The southern Limburg region of the Netherlands is set to host the 2025 Bolero UCI Gravel World Championships on 11 and 12 October. Riders from diverse cycling backgrounds will line up for an intense weekend of racing, with the Women Elite competing on Saturday and the Men Elite on Sunday (400 Elite riders expected), alongside amateur riders competing in different age groups (2,550 riders aged 19-85 expected).
After editions in Veneto, Italy (2022 and 2023) and Flemish Brabant, Belgium (2024), the event is organised this year in close collaboration with the municipalities of Maastricht, Beek and Beekdaelen. This region hosted the 2018 UCI Cyclo-cross World Championships as well as several editions of the UCI Road World Championships, most recently in 2012.
Versatile champions and gravel specialists
Elite and amateur riders have qualified for the Bolero UCI Gravel World Championships through the 34 events of the UCI Gravel World Series held worldwide since October 2024, by finishing within the top 25% of their age group. Professional riders competing in the Elite categories, meanwhile, are selected by their National Federations. During the weekend, all riders will be competing for the coveted UCI rainbow jerseys over the same roads, both gravel sections and cobbled roads, in an event that is estimated to bring together 2,952 riders from 51 nations.
Among the most versatile champions lining up in the Netherlands is Dutch icon Marianne Vos, who claimed victory at last year’s Bolero UCI Gravel World Championships, adding to her titles on road, cyclo-cross and track. Vos, who also won the UCI Road World Championships in Valkenburg (Limburg) in 2012, will lead a strong Dutch line-up including Lorena Wiebes (bronze medallist in 2024) and multi-discipline star Puck Pieterse. Poland’s Katarzyna Niewiadoma, winner of the Women Elite race in 2023, will also be on the start line in southern Limburg, as will Italy’s Silvia Persico, runner-up that same year.
In the Men Elite category, Slovenia’s Matej Mohorič, who triumphed in Limburg in 2012 in the Men’s Junior road race at the UCI Road World Championships and again at the 2023 UCI Gravel World Championships, will be on the start line, as well as Belgium’s Gianni Vermeersch, UCI World Champion in the discipline in the inaugural 2022 edition. Fellow Belgians Florian Vermeersch (silver medallist in 2023 and 2024) and Quinten Hermans (bronze medallist in 2024), along with Great Britain’s Connor Swift (bronze in 2023), are among the top contenders. Swift will race alongside Tom Pidcock, who will make his UCI Gravel World Championships debut after achieving major success across the cyclo-cross, mountain bike and road disciplines. Other interesting competitors to follow are France’s Romain Bardet and Belgium’s Olympic champion Greg Van Avermaet, both of whom have recently retired from long and successful careers in professional road cycling (Bardet retired in 2025 and Van Avermaet in 2023).
These versatile athletes will face seasoned gravel specialists who have excelled throughout the season, including Australia’s Nicole Frain and the Netherlands’ Mathijs Loman, the top points scorers in the 2025 UCI Gravel World Series rankings. Italy’s Erica Magnaldi and Denmark’s Mads Würtz Schmidt, both winners of the UEC Gravel European Championships, are also expected to perform strongly. But the list of strong contenders is long, especially since gravel tracks can give rise to all kinds of scenarios.
Challenging routes leading to Maastricht
The 2025 Bolero UCI Gravel World Championships will take place across three distinct sections, designed to showcase the riders’ full range of abilities and highlight the region’s stunning terrain.
“For me, gravel represents the ultimate expression of freedom on a bike,” explained Bram Tankink, co-designer of the course. “We have designed a course that not only brings out the best in the riders but also takes them through the most beautiful, wild and characteristic gravel sections in the region.”
The race will start in Beek, with riders covering 5.5 km of tarmac before tackling the Adsteeg climb (700 m at 5%), a familiar feature of the Amstel Gold Race that takes place in the spring. This early ascent will help stretch the field before entering the main 50 km loop, which includes the key gravel sectors and most of the elevation gain. The toughest climb, Bronsdalweg (1 km at 7.2%), features in the final section towards Maastricht, where the new UCI World Champions will be crowned on the Groene Loper, a green urban boulevard dedicated to walking and cycling.
Distances will vary by category, with riders completing one, two or three laps of the main loop. On Saturday, the Women Elite race will start off the event at 11:00 CEST, covering 131 km. The women competing in the 19–34, 35–39, 40–44 and 45–49 age groups and the men in the 50–54, 55–59 and 60–64 age groups will cover the same distance. Women aged 50+ and men aged 65+ will compete over 81 km.
On Sunday, the Men Elite race (181 km) will begin at 11:45 CEST, followed by the men age groups 19–34, 35–39, 40–44 and 45–49 over the same distance.