it’s easy to cherry pick race results to support world tour pros being better.
World tour pros have teams of people supporting them, support cars, teammates. Gravel racers don’t.
Anyone has raced gravel seriously will tell you that there’s a whole lot more to it than fitness. The terrain you encounter in most gravel races is largely much harder on your body than a perfectly smooth road. This requires significantly different fitness.
You need to be proficient at fixing your bike on the side of the road. There’s no support vehicle to help you when things go wrong.
Those are just a couple of things that separate serious gravel racing from the world tour.
That’s not necessarily true. While some pro tour riders do very well, some (particularly ones coming the the US) don’t do so well. For example Greg Van Avermaet, Matej Mohorič were nowhere to be seen at Unbound. Alejandro Valverde barely beat Keegan Swenson (6th I think)at the Gravel World Championships. I think a most European gravel races aren’t as technical as some of the American races and a lot of world tour riders aren’t used to self supporting which also puts them at a disadvantage.
More of a reminder that the talent in the WorldTour is on another level.
So the higher level bike racer is better? Interesting.
It’s a different sport. Road cycling is the elite. Think F1 to rally, classic boxing to kickbox…
While absolutely there are world class rallyists that F1 riders can’t beat, or kickboxers that just dominate their sport, you will see people from the elite category retire/participate one of the other, and just be on if not beyond the level of that group.
Even Elite road cyclists don’t earn close to dreamy amounts of cash, and the income of a gravel pro is more or less piss poor. So if you are on the level, you road cycle and piss about in Gravel.
It is what it is.
Keegan is very very talented – we can agree on that. But even he can’t hang with the worlds best when it comes to gravel world champs (in Europe) and when he was racing XCO a few years ago – was mid pack.
It’s great there is another place (lifetime GP, etc) for talented riders to go when they can’t be competitive in the other world champ stuff.