Belgium and the Netherlands dominated the 2025 UCI Gravel World Championships at the weekend, as both races played out in attritional fashion.
Florian Vermeersch (BEL) took a solo victory in the elite men’s field, while Lorena Wiebes (NED) outsprinted teammate Marianne Vos for the win in the elite women’s race.
But what about the bikes? As usual with UCI-sanctioned gravel events, we saw the pre-race flurry of opinions saying the course wasn’t long or technical enough for it to class as a real gravel race.
Yet, while we certainly didn’t see the kind of whacky aero-drop-bar-mountain-bike setups we’ve witnessed at US events such as the Leadville 100, practically everyone rode a 'proper' gravel bike with chunky tyres.
With that in mind, let’s take a look at some of the setups the big-name riders used for the Limburg parcours.
Florian Vermeersch's Colnago G4-X
After finishing second at the two previous editions of the UCI Gravel World Championships, Belgium’s Florain Vermeersch showed persistence pays off, with a classy solo win from an early breakaway aboard Colnago’s G4-X gravel bike.
The G4-X is the Italian brand’s gravel race bike, with an aggressive geometry and aero features borrowed from its V4Rs and V5Rs all-rounder road bikes.
It features clearance for tyres up to 45mm wide on 700c wheels, although Colnago says Vermeersch opted for slightly skinnier 40mm tyres.
With dry conditions on the day, Vermeersch also plumped for Continental’s Terra Speed TR tyres – a thin, lightly treaded gravel tyre, which would have helped him keep speed high on the roads littered in between the gravel secteurs.
These were paired with a set of ENVE SES 4.5 wheels – the older, slightly wider wheelset with hookless rims, rather than the newer, narrower SES 4.5 Pro wheels Tadej Pogačar has been using on the road this season.
Up front, rather than running a fully integrated cockpit, Vermeersch opted for a two-piece setup with ENVE’s Aero In-Route flared handlebar, in a 37/42cm width, and a lengthy 135mm stem.
As with Mathieu van der Poel at last year’s edition, Vermeersch opted for a Shimano Dura-Ace Di2 R9200 groupset with road-specific gearing – 54/40t chairings and an 11-34t cassette.
Vermeersch’s bike was finished off with a Fizik Argo Adaptive 3D-printed saddle and a set of Shimano Dura-Ace SPD-SL road pedals.
Matej Mohorič’s prototype Merida gravel race bike
Also on the podium in the elite men’s race was Slovenia’s Matej Mohorič – who rode an unreleased Merida gravel bike to third place.
Details on the new bike are limited, but Merida has confirmed it’s a “new race gravel and multi-surface model” that’s “set to be launched in early November”.
Based on the photos we have, it looks like a souped-up version of the Taiwanese brand’s Scultura road bike, with a mix of lightweight, truncated aerofoil tube shapes and a rear end optimised for compliance.
Given this, we suspect it’s designed to slot into Merida’s range as a ‘gravel race’ bike, complementing the Silex, which is more MTB-inspired in its geometry (and was ridden to victory at the UCI Gravel World Championships by Mohorič in 2023).
Like Vermeersch, Mohorič opted for a Dura-Ace Di2 R9200 road bike groupset, and what look like fairly narrow (by modern gravel standards) Continental Terra Speed TR tyres on low-profile Vision wheels.
Despite the relatively narrow tyres, the remaining clearance doesn’t appear enormous – suggesting this won’t be a gravel bike capable of running cross-country mountain bike tyres.
On that topic, perhaps unsurprisingly – given the gravel secteurs consisted mainly of hardpack gravel tracks and off-road trails – we didn’t see too many riders opting for XC tyres, at least at the front of the pack.
Mohorič’s prototype gravel bike was finished off with a one-piece integrated cockpit from Vision, with what looked like a long and narrow position, with a few degrees of flare from the hoods to the drops.
Tom Pidcock’s Pinarello Dogma GR
Although we saw the Briton aboard his usual Scott Addict RC at Il Lombardia on Saturday, he was riding Pinarello’s new Dogma GR at the UCI Gravel World Championships the next day.
While it’s unusual to see pro cyclists riding different brands' bikes during a single season, Pidcock has an arrangement with his Q36.5 Pro Cycling Team that sees him using Scott bikes for road-based racing and Pinarello for all things off-road.
The Italian brand’s latest gravel race bike was launched only a few months ago and is intended to blend characteristics of the Dogma F road bike, the Crossista cyclocross bike and the Dogma XC mountain bike.
As an out-and-out race bike, the Dogma GR features aerofoil tubing throughout, an integrated cockpit, and tyre clearance capped at 45mm up front and 42mm at the rear.
If you want to go wider than that, Pinarello says its Grevil F features 50mm of tyre clearance with a 1x drivetrain.
In an eye-catching cherry red and gold colour scheme, Pidcock’s bike was decked out with a SRAM Red XPLR AXS groupset and a set of Vision SC 48 i25 wheels.
Designed for both road and gravel duties, the Vision wheels feature 48mm-deep rims with a 25mm internal width and are claimed to weigh 1,594g per set.
Pidcock paired these with a set of biscuity brown, Vittoria Terreno Pro T30 tyres, which our former colleague, Liam Cahill, confirmed were only 35mm wide.
Lorena Wiebes’ Specialized S-Works Crux
With more than 20 riders in orange on the startsheet, the Dutch unsurprisingly dominated the elite women’s race.
In somewhat controversial fashion – as Yara Kastelijn helped pull back her Dutch teammate Shirin van Anrooij in the final kilometre – Wiebes soundly beat reigning champion, Marianne Vos, in a reduced bunch sprint.
Given the relatively tame parcours, Wiebes could have opted for the slightly more aero-optimised Specialized Roubaix SL8 – which features clearance for up to 40mm-wide tyres.
Instead, though, she went with Specialized’s raciest gravel offering, the S-Works Crux, although she did pair the lightweight frameset with Roval’s Rapide integrated cockpit.
Per her Team SD Worx-Protime trade team sponsors, Wiebes used a SRAM Red XPLR AXS groupset with a large 1x aero chainring up front.
The build was completed with a set of Roval Terra CLX II gravel wheels and Specialized’s latest Pathfinder TLR tyres
Marianne Vos’ Cervélo Aspero-5
In contrast to Wiebes’ relatively simple setup, Marianne Vos went all-in with a futuristic setup that almost carried her to a second consecutive world title.
While Wiebes’ Crux features round tubes focused on low weight, Vos’ Cervélo Áspero-5 is more akin to an off-road aero bike, with its S5-inspired design.
Vos pushed things further, too, removing the two-piece cockpit and speccing the same integrated handlebar we saw on Matteo Jorgenson’s Cervélo R5 at this year’s Tour de France.
She made a notable tyre choice, too, opting for a grippier Vittoria Terreno T70 up front (in a 45mm width) and a slick, 42mm-wide Corsa Pro Control TLR out back for its lower rolling resistance.
The theory is that this allows for a better balance of off-road grip and rolling resistance, especially on muddy sections of the course.
It’s also worth noting that the 42mm-wide Corsa Pro Control remains a model exclusive to the Cervélo gravel bike – with the Italian manufacturers' catalogue still showing 34c as the largest option elsewhere.
This is a marked change from Vos’ setup at last year’s UCI Gravel World Championships, where the Dutchwoman used 33mm-wide Dugast cyclocross tyres.
One bit of tech she did carry forward to this year’s race was the Gravaa KAPS hubs in her Reserve wheels.
These hubs enable the rider to deflate and re-inflate their tyres while riding, using a bar-mounted remote control.
In theory, this could offer significant performance gains because the optimal tyre pressure for tarmac sections would be substantially higher than that for the tougher off-road parts of the course.
As Vos told BikeRadar at last year’s race, though, the rider also needs to remember to use it at the right times – which isn’t always so easy in the heat of the moment.
Vos’ build was finished off with SRAM’s Red XPLR AXS groupset, and like Wiebes, she ran a large 1x aero chainring up front.
