Gravel World Championships Elite Men's race Live - Van der Poel among contenders for rainbow jersey

One notable absentee here is Tiesj Benoot, who punctured a little earlier and had to stop for a wheel change. Not that the Belgians need any more representation in this group.

This is how the front group shapes up

Belgium: Stuyven, Merlier F.Vermeersch, G.Vermeersch, Hermans, Aerts, Meurisse, Kielich, Panhuyzen, Naesen

Netherlands: Van der Poel, Ottema

Slovenia: Mohoric, Govekar

Great Britain: Swift

Denmark: Lindberg

83km to go

The six chasers have caught up to give us 16 in the lead. The newcomers are:

Tim Merlier (Belgium)

Lawrence Naesen (Belgium)

Kevin Panhuyzen (Belgium)

Matevz Govekar (Slovenia)

Rick Ottema (Netherlands)

Jonas Lindberg (Denmark)

We do, however, have another group of six just 15 seconds behind.

This is the new lead group of 10

Jasper Stuyven (Belgium)

Florian Vermeersch (Belgium)

Quinten Hermans (Belgium)

Toon Aerts (Belgium)

Xandro Meurisse (Belgium)

Timo Kielich (Belgium)

Gianni Vermeersch (Belgium)

Mathieu van der Poel (Netherlands)

Matej Mohoric (Slovenia)

Connor Swift (Great Britain)

Van der Poel caught

The early charge is over and the Dutchman won't be winning this world title with a 110km solo. He is brought back by a group that is now down to 10 riders as they reach Leuven, cross the line, and set out for the first of two laps of the finishing circuit.

Here's our first shot of Van der Poel alone in the lead

It looks like we have footage of Van der Poel's attack, courtesy of Belgian journalist Greg Ienco.

Spotted (eyes emoji) at the start:

Wild unseen Lapierre gravel bike spotted at Gravel World Championships

We could see some more regroupings but at the last check those 20 had a lead of nearly two minutes over the next group on the road. TV coverage will be underway shortly.

The 20 riders left behind Van der Poel are:

Belgium: Stuyven, Benoot, Merlier, Hermans, G.Vermeersch, F.Vermeersch, Meurisse, Kielich, Van Avermaet, Loockx, Panhuyzen, Naesen, Aerts.

Slovenia: Mohoric, Govekar

Germany: Voss, Rabmann

Britain: Swift

Netherlands: Ottema

Denmark: Lindberg

In fact, of the 20 riders in the group behind Van der Poel, 13 are Belgian. Can they use the numbers to chase him down?

In the group behind, we find Stuyven, Benoot, Merlier, Hermans, Vermeersch x2, Van Avermaet, Mohoric, Govekar, Connor Swift, among others. 

Van der Poel alone in the lead

There we have it. The Dutchman goes solo and passes the checkpoint at kilometre 70.6 with a lead of 30 seconds over the rest of the field. Jasper Stuyven was in second place, just ahead of a group of 19 riders.

Who does Greg Van Avermaet think will win the world title? CN's Jackie Tyson caught up with the former cobbled classics star in Leuven earlier this week. 

Home favourite Greg Van Avermaet tips Mathieu van der Poel for elite men's win at UCI Gravel World Championships

Here's the composition of the lead group

Matej Mohoric (Slovenia)

Mathieu van der Poel (Netherlands)

Tiesj Benoot (Belgium)

Jasper Stuyven (Belgium) 

Kevin Panhuyzen (Belgium) 

Gianni Vermeersch (Belgium) 

Florian Vermeersch (Belgium)

7 in the lead

That large group has been further cut to size after 51km, with an elite seven-man selection at the head of the race. Van der Poel and Mohoric are there with a number of Belgians.

Van Avermaet is up there, as is fellow retired road pro turned gravel rider Jan Bakelants. The main WorldTour men Benoot, Merlier, Stuyven, Meurisse, Hermans, Kielich, and the two Vermeersch's are all there. Then you have two of the CX pros in Iserbyt and Aerts, and to cap it off there's Lawrence Naesen, Seppe Rombouts, Lander Loockx, and Kevin Panhuyzen. That's 16 in total.

More than half of that 30-man lead group are Belgian. 

After 39.5km we have some gaps starting to appear. A bunch of 30 riders have small gap, with most of the big names in there. Van der Poel was in second place through that checkpoint so still up at the front of proceedings.

Some shots from the early kilometres

In case you missed it, there was a rather big story yesterday in that Marianne Vos won the world title using an adjustable tyre pressure system. We've seen this toyed with in the past in the road Classics but it hasn't properly caught on... yet...

Marianne Vos uses self-inflating tyres at Gravel World Championships

The route as a whole is not very hilly, with no major climbs. Being Belgium, though, there are plenty of punchy kickers. This is the profile for the circuit, with one late hike up into the woods ahead of the trip back into the city. There's a very late little kicker there in the form of the Ramberg, a short but nasty narrow cobbled road that could serve as the final attack point - after that it's through a city park and into the final kilometre with the home straight along a wide boulevard. 

Let's take a closer look at the course

The riders will spend the best part of 90 kilometres riding from Halle to Leuven from the south west (and off the side of the map on this image). The finish line is at the top in the centre of Leuven and the riders will then hit the 47km finishing circuit that takes them south of the city into the Forest of Brabant and then back into Leuven on the same paths from the south west. Whereas the women did one lap of the circuit, the men will do two.

Still all together after 16km. Van der Poel and Mohoric are up towards the front of the bunch, though - second and third through that checkpoint behind Frenchman Florian Dauphin.

The first checkpoint came after 4km but no splits in the large peloton so far. The Slovenian Matevz Govekar was first through there as he looks to marshall the bunch on behalf of Mohoric. 

Here's a shot from the start line. The sea of light blue is Belgian jerseys. If this becomes team-tactical like a road race, they clearly possess the upper hand.

Miss yesterday's action? You can catch up here:

UCI Gravel World Championships: Marianne Vos overpowers Kopecky to seize elite women's title

We're off

The race is underway. No TV bikes or race radio so updates for the first part of the race will come to us via live timing checkpoints.  

Van der Poel and Mohoric on the start line.

The strongest squad here is undoubtedly the home nation, Belgium, who bring the inaugural world champ from 2021, Gianni Vermeersch, along with a wealth of WorldTour talent: Tim Merlier, Tiesj Benoot, Jaspery Stuyven, Quinten Hermans, Florian Vermeersch, They also have cyclo-cross stalwarts Eli Iserbyt, Laurens Sweeck, and Michael Vanthourenhout, and, to top it all off, a certain Greg Van Avermaet - former Classics star who has taken up gravel in retirement. 

Mohoric, who won in style last year but was forced to miss the recent Road Worlds to to a hand injury sustained in a gravel ride. Mohoric even tried proper US gravel earlier this year at Unbound, but this is UCI gravel and, especially with a relatively tame course, is well suited to a road racing engine.

Van der Poel has plenty of teammates but not on quite the same level as the Dutch mafia we saw in the women's race. Fellow cyclo-cross race Joris Nieuwenhuis is among those by his side. 

Here is Van der Poel at the start in Halle just now.

The action gets underway at 12pm local time, so just around the corner. 

After the women's race served up a battle between Marianne Vos and Lotte Kopecky, what does the men's gravel world championship have in store? 2023 champion Matej Mohoric (Slovenia) is on the start list, as is Classics star and former road race and cyclo-cross world champ Mathieu van der Poel (Netherlands). 

Ahead of them is a 182km course in Belgium, featuring two laps of the 47km circuit around the woodland south of Leuven that we saw yesterday.

Welcome to Cyclingnews' live coverage of the elite men's race at the UCI Gravel World Championships.