The Traka World Series 2027: seven races from Girona to Iowa
Klassmark's successor to the Gravel Earth Series is a shorter season with live coverage of every race, €76,000 in equal prize money and a new event outside Europe that has yet to be named.
The Gravel Earth Series has a successor. Klassmark, the company behind The Traka in Girona, announced The Traka World Series on 5 November: seven races between February and October 2027, live coverage of every one, €76,000 in prize money split equally between men and women, and an overall standing for each.
It is a much shorter season than the one it grows out of. The Gravel Earth Series ran to 25 events in 2025 and 12 this year, and its website now carries the dates 2023–2026 and a sign-off. The new calendar has seven races, five of them in Europe. Lost & Found and the Oregon Trail Gravel Grinder in the US aren't on it, and nor is Kenya's Migration Gravel Race, the event Team AMANI built in the Maasai Mara. Klassmark's release talks about the "legacy" of the Gravel Earth Series and doesn't say what happens to those races.
The €76,000 is about double the €37,500 the Gravel Earth Series paid out across 2025. It breaks down as €8,000 a race, so €4,000 each for the men's and women's fields before it is shared between however many places get paid, and the release doesn't say how many that is. The other €20,000 goes on the final overall standings.
Klassmark promises live coverage of all seven races and says the point is to give riders, teams and host regions an audience beyond the people standing at the side of the track. It hasn't said where the coverage will be shown or whether it'll be free. We weren't at the launch; this comes from the press release and the calendar in the press kit, checked against the event websites.
Gravel Desert in the Monegros is round two, on 13 March. Photo: The Traka
Seven races, two still to be named
| Race | Date | Where |
|---|---|---|
| Santa Vall by The Traka | 5–7 February | Catalonia, Spain |
| Gravel Desert by The Traka | 13 March | Monegros, Spain |
| New event in The Traka Girona format | First half of April | Outside Europe, to be announced |
| The Traka Girona | 30 April–2 May (the 300km series race is on 1 May) | Girona, Spain |
| CORE4 by The Traka | 21 August | Iowa, USA |
| The River by The Traka | 11 September | Bouillon, Belgium |
| The Last Dance | October, date to be confirmed | Spain, venue to be announced |
Klassmark hasn't named the country for the April race. It will be outside Europe and copy the Girona format, with 300km, 200km and 100km distances. The release says "the first half of April" and the calendar graphic in the press kit puts it on 3–4 April, which is four weeks before the 300km race in Girona on 1 May. The other unknown is The Last Dance, the final in Spain in October that settles the overall standings. It has no date or venue yet.
CORE4 in Iowa was a Gravel Earth Series round this August and now carries the 'by The Traka' label, though Klassmark says it keeps "its roots and identity". The River, at Bouillon in the Belgian Ardennes, ran under the Traka name for the first time in September.
CORE4 in Iowa stays on the calendar, river and all. Photo: Joseph Cress / Think Iowa City
What it means if you're not racing for the money
The series sits on top of events that the rest of us can still enter. The release says the By The Traka races keep their open formats and their own distances, and describes The Traka World Series as the framework for the elite racing. Entries for The Traka Girona 2027 are open now, and CORE4's site lists registration from 12 November. There is no British round. The nearest are Bouillon and Girona.
When we asked where gravel racing was heading back in 2017, the talk was of one-day events in the US growing into stage races. The version Klassmark is building for 2027 is a season with live pictures and an overall standings table.
The announcement and the calendar are on The Traka's website.
