Cafe owner Hayley Rubery reported a 700 per cent increase in revenue compared with a normal Friday as thousands of cyclists and spectators arrived in Nannup for the 2026 UCI Gravel World Championships. The town’s regular population is about 1,000, and local accommodation was fully booked. Shire President Tony Dean said visitors also stayed in nearby towns and commuted to the event.
A small town, an international event
Nannup, about 268 kilometres south of Perth, became the first location outside Europe to stage an elite gravel cycling world championship. Just under 1,000 cyclists raced through the Blackwood Valley over the weekend. Organisers expected the event to draw a global audience of up to 130 million people.
Rubery said the influx made it one of the busiest days she could remember at her cafe. “We sold five days’ worth of milk in one day, and we’ve never made more toasties in our entire lives,” she said. Local businesses had prepared for smaller arts and culture festivals, she said, but didn’t know what to expect from the championships. “We prepped anyway and thank God we did.”
The event brought visitors to a town building a reputation as a mountain-biking destination. Shire of Nannup Deputy President Vicki Hansen said securing the championships had taken years of work. “Not many people even knew how to pronounce Nannup,” she said. “Now, Nannup, Western Australia is across the world.” Hansen said the town hoped international riders who hadn’t qualified would visit after seeing the event.
Dean said the number of visitors exceeded Nannup’s accommodation capacity. A tent city and accommodation in nearby towns helped spread demand. “We’re spreading the love between Nannup and the rest of the South West,” he said. “With that many visitors, they’re going to have to commute, unfortunately.”
Riders and the course
Competitors raced over two days on courses of up to 144 kilometres through the Blackwood Valley. Shire President Tony Dean said Nannup was 70 metres above sea level, while land rose to 300 metres within a kilometre or less, providing gravel terrain.
Dutch cyclist Marianne Vos won the elite women’s title in 4 hours and 30 minutes, ahead of Germany’s Rose Kloser and the Netherlands’ Larisa Hartog. Vos claimed her second gravel world championship victory and her second championship win as a two-time Olympic gold medallist. Denmark’s Magnus Bak Klaris won the elite men’s title in 4 hours and 9 minutes, beating 2025 champion Florian Vermeersch in an upset.
This was the fifth UCI Gravel World Championships event; earlier editions took place in Italy and Belgium. Wendy Oosterwoud travelled from the Netherlands, a trip that took almost 30 hours. “I think the flight was 21 hours, the drive to Amsterdam was almost two hours, [and] from Perth to Nannup was almost three,” she said. “I’m really happy to see this part of the world.”
Oosterwoud had claimed seven podium titles, including a win in the women’s elite event at a gravel world series in Poland in 2026. She said Nannup had wide gravel roads, unlike the Netherlands, where she said there were “I think, 200 corners, left right, left right.” German cyclist Nils Lageman came from near Cologne to compete in the 35-39 age group. US cyclists Tim Borsetti, Mark Litrell and John Steward said they hadn’t heard of Nannup before the event.