Marianne Vos beats Lotte Kopecky in a sprint by two and is the new clay world champion

Kopecky and Vos left Wiebes and the Italian Soraya Paladin behind just over 50 kilometers from the finish. Both riders tried to outpace each other several times in the final, but they stayed together. Even when Vos accelerated on the last slope of the day, a mile before the finish, in the center of Leuven.

It became a sprint on the Bondgenootlaan in Leuven and the 37-year-old Vos proved to be the fastest. From the wheel of Kopecky, who tried to control the sprint from the front, the Dutchman started quickly. Kopecky tried to get alongside, but had to bow his head. In the battle for bronze, no less than four minutes after the leading duo, Lorena Wiebes pulled away from her compatriot Puck Pieterse (fourth) and the German Romy Kasper (fifth) in the final phase. Marthe Truyen was the second Belgian, in eleventh place.

Vos succeeds Polish Tour winner Katarzyna ‘Kasia’ Niewiadoma on the honors list. He did not leave this year. It is Vos’s first clay world title, after three world titles on the road and eight in the field.

For Kopecky it was her first participation in a clay competition. Last Saturday she won her second consecutive world road title in Zurich, Switzerland. In a sprint with six riders, she stayed ahead of the American Chloé Dygert and the Italian Elisa Longo Borghini.

Back problems

“There is no shame in coming second after Marianne,” Kopecky said afterwards. “It was my first gravel race ever and something completely different. It was fun, but when I was alone with Marianne my lower back exploded. I tried to focus my attention elsewhere, but with all the potholes in the road it was quite painful. Marianne was super strong, but I should have done the sprint differently. In retrospect, I should have started my sprint earlier.”

“I’m going to try to recover now,” he said. “I haven’t felt 100 percent fit the last few days, so I’m glad the race went well. I enjoyed it and there were quite a few fans along the course to cheer us on. It was a nice event. A lot of attention has been paid to safety in recent days. I also have a comment for the organizers: when you come back to Halle after the local round, there is a part that is not safe. I hope they change that for tomorrow’s races.”

The men’s clay court world championship will take place on Sunday. They drive 181 kilometers, also between Halle and Leuven. The Slovenian defending champion Matej Mohoric will face competition from Mathieu van der Poel, European gravel champion and home rider Jasper Stuyven, Belgian gravel champion Gianni Vermeersch, Tim Merlier, Tiesj Benoot and Florian Vermeersch.