Having inaugurated and organised the British Gravel Championships for the past five seasons, Red On Sports has walked away from the event after British Cycling opted to begin running its own version.
Red On, which also organises The Gralloch gravel event, said in a statement that it had been unable to reach an agreement with British Cycling that “protects the integrity, ambition, and sustainability of the Championships.”
“You can’t invest in something if there’s no guarantee of a future addition, because that’s the idea of investing – you reap the rewards down the line,” he said. “One would hope there’s a realisation on British Cycling’s front that it’s going to require investment, and that can only happen if there’s multi-year commitments.”
(Image credit: Future)
Responding to Red On’s statement, a British Cycling spokesman rejected the idea that there would be any issues over safety and fairness, saying in a statement:
“Gravel is an ever-growing and popular discipline, and we are excited to be expanding our delivery moving forward. We are currently out to tender for a sanctioned British Gravel Championships for the first time in 2026 with lots of interest from enthusiastic and knowledgeable event providers.
“We are committed to ensuring events work for everyone involved, from riders to event organisers, from volunteers to the wider cycling network, and this is central to our strategic work in modernising the sport. Fair and safe racing is paramount to our delivery of events across disciplines and is critical in our decision making when collaborating with event providers to deliver competition.”
For its part Red On remained optimistic about the future, Wussler said, with the imminent announcement of a new event, which would “essentially take The Gralloch-type format without the UCI brand to a venue in England”.
“We’ve seen the success of The Gralloch and we’re trying to bring that to more venues,” he added. “And as we’ve seen with Dalby Forest and other venues we’ve looked at over the past, there’s some beautiful gravel available across Britain.”
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