GRAVEL

With a spectacular solo win in Leuven, Mathieu van der Poel is the new Gravel World Championship. The victory further confirms his cycling versatility and multidisciplinarity, adding an eight World Champion title to his palmarès.

“It was a big goal for me. 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. It’s amazing,” said Van der Poel in a post-race interview.

The Dutchman wrote aggressively throughout the Belgian course, attacking early and going briefly solo after 60 km and later again with 13.5 km before the finish line. “I just wanted to make the race as hard as possible because I knew on the local lap with a big group it could be a difficult situation for me. I tried to put everyone on the limit. When Florian (Vermeersch) went, we had a good cooperation. My legs were also hurting. You never know in a sprint, especially on a gravel bike, so I tried one last time on the hardest section of the course, and it’s always nice when you find yourself alone like this.”

The Gravel rainbow jersey is the last in a list of eight World Championships won by Van der Poel, including one on road (2023) and six in cyclo-cross (2015, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2023, and 2024).

Gianni Vermeersch won the inaugural UCI Gravel World Championships, which took place in Veneto.

The Belgian ridercrossed first the finish line in Cittadella (Padova) after 194 km in 5 hours, 10 minutes and 40 seconds,  ahead of the Italian Daniel Oss and the Alpecin-Deceuninck team captain Mathieu Van Der Poel.

It really was an outstandingrace for Vermeersch since the departure from  Campo Marzo in Vicenza. After just 50 kilometers and with 144 km to go, he attacked the head of the race  together with Oss. . The duo led  gravel race. Van der Poel, followed by Greg Van Avermaet and Alessandro De Marchi, tried to reduce the gap without success. Verrmeersch dropped Oss in the closing kilometres, using his cyclocross skills to his advantage on the trickier terrain. The Belgian crossed the line solo in what he described as the best win of his career.

“It’s unbelievable,”said Vermeersch . “It was one of the biggest opportunities for me to ever become a world champion. I can’t believe I get to take the rainbow jersey home.”.

Vermeersch was considered an outsider with only three professional road races victories in his career.

A great result for the Alpecin-Decueninck riders who, beside the coveted rainbow jersey, also took , the third place with Van der Poel.

Congratulation to Vermeersch and Van der Poel!