Denmark’s Magnus Bak Klaris is the new men’s elite gravel world champion after winning a four-rider sprint at the UCI Gravel World Championships in Nannup, Western Australia, on 11 October. The Dane was not among the pre-race favourites, yet he finished ahead of defending champion Florian Vermeersch of Belgium and Britain’s Connor Swift.
His win breaks a pattern that had held since the championships began in 2022, with every earlier edition going to a road professional. Vermeersch rides for UAE Team Emirates-XRG and Swift for Netcompany Ineos. Bak Klaris, by contrast, is a gravel specialist who qualified for the race himself and paid his own way to Australia. He did arrive with some form, having taken a solo victory at Gravel Grit ‘n Grind, a round of the UCI Gravel World Series, shortly before the championships.
A second Dane shaped the finale. Mads Würtz Schmidt, who won Unbound and The Traka 360 this year and started as one of the favourites alongside American Keegan Swenson, was in the lead group until he crashed on a corner with just over 3km to go. Backed at the race by the Specialized Off-Road squad, he chased back on before the sprint. Bak Klaris said he chose to wait for his compatriot and let the others work, calling it “the nice move”. The pair had agreed before the start to race as individuals but to help each other where it suited both. Gravel riders usually compete alone, and national federations rarely fund trips to the world championships.
Swift opened the sprint early, and Bak Klaris sat on his wheel before kicking late to take the line. The new champion admitted that a fast finish is not normally his strength. “I usually don’t have a really good sprint, so I just tried to find the wheel,” he told the Australian broadcaster SBS. For Swift, the result brought a second bronze medal at the event after his third place in 2023, while Vermeersch returned to the podium as he tried to defend his title.
Friends and family who had travelled with Bak Klaris watched from the side of the course as he claimed the rainbow jersey. He intends to wear it at UCI Gravel World Series races, Gravel Earth Series events and American races such as Unbound in the coming season. When asked what the jersey would mean to him, he laughed and said he had no idea yet and would have to find out.
