{"id":197563,"date":"2025-10-13T17:40:11","date_gmt":"2025-10-13T17:40:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/197563\/"},"modified":"2025-10-13T17:40:11","modified_gmt":"2025-10-13T17:40:11","slug":"matej-mohoric-rides-unreleased-merida-mission-gravel-bike-to-gravel-world-champs-podium","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/197563\/","title":{"rendered":"Matej Mohori\u010d rides unreleased Merida Mission gravel bike to Gravel World Champs podium"},"content":{"rendered":"

Team Bahrain Victorious\u2019 Matej Mohori\u010d took third place at the UCI Gravel World Championships this weekend, riding a new, unreleased Merida Mission gravel bike. Drawing inspiration from the Mission CX bike, here\u2019s a closer look ahead of its official launch.<\/p>\n

\"20262026 Merida Mission Gravel Bike-9 (credit: Liam Cahill)<\/p>\n

Matej Mohori\u010d won the UCI Gravel World Championships in 2023, and he returned to the podium again this year, with a third place finish. Two years ago, he raced on a prototype of Merida’s Silex gravel bike<\/a>, and this time he tackled 180.9 kilometres of\u00a0Dutch gravel on a new model that is set to be launched at the start of November, according to the brand. So, what can we gather before the official launch?<\/p>\n

Merida describe this bike as a new “race gravel and multi-surface model”, reviving the name from its old Mission CX race bikes.<\/a> Mohori\u010d’s bike featured a custom paint job with green accents to match the Slovenian national team colours, and we can see the name Mission on the top tube.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"20262026 Merida Mission Gravel Bike-7 (credit: Liam Cahill)<\/p>\n

Visually, the new Mission gravel bike shares some tube shapes with the Scultura road bike, while the head tube and overall geometry appear closer to the Mission CX. Compared to the Silex gravel bike, it has a more aggressive, agile geometry, suggesting a bike that blends the speed and responsiveness of a cyclocross bike with the versatility needed for gravel riding. The fork now appears more upright, a change that typically delivers quicker, more responsive steering at the expense of some high-speed stability.<\/p>\n

For context, cyclocross (CX) bikes generally feature more aggressive geometry, with a shorter wheelbase and steeper head tube angle, whereas gravel bikes tend to prioritise stability and comfort over long distances with a slacker head tube angle and longer wheelbase.<\/p>\n

\"20262026 Merida Mission Gravel Bike-1 (credit: Liam Cahill)<\/p>\n

There are also mounts on the fork and stays for mudguards, plus bosses on top of the top tube. Unsurprisingly, Mohori\u010d didn\u2019t use any of these during racing, but the new frame now includes downtube storage, most likely for a tool sleeve that sits behind the front bottle cage – something he\u2019s likely to have made use of, along with his trusty back pockets.<\/p>\n

\"20262026 Merida Mission Gravel Bike head tube (credit: Liam Cahill)<\/p>\n

Moving up to the bars, the Mission CX had its brake hoses and cables enter the frame near the fork crown, while the Scultura gravel bike uses fully internal routing. The new Mission follows the same internal setup for a cleaner look.\u00a0<\/p>\n

There are no gear cables to see anyway, as Mohori\u010d was running\u00a0Shimano Dura-Ace Di2, a fully electronic road groupset.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"20262026 Merida Mission Gravel Bike-4 (credit: Liam Cahill)<\/p>\n

Mohori\u010d was riding FSA (Full Speed Ahead) wheels paired with Continental Terra tyres, although the \u201cTerra\u201d branding appears to have been blacked out with a Sharpie, and the tread pattern doesn\u2019t match anything currently in their range.<\/p>\n

> New Continental gravel tyres appear at Gravel Worlds<\/a><\/p>\n

We can also see that the wheels had CushCore valves, which are tubeless valves designed to work with CushCore tyre inserts. These inserts are typically used on hookless rims and, in the event of a puncture, help keep the tyre on the rim so the rider can continue riding temporarily.<\/p>\n

\"20262026 Merida Mission Gravel Bike-2 (credit: Liam Cahill)<\/p>\n

The frame itself also looks capable of accommodating up to 45mm tyres which matches that of the Merida Silex.<\/p>\n

The Slovenian rider was using Prologo\u2019s new Nago R4 Pas AGX (Adventure, Gravel, Cyclocross) saddle, designed specifically for mixed-terrain riding. Compared to the standard Nago R4 road version, the AGX features a slightly more flexible base and an additional 2mm of padding, which Prologo says helps absorb shocks and vibrations more effectively without compromising power transfer.<\/p>\n

\"20262026 Merida Mission Gravel Bike-8 (credit: Liam Cahill)<\/p>\n

www.merida-bikes.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Team Bahrain Victorious\u2019 Matej Mohori\u010d took third place at the UCI Gravel World Championships this weekend, riding a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":197564,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[4985,101,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-197563","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-cycling","8":"tag-cycling","9":"tag-sports","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom","12":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/197563","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=197563"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/197563\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/197564"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=197563"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=197563"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=197563"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}