Marianne Vos (Netherlands) beat Belgium's Lotte Kopecky in a cagey, two-up sprint at the Gravel World Championships to seal an incredible 14th rainbow jersey across all surfaces and her first in the discipline.
Vos' compatriot Lorena Wiebes took the bronze medal, distancing another Dutchwoman, Puck Pieterse, and Germany's Romy Kasper in the final kilometre of the finishing circuit.
Vos and Kopecky escaped as part of a four-strong breakaway halfway through the race, dropping Wiebes and Soraya Paladin (Italy) with 50km left to ride and building an unassailable advantage in the finishing loop.
The Dutchwoman attacked on the steep, cobbled Ramberg climb 1.7km before the finish but couldn't drop the Belgian, setting up a cat-and-mouse sprint for glory in front of packed crowds in Leuven.
Kopecky led them into the finishing straight as both slowed almost to a track stand, but as Vos opened up her sprint with 200m to go the world road champion could not match her kick, sitting up and conceding defeat, giving Vos time to punch the air in celebration.
With both inaugural champion Pauline Ferrand-Prévot and last year's winner Kasia Niewiadoma not contesting this edition, a first-time champion was guaranteed in Leuven and it was Vos who came out on top in the battle of past and current world champions.
“I didn’t think about the previous 13 [rainbow jerseys] to be honest,” Vos said at the finish. “[Gravel is] something fairly new but it’s a World Championships so you try to do your best. It was of course nice to be in the front with Lotte, you know it’s going to be hard as well [with her]. Of course when you’re riding with such a class rider, last week she got the [road] world title so I knew she’s in good shape.
“It was really great to race together here, especially with those crowds. I wasn’t confident for the sprint for sure! I knew it was hard to escape [on the final climb] so when I saw I wasn’t going to make it I decided to wait.”
HOW IT UNFOLDED
While designed like a Belgian classic, with only a few short, punchy climbs, today’s race had none of the dismal weather typically associated with one-day races in this part of the world. The riders enjoyed glorious sunshine as they rolled out on the streets of Halle for a short starting loop before beginning the 80km run to Leuven.
The 135km parcours criss-crossed the Forests of Brabant en route to the city centre finish, rolling through four woodland sections and twisting and turning along technical gravel, dirt and cobbled roads. Made up of around 60% unpaved surfaces, the short distance and large amount of regular road in the course design meant this was always likely to favour the road pros over the gravel specialists, despite the Championships’ name.
Kopecky - competing in just her first-ever gravel race - and the Dutch contingent were active from the start, with the road world champion and Vos, Wiebes and Lucinda Brand among an 11-strong group to float off the front of the bunch after around 40km of racing. The bunch re-formed a few kilometres later, and it took until nearly half the race was ridden before a breakaway finally formed.
With 70km done an elite quartet of Kopecky, Vos, Wiebes and Paladin jumped clear, establishing a slender 20-second lead over a chasing trio of Pieterse, Kasper, and Nicole Frain (Australia), and a further half a minute’s advantage over the main bunch.
Vos and Kopecky attacked again, driving ahead on an extremely narrow, single-file dirt track section. The surge in pace was enough to drop Wiebes and Paladin, with the Dutchwoman in turn riding clear of the Italian on a farm track.
Vos and Kopecky were first up the narrow, cobbled Ramberg climb into the sweeping expanse of the finishing straight, while behind them the quartet had Wiebes in their sights and reeled her in on the tarmac before the final incursion into the Forest of Brabant. The peloton crossed the finish line some four minutes down on the leaders, already out of the competition with 47km left to race. The leading duo worked well to nick a couple more seconds here and there on their pursuers and within only a few kilometres of the circuit it became clear this was a two-horse race for the rainbow jersey.
BATTLE FOR THE PODIUM
Kopecky accelerated as the pair came out of the woods into open fields, with Vos digging deep to hold her wheel on the rough, uneven terrain. Three minutes down the road Pieterse made an identical move to try to distance her companions in the fight for the bronze medal. Kasper – the leading presence in the chasing quartet – fought back on, dragging the remaining three with her, but Frain was distanced on the cobbles soon after.
As the final 20km began the attacks started in earnest. Pieterse turned the screw again and as Paladin refused to work it was Kasper again who was forced to give chase. Up ahead Vos accelerated in another flat wooded section – but while Kopecky appeared to be caught off guard, she sensed the danger quickly and jumped back on.
Behind them four became three as it became clear Paladin wasn’t sandbagging but in fact was struggling to cling on, while an attempt by Wiebes to power clear on a steep wooded climb was reeled in by Kasper.
The leading duo, safely four minutes ahead of the chasers, continued to skirmish but seemed content to wait for a deciding sprint, until Vos attacked on the final ascent of the Ramberg climb. Kopecky clung on and Vos swiftly sat up, and it was the Belgian who led them into the final 500m, a broad, wide finishing straight.
Kopecky hugged the right-hand barrier, continually checking over her shoulder, but as Vos charged away in the final 200m she had no response, unable to double up on world titles after winning the road race in Zurich last week. It was Vos instead who added another rainbow jersey to her already overflowing wardrobe of them.
Nearly four minutes behind, Wiebes had the freshest legs and went unchallenged as she attacked on the last climb, while Kasper’s efforts in marshalling the chase group ultimately told as Pieterse rode away from the fading German to take fourth place. After last week’s disappointing result for the Dutch women’s team in Zurich this was an emphatic victory: gold for Vos, bronze for Wiebes, and six orange jerseys in the top ten.
RESULTS: GRAVEL WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS ELITE WOMEN’S RACE 2024, HALLE > LEUVEN (135km)
1. Marianne Vos (Ned), in 4:01:08
2. Lotte Kopecky (Bel), +1s
3. Lorena Wiebes (Ned), +3:57
4. Puck Pieterse (Ned), +4:09
5. Romy Kasper (Ger), +4:15
6. Soraya Paladin (Ita), +6:00
7. Riejanne Markus (Ned), +6:04
8. Femke Markus (Ned), +8:52
9. Emma Norsgaard (Den), +8:52
10. Lucinda Brand (Ned), +8:53
