Van der Poel and Vos Win Gravel World Championships in Belgium

On a typically hilly Belgian course, with about 1,000 m of altitude gained, both winners triumphed from two-rider breakaways in which they eventually outraced their fellow travellers.

In the Elite Men’s race, after a tumultuous beginning, a lead group of seven riders eventually formed, consisting of defending champion Matej Mohorič (Slovenia), van der Poel (Netherlands) and five Belgian riders, Tiesj Benoot, Jasper Stuyven, Kevin Panhuyzen, and the Vermeersch brothers, 2021 champ Gianni and Florian.

Van der Poel must have found those odds unsettling because, with about 120 km left in the 181 km course from Halle to Leuven, he channeled his inner Tadej Pogačar and took off on his own. But, of course, the 2023 world road race champion is no stranger to long solo rides, having won several Classics in this manner. His lead grew to 30 seconds over a group of 20 riders that included no fewer than 13 Belgians.

However, he was eventually caught by a group of nine, including Mohorič, Stuyven and Florian Vermeersch. This group eventually grew to 16, 10 of whom were Belgian. Cyclingnews raised an interesting point in its live report in wondering what ties among the riders were stronger in this race, that of being on the same trade teams or national teams. In the first UCI Gravel World Championships, van der Poel was content to see his Alpecin-Deceuninck teammate Gianni Vermeersch race to victory. This was a clear point of contention on Sunday as Stuyven appeared to have words with Quinten Hermans who is van der Poel’s teammate of Alpecin-Deceuninck.

With 40 km left in the race, after engineering several more breaks, van der Poel found himself at the front with Florian Vermeersch and the two gradually built up a gap of 38 seconds in little more than 10 km. He then dropped the last Belgian standing with 13 km to go and soloed to a convincing victory, the eighth rainbow jersey of his career. Vermeersch (Florian) crossed the line 1:03 later while Hermans finished third, at 3:47, outsprinting Stuyven for the final podium spot.

“It was a big goal for me,” van der Poel said afterwards. “It’s super nice to add another rainbow to the collection, in another discipline as well, so I’m super happy with this one. It’s super nice also to finish the season like this.”

He went on to say that he rode aggressively throughout “to make the race as hard as possible because I knew… With a big group it could be a difficult situation for me. I tried to put everyone on the limit.”

Mathieu van der Poel — Van der Poel channeled his inner Tadej Pogačar and took off on his own. © Profimedia

Vos’ victory on Saturday, another Dutch win, came in a sprint against the double road race world champion Lotte Kopecky (Belgium). The two were part of a four-rider breakaway, which also included Lorena Wiebes (Netherlands) and Italy’s Soraya Paladin, that surged out of the peloton with about 50 km left to race in the 134 km course. They were chased by a trio of riders that included the reigning MTB cross-country world champion, Puck Pieterse (Netherlands).

Vos and Kopecky soon left the others behind and began a long duo ride, taking turns at the front to widen the gap, which eventually reached more than 4 minutes ahead of a group of pursuers – Paladin, Wiebes, Pieterse and Germany’s Romy Kasper – which wasn’t really pursuing since Pieterse and Wiebes were Dutch compatriots of Vos.

With 10 km remaining, Vos and Kopecky were still working together but Kopecky appeared to be suffering as she tried to stretch her back several times. They were still together on the final short, cobblestone climb with 1.6 km to go. When Vos accelerated on the ascent, Kopecky surged past her as they entered the final straight. She was still in front, waiting, when Vos attacked and beat her to the line, to win her 14th world championship across road racing, cyclocross, track and now gravel.

“I didn’t think about the previous 13 [world titles] to be honest,” she said after the race. “[Gravel is] something fairly new but it’s a world championship so you try to do your best. It was nice to be in the front with Lotte, then you know it’s going to be hard as well. She won [the road race world championship] last week, so I knew she’s in good shape. It was really great to race together here, especially with those crowds.”

Vos admitted having a secret weapon, self-inflating tyres, which allows riders to optimise tyre pressures on different surfaces throughout a race. This makes it a perfect tool for gravel racing. She told Cyclingnews after her victory, “It helped with higher pressure at the finish but also with lowering the pressure on rougher tracks.”

Kopecky was not disheartened by her narrow loss. “It’s no shame to be second behind Marianne,” she said. “It was my first gravel race and it was something completely different. It was fun but when I was alone with Marianne my lower back was exploding. I tried to get the tension away but it was horrible.” She admitted making a mistake at the end, saying, “I should have started [sprinting] a bit earlier, I think.”

As more and more road racers compete in gravel racing, which seems to be a year-on-year trend, the discipline could attain the same level of popularity it has in the U.S. and may, at some point, attract leading the U.S. gravel riders. And, hopefully, the races will eventually be televised.