Mathieu van der Poel adds a new title to his collection with the gravel worlds: “I had fun, but I also had a hard time”

The more than one hundred and eighty kilometers took their toll on a very diverse peloton, made up of road runners, cyclocross specialists and young retirees like Greg Van Avermaet or Jan Bakelants. Everyone arrived exhausted at the Louvain station, the fault of the favorite Mathieu van der Poel. Third in the world road championship in Zurich, he would have accepted nothing less than the world title.

This made for an extremely fast race. Van der Poel instructed his Belgian Alpecin teammates from the start to make the race as difficult as possible. “With Xandro Meurisse and Timo Kielich, we had the perfect men to set a high pace from the startexplained Quinten Hermans, the bronze medalist. Let’s make no secret of it: it was a race between teams, not between nations. Our role was to toughen the race to serve Mathieu.”

Greg Van Avermaet presents his bike for the gravel world championship: what are the big differences with a road bike?

“I had fun, but I also had a hard timesmiled the new world champion. But it was my fault. I wanted to make sure we started the Leuven local circuit with a reduced lead group. This should make it easier to control the final. We executed the plan to perfection.”

Van der Poel attacked alone with still more than a hundred kilometers to go. Did he want to surpass Tadej Pogacar, who had forced the decision during the Road World Championship a week earlier with a hundred kilometers to go? “No, it was simply linked to the difficulty of the coursean explicit le leader d’Alpecin-Deceuninck. I wanted to make a first selection assuming that my opponents would feel this effort in the final. It was the right tactic.”

Florian Vermeersch again 2nd

Ultimately, the Dutchman won the race by a large margin. After an initial acceleration, only Florian Vermeersch was able to follow him, but our compatriot, already second last year behind the Slovenian Matej Mohoric, had to capitulate twenty kilometers from the finish. Van der Poel beamed with his “first” world title. “Gravel becomes a real eventhe confided. It’s a race that attracts runners. Almost all pros ride gravel these days. It’s important for sponsors and for bike manufacturers.”

For van der Poel, this World Championship, his third of the year, was also his last race of the season. “It’s nice to end in apotheosishe said. There’s nothing better than starting the holidays with a world title. It’s been a while since I’ve had fries. I’ll probably fix it tonight.”

As for when we will see the Dutchman in competition again, that remains an open question. “If I knew it, I would tell you.” replied the reigning cyclocross world champion about his winter season. “The decision whether or not to participate in cyclocross competitions this winter has not yet been made. First the holidays, then we’ll see.” Whatever happens, the Dutchman is guaranteed to spend the 2025 season with a rainbow jersey on his shoulders.