Gravel and off-road racing confirmed no indicators of easing from a meteoric rise in recognition in 2025. Excessive-profile races throughout mud, rocks, sand and soil in Europe and North America featured deep fields among the many elite riders, whereas amateurs continued to grind by way of scenic landscapes and epic private journeys of greater than 100 occasions across the globe, a quantity that may be a modest estimate.
Occasions at Unbound Gravel and The Traka continued to reign supreme because the ‘monuments’ of off-road racing, with Karolina Migoń etching a brand new stage of success with wins at each The Traka 360 and Life Time Unbound Gravel 200. At The Traka 200, each Mads Würtz Schmidt and Sofia Gomez Villafañe received on inaugural appearances on the Girona race. New Zealander Cameron Jones made Kansas really feel like dwelling with a signature solo victory within the elite males’s race at Unbound 200.
Two of the richest off-road sequence, Life Time Grand Prix and Gravel Earth Collection, earned headlines, with Villafañe profitable the Grand Prix a 3rd time and Jones utilizing his Unbound victory to earn a wildcard entry within the sequence after which profitable the general within the sixth and last race. Former Unbound Gravel 200 champion Rosa Klöser went on a tear with eight victories, half of these within the Gravel Earth Collection for the general title.
Kate Courtney
2025 workforce – She Sends Racing2025 key outcomes – wins at Leadville Path 100 MTB and UCI Mountain Bike World Championship in Cross-country Marathon, silver medals at Pan-American MTB Championships in XCC and XCOFavourite picture from 2025 – “It’s simply such a loopy picture as a result of you possibly can see my flat tire and it’s in all probability six miles from the end. What an journey,” she informed Cyclingnews about profitable Marathon MTB World title in Switzerland on a flat tyre.
Former mountain bike world champion Kate Courtney had wrist surgical procedure in Might following a crash at a World Cup spherical in Nové Město. She rested and regrouped at dwelling in California, and took benefit of an prolonged keep at dwelling in California to present it a go at Leadville Stage Race after which Leadville Path 100 MTB. She completed second within the stage race and set a brand new course report to win the 100-miler.
The Leadville 100 efficiency turned a driving power to return to Europe for MTB World Cups and Marathon World Championships. She defined in her Substack article why her second victory in Switzerland was so particular and sudden:
‘One step at a time.’ In 2018, as I rode the ultimate descent of the UCI Cross Nation World Championships in Lenzerheide, Switzerland, I repeated these phrases to myself time and again. I began the race as an underdog – a first-year elite who had by no means stood on a World Cup podium, not to mention contended for a World Championship win.
However the results of a motorcycle race isn’t predetermined, and that uncertainty, I informed myself, may very well be my alternative. I crossed the end line to carry a rainbow jersey dwelling to the USA for the primary time within the XCO self-discipline in virtually 20 years.
Seven years later, these phrases returned to me. Once more, I discovered myself in Switzerland. And once more, I used to be main the ultimate descent of a World Championship, now within the marathon self-discipline. Besides this time, I had a flat tire.
After I reached the highest of the final little climb on the course, there was nobody in sight. I crested the climb, hopped on my bike and commenced my descent into the mountains with tears in my eyes. Round a nook, my rear tire felt tender beneath me. “I’m sorry,” shouted the cameraman [riding an e-bike] behind me, “however you’re flat.”
And that’s when acquainted phrases entered my thoughts. One step at a time. I may win. Or I may flat. Ultimately, I did each.
That’s the reality of chasing massive desires. The facility isn’t in controlling the result, however in selecting to step ahead anyway. To maintain going, irrespective of the circumstances. – Kate Courtney
Mads Würtz Schmidt
2025 workforce – PAS Racing2025 key outcomes – winner at The Traka 200, Monaco Gravel Race, Turnhout Gravel, Blaavands Huk, Houffa Gravel and European Gravel ChampionshipsFavourite picture from 2025 – “I’ve chosen this image from The Traka. I do know it’s straightforward to choose a photograph the place you win a race. Nevertheless it was a really emotional victory.”
Earlier than turning 31 years of age final March, Mads Würtz Schmidt moved from a 14-year highway profession, with of these seasons on the WorldTour stage, to a brand new profession on gravel. He informed Cyclingnews that it was a one-year trial, one which was exterior his consolation zone, each bodily and financially.
How did he do? The Dane would win 4 UCI Gravel World Collection races, The Traka 200 and shut out his time on the rostrum with the European Gravel Championships title. It was The Traka 200, which he stated solidified his place on gravel:
I made the shift to gravel very late and hadn’t proved myself as a very good gravel rider. So it was a danger to race on gravel.
The foremost factor this yr was monetary. It’s been a yr that has price me cash. So this yr was a one-shot alternative. If I didn’t succeed, I might have needed to finish my profession as a bicycle owner.
That’s why The Traka was essential to me. This was my first probability to essentially show myself and present that I belong in skilled biking. I had a really profitable 2025, and it began with The Traka. With my Traka win, loads of doorways opened, and I’ve prolonged my profession as knowledgeable bicycle owner.
The Traka means every little thing to me. – Mads Würtz Schmidt
Karolina Migoń
2025 workforce – PAS Racing2025 key outcomes – winner at The Traka 350, Unbound Gravel 200, Gravel Locos, Misplaced and Discovered, runner-up Wörthersee Gravel, Gravel Race Bern, third at Lauf Gravel Worlds and 66 Degres Sud-Le GravelFavourite picture from 2025 – “I selected this picture as a result of it captures the precise second every little thing hit me [to win Unbound Gravel 200].”
Karolina Migoń had a stellar 2024, profitable The Traka 360 and Ranxo Gravel, however she poured on the success in 2025, incomes high 10s in 13 of 14 off-road races. Amongst her high outcomes have been a defence of her title at The Traka 360, and a string of three consecutive victories within the US – Gravel Locos, Unbound Gravel 200 and Misplaced and Discovered.
Profitable the 2 greatest gravel races on the planet – The Traka 360 and Unbound Gravel 200 – in the identical yr was a monumental achievement. And it was a goal for the 29-year-old Polish racer. Nevertheless, she did not plan to make use of a 50-mile solo effort to assert the win in Kansas, saying after the race, “I didn’t know if I used to be silly or a genius. I didn’t know if I might make it to the end, I might say, till the final 5km.” She completed 8:35 forward of her teammate, Cecily Decker, for the solo win:
The feelings, the disbelief, the exhaustion after 10 hours of racing. I’m nonetheless lined in mud. Earlier than I even had time to course of it, the questions began. It exhibits the uncooked transition from pure effort to one thing larger than the race itself. – Karolina Migoń
Cameron Jones
2025 workforce – Scott-Shimano2025 key outcomes – winner at Unbound Gravel 200, 5 podiums and first general at Oregon Path Gravel, third at Lauf Gravel WorldsFavourite picture from 2025 – “Huge Sugar.”
From wildcard to general winner, that sums up the 2025 season for New Zealander Cameron Jones. At 24 years previous to begin the season, he focused high outcomes on the first two US rounds of the Life Time Grand Prix, Sea Otter Basic and Unbound Gravel 200, with a view to declare certainly one of three elite males’s wildcard berths for the cash-rich sequence.
First, he scored a dominant victory at Unbound, which gave him a berth within the Grand Prix. Then he went on to win one other spherical at Little Sugar MTB and set the stage for the ultimate showdown at Huge Sugar, the place he simply needed to outdistance defending sequence champion Keegan Swenson, and contenders Pellaud and Torbjørn Andre Røed, to win the highest prize, and together with {that a} assured entry into the sector for 2026.
“The people who have been up there within the entrance weren’t going to beat me within the sequence. And so, I simply needed to concern myself with the individuals who may, and attempt to make their life as arduous as potential,” Jones stated after his fifth-place end at Huge Sugar. Fifth place was by no means celebrated so wildly, because it gave him the Grand Prix title. Jones let photographer Wil Matthews describe his favorite picture from 2025, since he’s not even in focus:
This yr’s Life Time Grand Prix completed with a tantalizing ‘Winner takes all’ battle between 4 riders. After a chaotic, shortened Huge Sugar Gravel [down from 100 miles to 54 due to storms], the general title got here right down to a 25-man bunch dash on the principle avenue of Bentonville. This picture exhibits Cameron with a lot of a niche he escaped focus, with the opposite three contenders (Pellaud, Røed and Swenson) watching the $20,000 high prize sprinting up the highway. – Wil Matthews
Heather Jackson
2025 workforce – Herbalife/Canyon2025 key outcomes – winner Unbound Gravel XL, fourth The Traka 360Favourite picture from 2025 – “Positively Unbound XL”
Heather Jackson amassed six Ironman wins and 16 Ironman 70.3 wins throughout 15 years, then turned a standout performer with simply the bike in gravel racing. After wins at Belgian Waffle Experience California and Stetina’s Paydirt in 2023, she raced Unbound Gravel 200 in 2024 and completed fifth, mixing it up with the eight others in a first-ever mass dash to the end. One yr later, she took on Unbound XL, the 350-mile in a single day endurance contest throughout the Flint Hills of Kansas, and received the ladies’s division, ending eighth general.
Unbound XL victory, in 20 hours, 57 minutes, 57 seconds, was double the hassle from the 200-miler. She referred to as an all-out time trial effort, and after the race revealed the chaos of her headlamp going out, a crash and dust caught in her wheels. Her win and struggling will stay as some of the particular recollections:
So many issues can occur in off-road gravel occasions, particularly the longer the gap, and so when one comes collectively, it is an absolute dream come true. And that was Unbound XL for me!
This image all the time speaks to me as a result of I particularly bear in mind seeing Linda leaning out of the Life Time car, screaming probably the most congratulatory of issues – she has been certainly one of my greatest supporters, and he or she appeared really so completely happy for me. So it is extra that I bear in mind Linda [Guerrette] behind the lens greater than this picture itself, and that I wished to yell one thing again however there have been solely about 5 miles left right here and I actually couldn’t raise my head or neck.
It harm so unhealthy from time trialling for 20 hours, and I used to be truthfully questioning whether or not I may make it to the ultimate few miles, however I simply tried to internalize Linda’s happiness. – Heather Jackson
Rob Britton
2025 workforce – Issue Bikes2025 key outcomes – winner at Unbound Gravel XLFavourite picture from 2025 – “The picture Thomas bought of me from Unbound was unreal and with the consequence to match its actually arduous to beat!”
Canadian Rob Britton moved to gravel racing 4 years in the past after 11 professional seasons on the highway. In his first effort in Emporia, Kansas in 2022, he completed sixth on the prestigious Unbound Gravel 200, competing as a part of the inaugural Life Time Grand Prix invitation-only roster of riders. He dropped out of the highest 10 on the following two editions of that signature race.
With a stable second place in 2024 at The Traka 360, he made his mark at Unbound within the XL race in 2025, chasing favorite Lachlan Morton by way of the evening, passing the Australian with 10 miles to go and profitable in 17 hours, 49 minutes, 51 seconds. It was a brand new course report for the XL distance. It was a significant win for Britton, calling it “a cool day of racing – a full day and evening”.
The picture by Thomas Prehn took as a lot effort to seize as Britton’s trip, with setups at 4 completely different places, primarily on the second half of the 350-mile course. It was at 1:30 within the morning when he captured ‘the’ shot. This is slightly bit about how the one picture you see right here rose to the highest for the Canadian rider, within the phrases spoken in a video recap by Prehn:
I went there [Kansas] with a selected picture idea in thoughts. I wished to seize my good friend Rob Britton at evening with an extended publicity so you would see the celebrities. Due to the logistics of the course and the restricted roads, I had very restricted alternatives to seize them.
With the digital camera on a tripod and in addition mounted on a tripod with a rogue modifier, to slender the main focus of the strobe, I took a pair check photographs. Lachlan Morton comes up, I fully missed the shot. I hit the shutter too quickly. Subsequent, Rob Britton comes up, I miss once more. The strobe missed him.
At Kansas 150 and C Highway, now after 1:30 within the morning [a third setup for the shot]. I arrange, I take extra check photographs. I get the framing proper and the strobe proper. Lachlan Morton approaches, ah, only a fraction of a second too early [for the right image]. To my shock, Rob Britton is quick approaching. Due to the thirty-second publicity, I’ve only some seconds to assessment the shot, see what I have to do otherwise. I get the shot I am searching for.
Rob informed me after the race that as he was approaching, he noticed this tripod, and that is why he appeared over at me. Excellent shot. – Thomas Prehn
Rosa Klöser
2025 workforce – Canyon-SRAM zondacrypto2025 key outcomes – winner at The Rift, CORE4, Ranxo Gravel, Hegau Gravel, Eislek Gravel Luxembourg, Alentejo Gravel and German Gravel Nationals; second at The Traka 200 and fourth at Unbound Gravel 200Favourite picture from 2025 – “The Rift.”
Using for Girls’s WorldTour workforce Canyon-SRAM zondacrypto, Klöser had a troublesome determination to make about one picture to convey a high achievement in 2025, from highway racing together with her workforce at Paris-Roubaix Femmes and Tour de Suisse Girls to profitable the German Gravel Nationwide Championship and the general title at Gravel Earth Collection.
With the intention to safe the GES title, having already received three sequence occasions and discovering the rostrum on two others, she outdistanced rivals Morgan Aguirre and Karolina Migoń at Ranxo Gravel to keep up her high factors within the standings. That victory she referred to as “an incredible reward after a troublesome week”, as she had thought she would take the European Gravel Championship the weekend earlier than, however flatted within the last seven kilometres to complete third.
Whereas profitable Ranxo and the GES general on the identical day was her high spotlight, she chosen her most memorable picture of the yr from her win at The Rift:
The Rift, this race was simply an expertise in itself and possibly one of many victories I’m most proud. I used to be driving 170 of the 200km on my own, and that took loads of psychological effort. – Rosa Klöser
Sofia Gomez Villafañe
2025 workforce – Specialised Off-road2025 key outcomes – winner at The Traka 200, Valley of Tears, Life Time Little Sugar MTB, Life Time Huge Sugar Basic, BWR Arizona, BWR California, Cape Epic general and third at Unbound Gravel 200Favourite picture from 2025 – “Holy smokes, I received Traka 200 – I really did not see that one coming.”
Sofia Gomez Villafañe continued to dominate the Life Time Grand Prix for a 3rd consecutive season, taking high factors at Sea Otter Basic and ending third at Unbound Gravel 200, then ending robust with wins at Little Sugar and Huge Sugar. She additionally received a second Cape Epic in tandem with Annika Langvad.
It was her first look at The Traka 200, wedged between the South African stage race and a packed April of US races, which made an indelible impression. She went to Girona to “test it out, perceive the courts, and make it a goal for subsequent yr”.
A race is a race, and he or she went to the entrance with one rider, Rosa Klöser, whom she stated was “so type on the market serving to me navigate the course as a result of I had no concept the place I used to be going. We stored the race tremendous honest…It got here right down to the tip. Unreal.”
The memorable breakaway battle with Klöser noticed the German crash, however Villafañe waited and grabbed a bonus on the ultimate single-track:
Nothing was going fairly proper on the lead-up to Traka. Received extraordinarily sick post-Cape Epic, which took a very long time to get better from, and I ended up racing 4 weekends straight, with Traka being the ultimate occasion. Journey over to Spain was a nightmare, and we truthfully thought-about calling the race off. However alas, we made it to Spain, the legs have been feeling surprisingly good, and I used to be there to benefit from the occasion.
It was the primary time in a very long time that I felt the liberty to race for the enjoyable of it and never fear an excessive amount of concerning the consequence; seems that was a profitable system for me. – Sofia Gomez Villafañe
