Great Britain's Madeleine Nutt is no stranger to long-distance endurance tests, whether racing or traveling. Her second trip to the UCI Gravel World Championships in Belgium this weekend came via Kenya.

The 26-year-old qualified with a dominant performance in the Safari Gravel Race, a UCI Gravel World Series race, just 12 days after finishing eighth in the Traka 360. He also finished on the podium in the four-day Migration Gravel Race, and was second in the 240-km Gravel Mexico, as well as runner-up in the Falling Leaves Lahti.

After pre-riding the Halle section of the world championship course, the London-born rider admitted to Cycling News that “gravel racers have to step up to compete against a lot of road riders on Saturday.”

“I would say that this course suits road classic riders better than gravel racers, because they are the ones who are going to have to step up their game,” he said. I can understand why those riders would go for the Rainbow Stripes. And that makes the race harder for us [gravel specialists]. That means gravel riders have to step it up to compete,” he told Cycling News with his newly acquired bib number in hand.

On Saturday's starting grid of 138 women, Nutt said she expected to be in the middle of the pack. The opening circuit around Halle is particularly narrow, she noted, and patience will play an important role in moving up after Saturday's 12:00 elite women-only start in Halle. The route opens up a bit through the Brabant forests and, after many twists and turns, enters Leuven for a final lap of 47 km and a total length of 135 km.

“Most of my gravel races have been non-UCI races, so although I won one World Series race, I don't have many UCI points. So my starting position is not very good. It's a very narrow start, but I'll do my best to move forward as much as possible.”

Nat was excited about the high level of competition and recognized many of the names of the road race stars, including Belgian favorite Lotte Kopecky, who had just defended her world road race title a week earlier, and Olympic road race silver medalist Marianne Vos of the Netherlands. He knew many of them.

“I don't think you need any special skills to ride this course. There are definitely elements of gravel and singletrack, but it's not like the gravel races in the UCI World Series or other series. I can see why they would attack this race,” she said of the race, which is lined with road pros.

She also qualified for the 2023 UCI gravel championships, finishing 77th. She achieved her goal of competing again for Team Great Britain, this time seeing a 55% increase in elite women's participation and competing against a larger field, with many gravel novices.

“Personally, as someone who primarily competes in gravel, I feel that there needs to be a level of commitment to gravel (beforehand). This is because the starting list includes road racers who have never raced gravel before. They need to show interest in at least one race before going for the World Championships.”

Nat represented the Ribble Collective Trade Team at the Gravel World Series Kenya race in Hell's Gate National Park. She stayed in Kenya with a group of riders and competed in her second Migration Gravel Race to raise the bar. Held as part of the Gravel Earth Series, the race covered 650 km in four stages and climbed 8,000 meters.

“I can honestly say that the Migration Gravel Race in Kenya was a great way to bond with the other riders as I raced with Sarah Sturm (overall winner) and Louise Valentin (2nd) for 4 days. And the scenery, the animals, the terrain. It was a brutal race,” she recalled. [It was] physically and mentally challenging, and I think it was a better experience than the UCI one-day races. I don't know yet how the skills I developed in Africa will translate here, but it will be interesting.”

Nat competed in the Unbound Gravel 200 in 2023. She experienced a complicated itinerary and her arrival in Emporia, Kansas was delayed until a few hours before the end of the rider registration period. She has decided to travel back to the U.S. next year to try again.

“I don't know how I feel about American gravel in general, because I haven't ridden it enough, but there were parts of it that were boring, like a 20-km stretch with no corners.

Unlimited access to all coverage of the 2024 UCI Gravel World Championships - including breaking news and analysis from local journalists of the women's elite and men's elite events. Details.