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News & Racing<\/a><\/p>\n The 2024 Unbound winner talks about the differences between UCI gravel racing and other events, her obsessive approach to tyre choice, and more.<\/p>\n Cor Vos, Josh Wienberg, Taylor Chase, Canyon<\/p>\n Gravel is cycling\u2019s experimental testing ground, a space where events and equipment evolve at a pace road racing can\u2019t match. With no decades-deep tradition dictating etiquette or tyre choice, the discipline remains in flux, shaped by terrain, rider preference, and the steady blending of road and mountain-bike tech. Every race, and every rider, becomes a rolling lab test with performance gains still waiting to be fully understood.<\/p>\n Few riders embody that spirit better than German gravel and road racer Rosa Kl\u00f6ser, winner of the 2024 Unbound Gravel, among other events. Known for her analytical approach to equipment and performance, she brings her engineering mindset to everything she does. Bike setup isn\u2019t just a checklist for her, it\u2019s a process of understanding the principles behind each choice. Every detail is deliberate, and each configuration is tuned to the demands of the race in front of her based on research and testing. <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Lachlan Morton and Rosa Kl\u00f6ser sprint to Unbound Gravel victories<\/p>\n Course records and big winners in Emporia.<\/p>\n That precision has paid off. After winning Unbound, she backed it up with a string of major gravel victories in 2025, including The Rift in Iceland.<\/p>\n But it\u2019s the experimentation behind those results that really fascinates her. Gravel success isn\u2019t just about who has the strongest legs; it\u2019s about who has done the research and knows how to translate it into equipment decisions that matter. Ahead of the UCI Gravel World Championships<\/a> in Maastricht, I sat down with Kl\u00f6ser to talk through her equipment philosophy \u2013 and to hear her thoughts on whether UCI gravel courses are technical enough to represent the discipline on the world stage.<\/p>\n The UCI is having a gravel identity crisis<\/p>\n Every year, as the UCI Gravel World Championships roll around, the now-expected comments start to collect on social posts and videos, with fans expressing their thoughts on the course selection. More often than not, they point out that the “gravel” used is hardly gravel at all, with the race earning the nickname of the “Bike Path World Champs.”<\/p>\n That criticism certainly could have applied this year in Maastricht. A relatively flat course with a lot of hardpack sections and mostly light gravel wasn\u2019t representative of what gravel typically looks like to a lot of recreational riders around the world.<\/p>\n For Kl\u00f6ser, the race came at the end of a demanding season that took her from defending her Unbound title on the open plains of Kansas to the short, punchy climbs of central Europe. The experience, she says, helped refine her approach not just to equipment but to mindset. \u201cYou learn what really matters when you\u2019re tired,\u201d she explained. \u201cYou stop chasing perfection and start thinking about efficiency, how to make the most of what you have left.\u201d<\/p>\n This post is for paying subscribers only Already have an account? Sign in<\/a><\/p>\n Did we do a good job with this story?<\/p>\n \n \ud83d\udc4dYep![\"Alex](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/Alex-Hunt-150x150.png\")
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The UCI Gravel Worlds course gained more stick this year, for a course that many felt failed to embody what a gravel race course should look like. <\/p>\n
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