Are gravel race bikes necessary?

Joe Baker asks the experts whether gravel racing warrants a new category of machine

- Joe Baker

Over the last decade, there has been a big change to what we consider to be a gravel bike. In times gone by every brand seemingly had its own take on the thenemerging genre, whereas today gravel bikes usually fit into one of three categories.

All-road bikes are usually close to an endurance bike geometry, with increased tyre clearance. Gravel adventure bikes, meanwhile, tend to be optimised for comfort and handling over speed. And lastly, there are gravel race bikes, which generally sit somewhere in between.

The first edition of the UCI Gravel World Championships – the pinnacle of gravel racing – was won by Gianni Vermeech on a road bike with cyclocross tyres, while the second fell to Matej Mohorič on a gravel adventure bike.

So are WorldTour riders still getting to grips with the different options, or are ‘gravel race bikes’ unnecessary?

The first thing to look at is the geometrical characteristics of the bikes in question, and in particular, the head angle. How slack, or slanted the head tube is on a bike affects (among other things) the speed of the bike’s handling and its centre of gravity. Bikes with a slacker head angle will remain more stable at higher speeds, thanks to a longer wheelbase; however, the trade-off here comes from how quickly the bike will respond to cornering inputs.