No-one rides alone

The UCI Gravel World Championships in Nannup has loomed large on the calendar of Western Australian riders. Last weekend the world finally came to Nannup, a tiny town in the South West, where they were treated to the best UCI Gravel World Champs ever staged.

Locals have long known the South West has some of the best gravel roads in the world, with a vast network of thousands of kilometres of old and new forestry roads, largely empty of traffic.While the natural and constructed environments are perfect for gravel riding, it is the dedicated crew behind the Gravel World Champs which made it so successful. It is a huge team, led by Rebecca Cotton, Brendon Morrison & Stephen Gallagher, supported by a blue army of hundreds of volunteers. 4Five+ AC are proud that so many of our members put in such a huge effort both behind the scenes and out on course.

Winter in Nannup had been dry and in the weeks leading into the race the course was dusty and slippery and in need of rain. Nature kindly provided rain - a little too much rain for the racers on Saturday. The women’s elite field were covered in mud and unrecognizable by the time they reached the Adina climb, and it got worse for the age group categories that followed. Rain started to fall as the women 50+ stood waiting to launch, and followed them all the way through to around 65km. What had been a pea gravel slippery slide turned into a clay mud slippery slide. One of the biggest challenges was visibility: racers were faced with a choice between mud-spattered glasses or desperately squinting to try and keep the mud flick out of their eyes. Wet conditions made the course heavy to push through, and drive trains chirped their distress. At times it seemed more like long course cyclocross than a gravel race. Our white jerseys will forever bear testament to the red roads of Nannup.

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No racer races alone: it takes a village to get us to the finish line. On top of the event support crew, family & friends were on hand to give support. Thank you to everyone who navigated the back roads of Nannup to get out on course for hand-ups, and for all the shout-outs from the side of the road. There were tears in a few eyes at Adina and Folly as racers heard their names shouted by cheering crowds, and it wasn’t just from the grit in their eyes 🥲

All of the riders who completed the course should be extremely proud to have represented their country with grit and determination. Winners all for completing a tough day out, but special shout outs to our World Champion racer Deb Latouf 🏆and 🥈Helen Trlin 👊

50-54

5 Yael Gardner 3:40

6 Tracey Chapman 3:40

14 Rebecca Kelly 3:56

15 Irene Schmutz 3:58

16 Claire Sibbell 4:04

17 Allie Cormack 4:10