The Dutchman Mathieu van der Poel, road star, added a more exotic line to his impressive record by becoming world gravel champion on Sunday in Louvain (Belgium).
The double winner of Paris-Roubaix, very comfortable on difficult terrain, won alone by leaving behind his breakaway companion, the Belgian Florian Vermeersch, thirteen kilometers from the goal.
Road world champion in 2023, still third a week ago at the Worlds in Zurich, Van der Poel likes to shine on several fronts.
The grandson of Raymond Poulidor, who competed in the last race of his season on Sunday, is also a six-time cyclo-cross world champion and a former European mountain bike champion.
“It was a big goal for me, I had a lot of fun in another discipline. I’m really happy to finish the season this way,” he said.
Florian Vermeersch finished second, while his compatriot Quinten Hermans settled a group of five runners in a sprint to take third place ahead of two other Belgians, Jasper Stuyven and Gianni Vermeersch, the Briton Connor Swift and the Slovenian Matej Mohoric, who was holding of the title.
The day before, the Dutch Marianne Vos, legend of women’s cycling, had won the women’s race ahead of the Belgian Lotte Kopecky, just crowned road world champion.
A new cycling discipline born around fifteen years ago in the United States, gravel, which consists of riding on a mixture of asphalt roads and paths, is experiencing growing popularity.
jk/dar
