UCI Gravel World Championships 2026 elite women LIVE – Wet gravel and puddles set the tone for the race

Crash

Geerike Schreurs (Netherlands)
Ashleigh Moolman-Pasio (South Africa)

The latter gets back on her feet but isn’t in a rush to get going while Schreurs stays on the ground with the medics tending to both.

Cromwell drags her advantage out to 19″ and is now out of sight from the chase group as the Aussie goes solo in the Worlds, on home soil, in her final race.

Vos came into this race with an eye on the gravel specialists as the superstar hopes to become the first rider to take a second gravel world title…

>>> ‘They are going to be hard to beat for sure’ – Marianne Vos toes the line against a field packed with discipline specialists at the UCI Gravel World Championships

Cromwell heads onto the descent, probably the longest downhill of the entire race.

Attack

Marianne Vos (Netherlands)

The former world champion launches for a second time to try and close Cromwell down. She is marked but it has got the rest of the group interested in chasing again.

80km to go

Cromwell expands her lead to 10″ as the chase stalls.

Magnaldi is investing a lot of energy on the front of the favourites group without dropping anyone but they stall again and allow Cromwell a bit more gap.

Vos tried a move but she was heavily marked. Cromwell continues to press on as the chase group starts to sit up a bit more.

Attack

Tiffany Cromwell (Australia)

The Australian champion launches as soon as she re-joined the leaders to try and get clear but she is solo and the chase is on.

Cromwell is leading the chasing group back to the front group as the leader’s pace lulls. That was a big effort from the chasers with Oosterwoud still struggling to hold the wheel but we now have a lead group of around 16 riders.

And the gap is closing. 15″ between the leaders and chasers as riders like Cromwell, Oosterwoud and Flora Johnson (Great Britain) may get back in.

The Shale climb appears to have favoured the chase group as the gap drops to 22″, but this will be based on the motorbikes so we take that gap with a pinch of salt.

Onto Shale climb of 800m at 6.8% which is being done very swiftly as Villafañe and Magnaldi lead the way for now.

The gap between the lead group including Vos, Villafañe, Klöser, Moolman-Pasio and the rest have a minute on the group including Cromwell, Wright and Oosterwoud.

Puncture

Holly Harris (Australia)

She has a front flat but she seems to have got it fixed pretty fast.

Bit of grass racing turns into mud and then some more traditional looking gravel for a very short period before returning back to the pea gravel very soon.

On the Adina climb now, 1.1km long at 4% average.

Great crowds around the feed area after a period on private land.

Through the feed zone now as multiple riders take on fresh bottles, bars and gels.

Cromwell, Wright, Oosterwoud are now around 45″ down on the leaders.

Wright did all that work on the toughest gradients but has not made the group.

Sofía Gómez Villafañe (Argentina)
Nicole Frain (Australia)
Marianne Vos (Netherlands)
Ashleigh Moolman-Pasio (South Africa)
Nele Laing (Germany)
Erica Magnaldi (Italy)
Elisa Serné (Netherlands)
Rosa Klöser (Germany)
Geerike Schreurs (Netherlands)
Larissa Hartog (Netherlanda)
Irina Lützelschwab (Switzerland)
Haley Smith (Canada)

And a few others now lead.

The Dutch still just about have four riders in this select group with Hartog and Geerike Schreurs just holding on.

Cromwell also out of the back with Denmark’s Janni Spangsberg Schori losing tough as well.

Wendy Oosterwoud (Netherlands), Gravel World Series leader, has been gapped just before the hardest section. That is a big surprise.

Klöser flies pass British duo of Nutt and Hermolle as they have to negotiate their way around one of the camera bikes that has got stuck in the mud on the gradients of Brockman.

Wright is ripping this peloton to bits on this climb but Klöser is about to make it back on.

Klöser has fought very well and is about 10″ off the back of the lead group and is picking up riders who are losing touch.

The climb is 2.5km at 8% with kicks well over 15%.

Onto the Brockman climb with Wright and Magnaldi upping the tempo with the rain starting yet again. You won’t win the race here but you can certainly lose it.

Wright, Hartog, Cromwell and Erica Magnaldi (Italy) lead the peloton on this rolling terrain.

100km to go

The peloton now bunches up after that descent as they build towards the first majorly hard climb of Brockwell.

Maddy Nutt (Great Britain) was just off the back after that descent but has made it back in now. She will be relying on her huge engine and stamina to be involved in the final…

>>> ‘The year where someone who’s primarily a gravel racer would win – Maddy Nutt representing the specialists at the World Championships

Some info coming from the start… The age groupers are heading out in waves now. Some were so keen to ensure a good spot in the start line that they were sitting in the ground with their bikes in their start box well over an hour before their start time.

Puncture

Rosa Klöser (Germany)

One of the big favourites for the race is trying to fix this quickly with her plugs but the sealant taking a while. She is now back riding but a long way out the back now. Similar happened in Unbound earlier this year.

The sun is back out now but the gravel is very wet and slippy.

Onto the first descent of the day now and the pace shot up to make sure they were in a good position with Vos, Sophie Wright (Great Britain) and Larissa Hartog (Netherlands) leading the way.

Bloor is caught by the Dutch led peloton that has been whittled right down on the first climb.

Inside 1km from the top of the Killarney climb as Bloor holds a very slender lead.

Crash

Gabrielle Fox (Ireland)

Not ideal for the Irish rider who clipped a wheel and came down. She is back riding but is now out of the back.

Former Australian national road champion Nicole Frain is keen to see a gravel specialist take the title today…

>>> ‘I would love to see an actual gravel rider winning the jersey’ – An established gravel incarnation of Nicole Frain lines up as key hope for home-nation at Nannup Gravel World Championships

The peloton has shrunk quite a lot on this first climb with Bloor being reeled back in very soon.

Bloor’s gap has now reduced significantly as she continues to tap out a rhythm that suits her but she now just has 30″ on the chasers.

One unexpected rider on the startlist for the elite women was Peta Mullens (Australia) who was expecting to ride the age group of 35-39 but received an email a few days ago saying she will have to race the elite due to rule changes coming into force…

Multiple riders now struggling to hold onto the peloton as Bloor has 1’02” on the pack.

The climb Killarney which is 5.4km of very undulating riding and an average of 3.4% but with some nasty kickers.

110km to go

The gap goes out to a minute for Bloor who will be very happy for the moment but I imagine she would like to have some company. She rides solo for the time being.

Mutsumi Hara (Japan) and Elizabeth Hermolle (Great Britain) early off the back but it is a tough start and there’s a long way to go as the rain begins to fall again.

Mud is already caking the backs of the riders as the riders are on the first climb of the day now.

Bloor’s wheel skipping and skidding all over the place forcing her to freewheel. All the riders have only been able to recon some of the route due to some of the sections being on private property including the first climb of the day.

The peloton hit the gravel and immediately things change as the pace shoots up with the Dutch crowding the front still. 5km to the first climb of the day.

Gravel begins

Bloor leads onto the gravel with a very wet surface and a few puddles. A couple of early twitches from the back wheel for the Australian rider. She now has 34″ on the peloton.

Bloor has a gap of just 12″ on the peloton as the gravel edges closer and closer.

12 riders down as DNFs including Germany’s Romy Kaspar and the Netherlands’ Riejanne Markus.

Attack

Ella Bloor (Australia)

The home nation gets the ball rolling with the first attack of the day. No-one keen on following for the time being as we are still on the asphalt with 10km until the gravel begins.

It is a fast start on the asphalt to begin with the tiny peloton bunched together for the moment but when they hit the gravel it’ll likely immediately split up.

125.6km to go

Racing begins for the 2026 Gravel World Championships in Nannup with the Dutch team immediately up to the front.

Australian gravel champion and winner here for the SEVEN Gravel race in Nannup earlier in the year, Tiffany Cromwell, is another rider who will be hanging up the wheels after this race.

This will be the final race in the career of South African WorldTour rider Ashleigh Moolman-Pasio despite having a cold.

It is being said that this is a ‘true’ gravel course with 85% of the course on gravel with intense gradients and a huge amount of climbing. The chance for the specialists to finally have a pure gravel rider in the rainbow bands after road stars have dominated the first four editions.

The riders are beginning to line up on the start line in Nannup with Wendy Oosterwoud of the Netherlands wearing number one.

The gravel is like nothing seen in European gravel racing and is unique to the area in Australia. Pea gravel is what it says on the tin, gravel that is shaped like peas. It can been incredibly slippery when dry but when wet it can be compacted down and become less notable with tyre choice being crucial.

The course itself is extremely challenging. While it is rather short, in the 125.6km of racing there are 3180 metres of elevation gain with the climbs not allow immediate rest after the summits are they tend to plateau for a while afterwards.

For those who may not be familiar with the gravel scene but knows road will have one name screaming out at them, that being former world gravel champion Marianne Vos. However, there are some star specialists are here with Argentina’s Sofia Gomez Villafañe, home rider Nicole Frain and many more all lining up to challenge.

>>> True grit specialists primed to challenge the run of road pro rainbow jerseys – Analysing the Gravel World Championships contenders

Racing is due to begin at 10:10 local time in Nannup. Roughly 30 minutes from now.

The women face a challenging but rather short 125.6km of racing on the gravel of Western Australia, what should they be looking out for? Well, we’ve put together what we think will be the three things that could shape the racing…

>>> Three course features that could be make or break at the UCI Gravel World Championships in Nannup

Info from our Australia Editor Simone Giuliani on the ground is that the course has had some overnight rain, compacting the pea gravel making the route less slippery.

However, the riders will have to contend with puddles, likely not to the same extent seen at Unbound this year, but still an extra challenge for the riders.

Hello and welcome to Cycling News‘ live updates of the women’s UCI World Gravel Championships 2026 from Nannup, Western Australia.

The temperatures have been high for much of the week but it is a cool and fresh 16°C, unusually low for spring time in the area.