Mathieu van der Poel finished third in the first gravel riding World Cup. It was his first appearance since the Australian Road World Championships incident. Van der Poel then got off early after the start of the road race, having spent much of the night before at the police station.
Gianni Vermeersch has won the World Cup. The Belgian broke away from his Italian fellow refugee Daniel Oss more than 5 kilometers before the finish and crossed the finish line solo in Cittadella.
Vermeersch and Oss attacked about 100 kilometers before the finish. They quickly took a 5 minute lead. The peloton with favorites such as Mathieu van der Poel, Greg Van Avermaet, Peter Sagan, Magnus Cort, Zdenek Stybar and Alessandro De Marchi quickly lost their way.
Vermeersch gave the Belgian cycling fans a second world title in a short time. Remko Evenepoel became world champion on the road two weeks ago. Oss finished second in 43 seconds. Van der Poel was third after almost a minute and a half. The course of the first World Championship gravel riding, more than 190 kilometers long, led the participants over many unpaved roads and gravel strips.
First World Championship gravel riding
This Sunday it was the first time that the World Championships in gravel riding were held. The World Cup was held over a course of about two hundred kilometers, about half of which is on unpaved roads.
For Van der Poel it was his first gravel race ever. This Sunday was also the first appearance for Van der Poel since he had spent a large part of the night at the police station in Australia.
The police had taken him because he had brutally reprimanded two girls who were disturbing his night’s sleep in the hotel corridor. One of them suffered a scrape. The rider had to answer to a judge and was fined a thousand euros for assault. He later expressed regret.
‘Open to something new’
“I am happy to be back in action here soon after the World Cup in Australia,” said Van der Poel. “Now I had a goal again. Otherwise I probably wouldn’t have touched my bike for a long time. This is a fun discipline. I’m always open to something new.”
He also says he is happy for his teammate Vermeersch that he has won. Van der Poel had to settle for less. “I couldn’t get more than third place. I managed to do that. So I can be satisfied.”
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