Former Paris-Roubaix winner and now Team TotalEnergies rider Niki Terpstra will take part in the Wish One 130, the only French gravel race part of the UCI Gravel World Series, on Sunday 5 June according to website Velo101.

Terpstra, 2014 Paris-Roubaix champion, will be the biggest cycling star to participate in the fledgling UCI Gravel World Series, a set of twelve gravel bike races taking place throughout the world in 2022.

Participants (professional or amateur) who finish in the top 25% of their age/gender category at a UCI Gravel World Series event qualify to attend the UCI Gravel World Championships, which a venue and date have yet to be announced for 2022.

The Wish One 130 kilometer gravel race course with over 2000 meters vertical ascent includes a wide variety of mix surfaces – soft dirt, rough gravel, loose grit and fast hard pack clay sectors. Terpstra, an excellent cobblestone classics road rider, should feel right at home on the demanding course in the southern mountains of France just outside Millau.

Terpstra’s TeamEnergies teammate Peter Sagan will also be racing on gravel on the same weekend, but in the United States. Both professional are adding a little training variety to help fine tune their form in preparation for the Tour de France start on 1 July.

Photos: N. Terpstra