The UCI Gravel World Championship may have just been held a few weeks ago, but riders are already growing rapidly towards 2024.The Beechworth Gravelista Round of the qualifying series is scheduled to take place in Australia on Saturday.

The Trek UCI Gravel World Series race departs from the former Gold Rush town of High Country in Victoria and is one of the first of the 2024 qualifying events of 18.1.Both the European Championships, held in Belgium at the beginning of the 10th month, are counted among these.

There are a lot of top finishers from 2022 and they are coming back with a healthy amount of newcomers. The men's starting list includes Australian gravel champion Connor Sense, Jensen Plowright and Jack Aitken of Alpesin Detunink.

In the women's race, Courtney Sherwell, who was ranked 3rd last year, is one of the riders to watch as long as she has fully recovered from the crash she rode on reconnaissance a few weeks ago. There's also Cassia Borio, who proved gravel form after Tiffany Cromwell in the seven rounds of the Gravel World Series in Nanap earlier this year and held the European and World Gravel Championships earlier this month.

Last year, the riders of the Beachworth event had only about a month to arrange a long and expensive trip to Italy for the world, but the shift from the date of early 9 May to 10/28 may could help increase the attractiveness of participants and is a more manageable planning window for next year.

"We are gearing up for an even bigger event this year and are excited to welcome both new and returning visitors to Beechworth," Indigo Shire Mayor Sophie Price commented to cyclingnews. "There are exceptional riding opportunities around Beechworth that are perfect for uci-level events.

In the first event of the 2024 stand-alone World Series event, more than 500 riders are expected to line up for the race, with the headline race taking place on 85% dirt roads, climbs with fragmented fields and courses full of serene views.

If you take part in a 120km event, loop from Beechworth towards Chiltern-Mt Pilot National Park, you can get an elevation of about 1,800 metres, a mix of top riders from the road, cyclocross and mountain bike scene.

Other riders among those to watch include gravel rookie Dan McConnell, a mountain bike rye then ranked 4th in last year's event and 7th in the top 10 at the beginning of this year as he is fresh from his victory at Cape to Cape earlier this month, and last year's Grand Prix. There is also Mark O'Brien, who has demonstrated more power than ever in the domestic road scene, which became 6th place in the Verista. Chris Jongewaard, winner of the 4 Australian Cyclocross Championships, is lined up alongside podium regulars Garry Millburn.

The 2022 men's winner Adam Blazevic is not on the start list given his long European season.Women's champion Justine Barrow has also been stuck with injuries during the Australian championship season. But Peta Mullens, who swept 12 Australian championships across the field, will be at the start line again. Matilda Reynolds, who started the season with a stage win at Bakritz, had a tough run abroad during the cancellation of the second half of the Lotto Belgium tour and a COVID match in the lead-up to the US Gravel stint.

The event at Beechworth is one of the 2024 qualifying rounds to be held in Australia, and the other 1 will be held 5-18-7 times, more than 3,000 km away on the other side of the continent in Nanup, Western Australia. Both soon joined the new series when it was launched in 2022, with the already established Seven and Gravelista making their debut years a success.

"Last year's event brought a significant number of visitors and had an impressive economic impact," Gravelista mayor Price said. "Across Beechworth, this translates to just under 600,000, with the broader rural areas benefiting from a total inflow of total1.3 million."

Beechworth will be the final round of this year's series run and the qualifying round for the next Gravel World Championships, which will be held in Spain in 2024 at 4.20 PM, will again proceed.