Gravel bike championships held in Nannup, Western Australia

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A major gravel cycle event was held over the weekend at Nannup, Western Australia, a small country town not far from Donnybrook where we used to live. It was the venue for the 2026 5th UCI Gravel World Championships. Previous events had been held in Italy and Belgium. Nannup’s population is 538 and the community rallied around to cater for the huge influx of visitors. The just-under 1,000 cyclists travelled on gravel tracks (naturally!) through the Blackwood Valley around the town. A global audience of up to 130 million people was expected. Most would never have heard of Nannup. Many of the competitors hadn’t either. A Netherlands competitor had a two-hour drive to Amsterdam, a flight of 21 hours then another three hours drive from Perth to Nannup. Marianne Vos (Netherlands) took out the elite women’s title and Denmark’s Magnus Bak Klaris took out the men’s. In case Scott (@teamfreak16) knows the names, three of the Americans were Tim Borsetti, Mark Litrell and John Steward. The photo is of a typical gravel road that the cyclists might have had to traverse. The link to the article is: https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-10-11/nannup-uci-gravel-world-championship-cycling/107238790.