The Dutch will paint the town of Leuven orange after a weekend sweep of rainbow jerseys for their elite riders at the UCI Gravel World Championships. Marianne Vos won in a two-up sprint against Lotte Kopecky (Belgium) on Saturday and Mathieu van der Poel powered to a solo victory on Sunday.
Van der Poel raced one week ago at the Road World Championships but lost the road race title he earned in 2023 to Tadej Pogačar (Slovenia) and headed home with a bronze medal. The Dutch national team did not know if the powerhouse multi-discipline rider would be in Belgium for a second attempt at the new-breed Worlds.
"With the women we had 11 or 12 wildcards. With the men's team I gave away only one wildcard, and it's to Mathieu. And that's the one you want to give it to. Mathieu signed up at the last minute and I was very happy," Laurens ten Dam, the national gravel coach for the Netherlands told Cyclingnews.
After finishing the Road Worlds, Van der Poel confirmed to his coach that he did intend to swap rainbow jerseys, going from road to gravel.
"Yeah, it was a big goal for me. It's really difficult to finish it off as a favourite. The pace was high all day," Van der Poel told Cyclingnews and a German media outlet in the mixed zone late Sunday afternoon in Leuven.
"I mean, it was a big goal for me, but also for the team, and Canyon. So I'm really happy that that I won today."
Joining him on the podium was Alpecin-Deceuninck teammate Quinten Hermans (Belgium), who secured the bronze medal by outsprinting a group four other riders, which included 2022 gravel champion Gianni Vermeersch (Belgium) and 2023 gravel champion Matej Mohorič (Slovena).
"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 a total of eight cyclocross world titles, two as a junior and six with elites, plus the one road race title from a year ago.
“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. It was a super hard race, but I enjoyed it.”
Van der Poel was active all day on the 173km course from Halle to Leuven. He launched an attack on the final Leuven circuit on a steep section in the woods, matched by Connor Swift (Great Britain). Then five others made the catch for a time. Van der Poel then launched a move and gapped five riders with 21km to go, this time Florian Vermeersch (Belgium) tagging along.
The big Dutchman then dropped breakaway companion Florian Vermeesch on another short climb with under 13km remaining and kicked up the dust for his solo ride to the finish on Martelarenplein, one of the city's largest open squares now filled with thousands of fans. Most of the fans were Belgian, but they cheered for the popular Dutch rider as he crossed the line and stopped to hoist his bike skyward.
While Van der Poel worked his road craft in Zurich last week, rain soaked the gravel course for several days. However, all the dirt paths and varied terrain had almost dried out for a sunny, warm October day for the Gravel World Championships. There was no need for Van der Poel to make any equipment adjustments.
"Actually, there was nothing special with my setup. I always ride at home as well for gravel. The only thing I change is the tyres when it's muddy, but today was dry. So, I just rode the tyres I always ride at home. It's Vittoria, Terreno Dry, size 38."
What he did find special was the victory by Vos on Saturday. The developments in the elite women's race on Saturday was of interest to Van der Poel, and he confirmed he did watch the live broadcast.
"Yes, I watched it yesterday. It was really nice to watch with Lotte and Marianne in front. It was a nice sprint with the two of them. So, yeah, was cool to watch."
And with a pair of elite victories for the Dutch at the Gravel World Championships, coach Ten Dam can enjoy the after party.
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