Marianne Vos has been crowned the new gravel world champion. After an exciting duel with Lotte Kopecky, the 37-year-old Dutch rider proved the strongest in the sprint finish to claim the fourteenth world title of her stellar career.
Among others, Marianne Vos, Riejanne Markus, Fem van Empel and Femke de Vries defended the Dutch colours during the World Gravel Championships. The riders faced 140 kilometres filled with gruelling gravel roads in and around Leuven.
With more than 50 kilometres to go, Vos found herself in the front together with brand-new road world champion Kopecky. The duo left fellow breakaway riders Lorena Wiebes and Soraya Paladin behind. Vos and Kopecky found each other right away and quickly gained a comfortable lead over the chasers. In the final moments, the two were well matched and unable to drop each other. In a sprint-à-deux, Vos made a sharp acceleration and the Dutchwoman convincingly won her first world gravel title.
“It was a true battle of attrition”, Vos said afterward her hard-fought win. “Lotte and I quickly found ourselves in the front. I knew right away that it would be a tough race, but it quickly became clear that we would sprint for the title. After a race like that, the question was how explosive my sprint would still be. Lotte is also a very strong rider. I tried to attack on the last hill in the final kilometres, but I didn’t want to blow myself up. Then I hoped there would be something left in the legs. I went full with 200 metres to go. Fortunately, I was able to hold on until the end!”
Vos received her fourteenth rainbow jersey on the podium. In her illustrious career, she has won three road world titles, two track world titles and world cyclocross titles no less than eight times. Her first participation in the World Gravel Championships also proved to be an instant success. “Along the way, I never thought about it. Only this title counted today. It’s definitely a special world title. Any championship you can win is special. I’m very satisfied that I could finish it off.”
