Nannup may be one of the more remote and wild parts of Australia but the Dutch women’s team seemed right at home and as dominant as ever. Marianne Vos executed a perfect race, with the orange jerseys of her teammates helping deliver her back to the rainbow bands of gravel world champion.

Rosa Klöser of Germany put in a massive ride, looking until the final kilometres like she might be able to challenge one of cycling’s greatest riders for the win. One small mistake saw that hope vanish and saw Vos take the win.

Canada’s Haley Smith also had a fantastic day in Nannup, riding to 1oth behind Vos.

2026 UCI gravel world championships: How it happened

While much ado was made about how slippery conditions could be in the dry, racers woke up to rain in Nannup. While the skies had mostly cleared for racing, that meant constantly changing conditions on the ground as moving between shade and sun produced visibly different surfaces that varied from mud to nearly-dry gravel.

Off the start, it was Australia’s own Tiffany Cromwell, racing in her last professional race of a long and storied career, that went off on a flyer early. That was eventually brought back without too much effort by the group, but was a sign of things to come.

With 96km remaining in the 125km race, the group hit the first major climb and the race blew up. Canada’s Dylan Baker and Kaitlyn Rauwerda started to trail off. Holly Henry still seemed to be among the front group, but the race was detonating quickly under pressure from the front riders.

By 90km to go, a smaller front group had formed including Sofia Gomez-Villafane, Ashley Moolman-Pasio and a fleet of Dutch riders including Vos, Larissa Hartog, Elisa Sarné and Geerike Schreurs.

Smith leads the chase, Cromwell goes on the attack

Behind, Haley Smith was helping drive the pace in the chase, both pushing on the climbs and then leading the attack on the descent that would eventually close a 40 second gap by 84km to go.

Only moments after the two front groups merged together, Cromwell flew off the front. It took a while to make her attack stick, but the Australian eventually saw her gap start to grow out until it started to hover around 1:30.

Behind, Schreurs and Moolman Pasio go down in a hard crash. The Dutch rider hits a rock-filled ditch and is very slow to get up. The South African stays nearby while medical personal attend to Schruers.

Ahead, Smith continued to hold her place in the front group.

That faded when, with 60km left to race, the group again imploded on the Ellis Creek climb. Two kilometres at over nine percent average gradient was a punishing test mid-race. For a while, Cromwell was able to hold her gap. Italy’s Erica Magnaldi was pushing hard, though, trailing riders off behind her before eating rapidly into the Australians lead. Smith survived more than half of the climb before being left behind by what would become a front trio of Vos, Klöser and Nele Laing of Germany. Smith would crest the climb 1:47 back, 15 second ahead of Gomez Villafane.

For a moment it looked like Vos might be isolated with the two Germans. Then Larissa Hartog (NED) and Magnaldi rejoined the front.

Gravel slalom in Australia

For a brief, but bizarre moment, lapped masters rider number 24o6, and two companions, also joined onto the back of the leading five women. It turns out even world championships racing isn’t immune to the phenomenon of master’s men getting caught, refusing to admit that they’ve been caught by faster riders, and joining in the race. After a few words from Vos and, then, the motor bike, the trio of old men appeared to concede their free ride was over.

Australia’s Nicole Frain then clawed her way back to the front group, which swelled to eight with Serné and Switzerland’s Irina Lützelschwab joining back on.  Frain attacks immediately when the group hits a longer section of tarmac, only to be immediately marked by Vos. Laing joined before the rest of the group brought them back.

Cromwell is chasing hard and, despite a long solo effort off the front, catches the leaders. Gomez-Villafane is the next to join. The Argentinian U.S.-based racer’s presence seems to wake up the Dutch squad, who start to put a more concerted effort into keeping the pace high enough to deter more joiners.

Cromwell again goes from the back right to the front and back on the attack as the race turns left and sharply uphill

Frustratingly, there’s now even more masters on the road infant of the women. Most are being polity but the sheer difference in pace on the climbs leaves Cromwell to swerve around one rider as the course takes a 90-degree turn back onto gravel.

Laing chases Vos, Klöser and a bunch of masters racers.
Vos on Klöser make an escape

Klöser and Vos work their way through lap traffic to catch, then drop Cromwell. Vos, 39, is the 2024 grail world champion. She was second in a spring in 2025. Add that to her seven cyclocross world champs, road world championships and countless other wins, and she is a dangerous woman to let off the front. Laing senses the danger and is fighting through lap traffic to try catch the front duo but can’t quite make it.

Again, we’re now into the final 25 km of a world championships race and the leaders are swerving through masters traffic at an alarming rate. What is going on?

Klöser is now alone with Vos on the front. Despite Vos’s history, the German seems content to do the bulk of the work on the lengthy, 3.6km steady climb averaging around 5.5 per cent. Eventually, Klöser throws a few flicks of the elbow and Vos, very begrudgingly, answers by pulling through.

Behind, Laing is caught by Hartog, which could make for a very interesting two-on-two quartet if they can catch the leading pair. Hartog isn’t very willing to work with Laing, who quickly seems frustrated with the Dutch woman’s refusal to pull through. The gap to Vos and Klöser is only 30 seconds, but soon starts to grow. With Gomez-Villafane again working her way forward, just 1:100 back, with under 15km to go.

Up front, Vos is taking occasional pulls but is, for the most part, still forcing Klöser to do the bulk of the work.

Vos rounds the corner onto the final descent. Klöser goes down trying to find an inside line.
The Boss makes her move

At 5.5 km to go, the duo hit a 2.5km climb that disrupts their procession to the finish. Despite Klöser doing most of the work, they’re holding a high enough pace that the chase has faded to 1:13 back.

At 4km to go, Vos reaches down to tighten the buckles on her shoe. Almost immediately after, she attacks the final section of the climb. It takes Klöser a second to respond, and the German is absolutely fighting her bike to try regain the wheel. She does get back to Vos’s wheel, but the Dutch woman keeps the pressure on over the top of the climb.

Klöser, maybe a bike-length behind, goes for an inside line to try regain Vos’s wheel. The German washes out and goes down. It’s not a fast crash, and she is on the bike quickly, but Vos is gone. A devastating moment after Klöser’s spent so much of the day working.

Klöser takes a devastating fall after putting in the lion’s share of work. Bonus: Another master’s racer.

Vos hits the bottom of the final descent and turns onto tarmac with Klöser no where in sight. The Dutch woman is on familiar ground and immediately goes into TT mode. Vos, who finished second at gravel worlds to Lorena Wiebes in a spring last year, has to be relieved that she no longer has to think about contesting another sprint this year.

Behind, Klöser is still fighting to try catch Vos and to keep the chasing duo at bay.

With a few long looks back to make sure Klöser really isn’t coming back, Vos enters the town of Nannup. She has time to celebrate as she crosses the line.

Marianne Vos is, again, the gravel world champion.

A rainbow finish to close a long year

It’s a big win for the Dutch woman, and the emotion is visible as she rolls across the finish. Vos started her year on an emotional note, sitting out part of her spring campaign following the death of her father. She now finishes the last race of the season with a world championship title.

Kloser, with a remarkable bit of sportsmanship, comes immediately to congratulate Vos “I’m really happy for you.”

Laurissa Hartog takes third, giving the Netherland’s two spots on the podium, with Laing unable to contest the sprint.

“It means a lot,” Vos tells cameras after the race, visibly struggling to contain her emotions.

“It was more muddy than I expected today,” Vos adds. “Rosa was really really strong. I had to dig deep to follow her on the climbs.”

“I knew the final corner and descent were going to be tricky, I wanted to be in front there” Vos said of her decisive attack, adding It is unfortunate that she crashed there.”

Canadians in Nannup

Haley Smith led the Canadian finishers in 10th, 8:55 back of Vos’s 4:30:01 winning time. Kaitlyn Rauwerda was next across the line in 18th.

Francesca Seal finishes 24th, Holly Henry 26th, Dylan Baker 36th, Sarah Diekmeyer 38th and Laetitia Bilodeau 39th.