Nathan Haas shares his experience from gravel racing - "Tactically it is a completely different sport"

A recent interview with Australian rider Nathan Haas was published by Cyclingweekly. During the course of the talk, he shared his experiences from gravel races, differences, and a lot more.

When asked how he started with gravel racing, he said, “I started riding gravel six or seven years ago, but it wasn’t called gravel back then. After ten years in the WorldTour, it can be a struggle to get back to the top – you’re either no longer good enough or getting bored of doing the same thing, whereas gravel is a whole new world.”

He further highlighted the difference between normal races and gravel. You don’t have the traditional road race dynamic, and tactically it is a completely different sport. If we’re looking at it from a numbers perspective, in a road race, there is a big difference between your average and normalised power, whereas in gravel, they are pretty close. The amount of time you’re under load on a gravel bike is phenomenal,” said Haas.

Riding in gravel does not mean he does not prefer road races. “I’m at a 70:30 ratio between the road and gravel bike, but for the majority of the year, it was 80:20 gravel to the road,” said Haas. He concluded with, “Gravel isn’t just this pool of riders who can’t race on the WorldTour anymore. Gravel is really fun, and it comes down to the individual. It also turns out that the highest level of gravel is harder than I expected.”