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After falling short in his defence of the road world title in Zürich a week ago, Mathieu van der Poel (Netherlands) stamped his authority at the UCI Gravel World Championships by winning the elite men’s title after he dropped breakaway companion Florian Vermeersch (Belgium) on the final lap of the circuit in Leuven.
Seizing an opportunity on a short climb, Van der Poel unleashed a fierce acceleration with 13 km remaining, leaving F. Vermeersch in the dust to ride solo to claim the eighth rainbow jersey of his career.
Florian Vermeesch crossed the line 1:03 behind to claim the silver medal for the second year in a row.
The 182km race turned into a tactical showdown between Van der Poel and the Belgians’ numerical advantage. The 29-year-old launched his first big attack after some 60 kilometres of racing, forming an initial lead group of 16 riders. A subsequent acceleration reduced the group to seven, cutting the Belgian presence at the front from seven riders down to four.
With 40 kilometres to go, Van der Poel responded to Vermeersch’s attack on the tarmac, leaving the rest of the seven-rider lead group behind. The pair collaborated out front while, behind them, Belgians Gianni Vermeersch, Jasper Stuyven, and Quinten Hermans put pressure on Connor Swift (Great Britain) and defending champion Matej Mohorič (Slovenia).
The duo at the front extended their lead over the chase group to over one minute with 20 kilometres remaining, testing each other as they neared the finale.
In a tactical battle for the bronze medal, the five riders nearly came to a standstill in the final meters. Mohorič made the first move, prompting Swift to give chase, followed closely by the Belgian trio. In the end, it was Hermans who surged ahead to secure third place in the sprint.
“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,” said Van der Poel who also has six cyclocross and one road title in his palmares.
“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 so I tried to put everybody on the limit. And, when Florian Vermeersch went and we were with the two of us, we had a good cooperation. It was a super hard race, but I enjoyed it.”
Van der Poel admitted that his goal was to finish solo, especially given that Vermeersch had out-sprinted him for second place at the 2021 Paris-Roubaix. The gap he built allowed him the luxury of stopping to lift his bike overhead in celebration after he crossed the finish line.
“You never know. I have to say, my legs were also hurting. So you never know in the sprint, especially on the gravel bike. So, I tried to last time on the hardest part of the course, and found myself alone. So it’s always nice to celebrate like this.”
How it Unfolded
Just as the elite women 24 hours before, and several thousand age-group Gravel World Championships racers between, the men’s field departed from Halle to unseasonably bright warm skies.
The riders had 182km ahead of them, including two laps of a 47km circuit out of the finish city of Leuven, with woodland track, cobbled sectors and long interlinking paved roads on the agenda.
The start line was decorated by a sea of blue jerseys, with the peloton containing a truly enormous Belgian contingent of more than 65 riders on the elite start list.
All eyes were on Dutch star Mathieu van der Poel, though, who shared a fistbump with the returning Slovenian champion Matej Mohorič – the two riders bearing the numbers 1 and 2 for the race ahead.
The peloton set off in an orderly procession, with Slovenian and Dutch riders controlling the initial pace, but the pack stayed largely together.
Just under 40km into the race, a substantial attack group of 30 riders broke free, comprised of more than 50% Belgian riders.
An attack came from within the attack and a group of seven riders emerged 10km later. There were no allusions around the strength of this group either, with a billing of Matej Mohoric (Slovenia), Mathieu van der Poel (Netherlands), Tiesj Benoot (Belgium), Jasper Stuyven (Belgium), Kevin Panhuyzen (Belgium), Gianni Vermeersch (Belgium) and Florian Vermeersch (Belgium).
It was constant but captivating chaos for the next 20km, as Van der Poel attacked through the pastoral farmland gravel stretches just within the 70km marker, carving a lead of 20 seconds over a swelling group of chasers.
A group of largely Belgian chasers – varying between ten and twenty in size and led by Jasper Stuyven – eventually caught the flying Dutchman, meaning we wouldn’t be treated to a 120km solo ride.
With around 80km remaining, we had a new leading group of 16, with the original breakaway adding Tim Merlier (Belgium), Connor Swift (Great Britain) Lawrence Naesen (Belgium), Kevin Panhuyzen (Belgium), Matevz Govekar (Slovenia), Rick Ottema (Netherlands) and Jonas Lindberg (Denmark) to their ranks. The group contained ten Belgians, but would they work together?
With 60km to go, Van der Poel once again attacked the group on a woodland track, this time dragging Connor Swift with him. The two didn’t manage to break clear for long, but Van der Poel’s overpowering form was becoming evident.
Stuyven opened an attack on the painfully steep and narrow Ramberg climb, but it wasn’t enough to cause a break in the group, which entered the final lap whittled down to a selection of seven riders.
The next, and perhaps most decisive attack, came not from Van der Poel but Florian Vermeersch, who launched with around 45km remaining, and took the Dutch favourite with him.
Van der Poel and Vermeersch had pulled out an advantage of 20 seconds over the next 10km, as the chase group splintered and fragmented under internal attacks.
Returning champion Morohic was the natural agitator, surrounded by three Belgian teammates, but his assaults achieved very little, other than to allow Van der Poel and Vermeersch to establish an ever-larger gap as the race entered the final 30km.
Swift and Mohoric struck repeatedly at the Belgian trio through farm-track cobbles, woodland trail and gravel track. They failed to shed the Belgian trio, while with 25km to go, Van der Poel and Vermeersch had established a one-minute gap.
It became clear that this two-man breakaway would win the day, and pained expressions from Vermeersch seemed to betray that the Dutchman would be riding to victory.
With 15km remaining, the gap was now 1:30, and the only question remaining would be when Van der Poel would make his move, and who would win the battle for third.
The answer to the first question came all too quickly, as with 3.5km remaining on a woodlands ascent in the Brabant woodlands the Dutch rider dropped the hammer. Vermeersch could do little more than watch Van der Poel drift away into the long tree-lined track ahead toward another World Championship title.
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