In this edition of the GCN Tech Show, Alex and Conor discuss and dissect the interesting bikes that were featured in the UCI Gravel World Championships and also talk about why there might be a need to sub-categorise gravel bikes for many reasons!
Additionally, a new urban bike takes to the British streets, Sidi releases neo-retro shoes, and Zwift introduces a new race category system!
00:00 GCN Tech Show headlines
00:29 WTF is going on with the UCI Gravel World Championships?
07:11 Hot and spicy tech
07:17 GRAVAA self inflating hubs
11:30 Pashley urban bicycles
13:26 Zwift’s new race category system
15:11 New Sidi shoes
16:50 Marianne Vos’s Cervelo
17:20 Mathieu van der Poel’s Canyon
19:05 GCN x Zwift club rides
19:40 Comments of the week
23:28 Bike vault
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Do you think there should be sub-categorisation of gravel bikes? 🚵
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27 Comments
Do you think there should be sub-categorisation of gravel bikes? 🚵
Ask MVDP if he would have won with his Roubaix bike.
It's a world championship, so I don't see the problem of a "racy gravel bike" wining it!
I’ve been on the band wagon of having a good banter making fun of gravel as I do with triathletes and triathlons. But oh my oh my, Gravel World Champs was megaaaaaa! I enjoyed it.
TPU tubes forever!
Seems like gravel bikes are becoming xc mtbs. Next up is front suspension as a normal and dropper posts lol. At the same time xc bikes are basically 100% full suspension now, aggressive geometry, and the courses are way more gnarly.
To me, gravel is all about mixed terrain in a single ride. Too much fast surface for an xc mountain bike, but too much rough terrain for a road bike. In Unbound, some are racing on modern versions of Tomac's drop bar Yeti.
Quite simple; if the first few finish on a road bike (sub 33mm), it’s not proper course for a gravel race. If the first few finish on monstercross bikes (45-60mm), it’s not gravel. If the first few finish on 35-45mm tires, it’s gravel 👍
It’s like if a XC hardtail would win an enduro or DH race ✌️
Great show!
I like just two categories: Race and Adventure like many others have said.
I think it’s good to have different brands tackling these differently, it just makes it more likely that everyone can find a bike that suits them and their type of local gravel.
On UCI Gravel, I think they just need to have more off-road than on – E.g. max 30-40% tarmac, so the off-road characteristics dominate, and I’d love it if every year it was in a different country (US, Scandinavia etc).
Brown saddles make for unfortunate photos, especially from the front
Yes slicks. Do you folks even ride gravel? Slicks worth great in dry non muddy conditions. In general though I think the Euro gravel routes are pretty short and well kept. This is not the case across the pond.
Every bike needs a bell! No super nice without a bell!
Re: M Vos and her self inflating hubs:- did she actually use them to vary the tyre pressure? In an interview she said " she would probably forget to use them!"
To my ignorance, i dont understand how cobble sectors are classified, but! Would a gravel classification system allow for better definition of a race? Ex. UCI worlds would keep to a certain category limit that allows for bikes like the Canyon Grizl and its 38 tires, while then races like unbound would have a higher category that requires 52 tires and bikes that can handle them.
this is definitely a comparison of 'Gravel' vs UCI sponsored races and commercial ties to European brands. UCI races do not reflect citizen 'Gravel' in the USA and Canada. sailing has the tradition of classes of boats racing each other, its all about skill using the same hull. I dont see biking commercialism allowing the Sail racing ethos.
Gravel bikes! Just ride what you have or whatever you buy don’t worry about it just ride
They should held Gravel race in USA,, They'll find out whats the real gravel.
The world gravel championships should be run on a course that is fairly varied such that one bike setup is not optimized for the entire course so people need to make trade-offs based on what they believe to be important for them. Also, more varied terrain that is a bit more selective… Observations from the cheap seats! Variety is the spice of life.
vos used dugast TLR
Unbound is the best Gravel race
It makes sense that they are riding "racey gravel bikes" when they are racing in the world championships. You wouldn't expect the to throw a rear rack and panniers on.
GMBN would argue there are 10 different variations of a Mountain bike.
Cool you shared my comment!
22:09 You mention the framebag is made out of just cling film. The cling film is pretty weak and therefore I only used it as inner layer. The strength of the bag is provided by the outer layer which is packing tape. Non-sticky on the inside, strong on the outside.
btw I am following and riding ultraraces for 6 years now and havent seen anyone using a similar framebag yet, but that might change in the near future.
2000 GBP for your “everyday get around bike’ 😅 wont survive one day in London.
I know tubular wheels are the quickest tyres, I can run 150 -200 psi in the velodrome. No other tyres can do this.
Next best thing is clinchers at 120psi,
Tubeless is slow, you get more punctures, valve and sealant weighs more than an inner tube.
The famous saying, don't reinvent the wheel……
Gravel now is what CX was in 1980s Belgium, my local bike shop opened in 1904, you can meet everyone from new to cycling, hardened veterans and even two tour de France green jersey winners, but one old German guy loves showing his pictures of his racing days from the 80s, I love the pictures of what he calls CX in Belgium in the 80s, very similar type of course to the 2024 worlds with more forest in the 80s ones, but the bikes ran 23mm tyres and only the high end racers might have had a brooks suspended saddle on their steel bikes
There are multiple different MTB disciplines from XC through to Down hill. I think there might be room for at least a couple of different Gravel bike disciples.