12 October 2026 · News · gravel, product
A rainbow jersey on Australian gravel, won on a Factor Elara
The first gravel Worlds held outside Europe came down to a four-up sprint in Nannup, and Magnus Bak Klaris took it on the Factor Elara - a bike he helped shape, in plain paint, because the custom job would have been heavier.
Gravel Worlds came to Western Australia on the weekend, and it delivered the race the course promised.
The elite men rode about 144 km out from Nannup on Sunday 11 October, through the Blackwood Valley and the pine plantations, with more than 3,000 metres of climbing and over 80 percent of it on gravel. That’s a long day in anyone’s language, and the sort of parcours that usually sorts itself out well before the finish.
It didn’t. After more than four hours of racing, four riders arrived together.
How it finished
The selection came late, inside the last 5 km, when Mads Würtz Schmidt, Magnus Bak Klaris, Connor Swift and defending champion Florian Vermeersch rode clear. Then it nearly came apart again - Würtz Schmidt went down in a loose corner on a technical gravel descent, got up, and chased back on.
Swift was left leading it out with 300 metres to go. Bak Klaris came around him to win in 4:09:05, with Vermeersch second and Swift third, all on the same time. The 24 year old Dane, not the favourite in that company, had put himself exactly where he needed to be.
In the women’s race, Marianne Vos won over 123 km in 4:30:04, from Rosa Maria Klöser and Larissa Hartog.
The bike
Bak Klaris won on a Factor Elara - the bike we wrote about three weeks ago when Factor’s one gravel model became three.
The Elara replaced the Ostro Gravel as Factor’s race bike, and it was built for exactly this kind of racing: gravel that has turned into road racing on dirt. Under 1,100 g for a painted medium frame, a 71.5 degree head angle, chainstays of 420 to 425 mm depending on size, and claimed to be 5 to 8 percent slipperier through the air than the bike it replaced. It clears a 57 mm tyre, has downtube storage and a top tube feed port, and runs electronic drivetrains only, 1x or 2x.
Two details from Factor are worth repeating. The first is that Bak Klaris’s feedback fed into the Elara’s development, which is a long way from a sponsored rider taking what he’s given. The second is that he turned down a custom paint job for the Worlds, on the grounds that it would look flashy and add weight. A rainbow jersey won on a stock finish, because paint is grams.
Why Nannup mattered
This was the fifth gravel Worlds and the first held outside Europe. Four years of European courses, then a race decided three hours south of Perth, on terrain that any Australian who rides gravel would recognise.
We had someone there
MC’s Harvey made the trip west for it. Factor Bikes Australia took over the Nannup Brewing Company for the weekend of 8-11 October and ran it as FACTOR House, less than 100 metres from the start and finish line, so he watched the winners come in from about as close as you can stand.
If you want the bike
The Elara is the fast end of Factor’s gravel range, and it isn’t the right bike for everyone - the Aluto and the Sarana exist for good reasons, and which one suits you depends on whether you’re racing, touring or somewhere in between. Talk to us before you commit and we’ll work out which of the three fits the riding you actually do.
Factor at MC · Our guide to the three gravel bikes · Our Nannup preview
