Organizers of the Belgian gravel race "Waffle Ride" series have announced that Deceueninck-QuickStep duo Remco Evenepoel and Mattia Cattaneo will participate in the Kansas event on October 31.

The race will be their first taste of the gravel world, which has been the fastest-growing segment of cycling competition in recent years. The Kansas event will be the fourth Belgian Waffle Ride this year, following races in San Diego, North Carolina, and Utah.

Evenpoel and Cattaneo will not be participating in the 178-kilometer (111-mile) "wafer" course, which boasts 2,438 meters of elevation gain, but Cycling News understands that they are among the riders participating in the event.

The two will instead compete on either the shorter "Wafer" or "Wanna" course, which is 124 km (77 mi) long with an elevation gain of 1,326 meters, and 53 km (33 mi) long with an elevation gain of 457 meters.

Katerina Nash and former road pros Peter Stetina, and Ian Boswell have won this year's past competitions, while Tiffany Cromwell and Ted King are among the well-known athletes who participated in the Belgian Waffle Ride in 2021.

The last time Evenpoel raced on gravel roads was at the Giro d'Italia in May, 11 days after returning from a crash at Il Lombardia in 2020, the 21-year-old struggled on the Strade Bianche stage to Montalcino, losing more than two minutes to his main GC rivals. He was more than two minutes behind his main GC rivals.

His and Cattaneo's attempts at gravel racing are the latest move from the road pro to gravel scene. Last week, the pro-only Serenissima gravel event was held in northern Italy, and Alexey Lutsenko (Astana-Premier Tech) was the lone winner, defeating Riccardo Minari (Intermarque-Wanti-Govert) and Nathan Haas (Cofidis) in the 134km race.

Elsewhere, Lachlan Morton and Alex Howes of EF Education Nippo often participate in gravel races as part of the team's "alternative calendar," and Stetina, Laurens ten Dam, and the retiring Kiel Leinen, among others, have been on the road Some riders have switched to gravel after halting their careers.

The Belgian Waffle Ride in Lawrence, Kansas, runs from Friday, October 29 through Sunday, October 31, with the main race starting early Sunday morning.

Editor's note: This article originally stated that Evenpoel and Cattaneo would be participating in the full-length race.