For the first time, Belgium is hosting the Gravel World Championships between Halle and Louvain. This Saturday, it was the women who kicked off this weekend. Over 135 km, we find the World Road Champion from Zurick, Lotte Kopecki, the Cyclo-cross World Champion, Fem Van Empel… as well as Marianne Voss. All these little people move on tarmac roads and on forest and country paths. At the end of a royal sprint, the Dutchwoman Vos won a new title ahead of the Belgian.
Gravel is the discipline that has been on the rise in recent years. Mixing roads, paths in the countryside and in the woods, this discipline has found its audience and its practitioners. At the highest world level, we even see the best for the girls (this Saturday) or tomorrow for the men coming to participate. Lotte Kopecky, the Road World Champion, is present as well as Puck Pieterse (MTB World Champion), Fem Van Empel (Cyclo-cross World Champion), Lucinda Brand and Marianne Vos. The Frenchwoman Pauline Ferrand-Prévot did not start, tired.
The race left Halle at 12 p.m. The start of the journey is already tough. Van Empel is out of the race following a technical problem. Fifty kilometers from the finish, we find the Belgian Kopecky and the Dutch Vos in the lead. They cross the finish line for the first time and make a loop in the Louvain region in forests closed to the public for environmental reasons. Behind, it is Pieterse who leads the pursuit group, protecting her teammate. But, this group does not return to the escapes. It was Marianne Vos who beat Lotte Kopecky in the sprint. A new title for the Dutchwoman who had already won the world title on the road, in cyclo-cross and on the track. The Belgian, second, declared at the finish: “It was a first, I had a lot of fun.”
Photo DR Hugo Barthelemy
WOMEN’S WORLD GRAVEL CHAMPIONSHIPS RANKINGS
1. Marianne Vos (HOL), 4h01’07 »
2. Lotte Kopecky (BEL), at 0’01”
3. Lorena Wiebes (HOL), at 3’57”
4. Puck Pieterse (HOL), at 4’09”
5. Romy Kasper (ALL), at 4’15”…
