2024 GRAVEL WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP (BE)

[jono]

Stuyven accuses Belgian teammates of riding in support of Mathieu van der Poel at Gravel Worlds​

'It was very clear that all the guys from Alpecin were here to help him'

Stuyven accuses Belgian teammates of riding in support of Mathieu van der Poel at Gravel Worlds

'It was very clear that all the guys from Alpecin were here to help him'

www.cyclingnews.com

It's only fair. Mathieu rode for Gianni Vermeersch in 2022. Returns the favor.

 

[memyselfandI]

Danish Jonas Lindberg that ended up #12 in the Men's elite race must be - by a huge margin - the biggest outsider in a very long time.

12th place In World champs gravel ❤️‍🔥❤️‍🔥 | Strava

What a day.. crazy to end 12th 2 months after 5 week holiday ❤️‍🔥 so so happy | Strava

www.strava.com

Well he's done a couple of UCI gravel world series races in 2023-24, not that bad legs at all it seems.

 

[Barkintheeye]

Well he's done a couple of UCI gravel world series races in 2023-24, not that bad legs at all it seems.

Saw that he raced CX a couple of years back. Still a very strong ride and probably one of his best results! Hope he gets offered a position with a WT team. Would be fun to see more of him. Denmark has some really good riders.

 

[Barkintheeye]

This article nicely captures the WC, the race course and the atmosphere. In almost every aspect a success in my opinion. Had the weather been rough it would have been the most grueling event for just about anyone.

Impressions and impacts from third edition of UCI Gravel World Championships

WorldTour prominence, critiques transformed to commendations, pressure adjustments on the go and more

www.cyclingnews.com

 

[Wyndbrook]

Stuyven accuses Belgian teammates of riding in support of Mathieu van der Poel at Gravel Worlds​

'It was very clear that all the guys from Alpecin were here to help him'

Stuyven accuses Belgian teammates of riding in support of Mathieu van der Poel at Gravel Worlds

'It was very clear that all the guys from Alpecin were here to help him'

www.cyclingnews.com

Dutch, Belgians, going against national team orders, they've been doing it for the last century, nothing new here I'm afraid.

 

[Unchained]

Dear Chris Horner..Leuven is an awesome college party town!! It's close to major airports, highways, train stations.. Can't have a bad time!!
Alpencin is a Belgian team!!
Gravel is done, the version you are belly aching about.. There are no hydration stations. No tables w cut fruit, girlfriends and family wiping you off, photos, resting.. It's done!! Nobody is stopping when someone gets a flat or crashes.. All the feel good hippie version of gravel can survive, it's all about format and promoters.. There was zero " innocence " in gravel before this race started..
Any mix of fellowship and have a good time is long gone!! Pro bike racers only do it one way..
Moooose

 

[Barkintheeye]

Dear Chris Horner..Leuven is an awesome college party town!! It's close to major airports, highways, train stations.. Can't have a bad time!!
Alpencin is a Belgian team!!
Gravel is done, the version you are belly aching about.. There are no hydration stations. No tables w cut fruit, girlfriends and family wiping you off, photos, resting.. It's done!! Nobody is stopping when someone gets a flat or crashes.. All the feel good hippie version of gravel can survive, it's all about format and promoters.. There was zero " innocence " in gravel before this race started..
Any mix of fellowship and have a good time is long gone!! Pro bike racers only do it one way..
Moooose

Echo that. "Nobody is stopping when..." ...ever. The pace is consistently relentless.

I keep on stressing the fact that had there been a couple of days with rain - which it was the week prior - you can easily add half an hour race time to Van der Poel and the very top riders and one to two hours for the rest. I doubt more than half of the starting field would've finished.

 

[Unchained]

Echo that. "Nobody is stopping when..." ...ever. The pace is consistently relentless.

I keep on stressing the fact that had there been a couple of days with rain - which it was the week prior - you can easily add half an hour race time to Van der Poel and the very top riders and one to two hours for the rest. I doubt more than half of the starting field would've finished.

If you have followed it from the beginning in the US, and lots of US media, some bizarre sense of ownership, that gravel was so invented in the US so therefore, that gravel was always supposed to be friendly and have a positive vibe like little league world series were competitors always cared about each other more than winning. Then like a tsunami, aero bars, having support along the race route, people having logistics planned out so they flashed through feed support areas at 30mph without stopping to say high..and some veterans and others would have pitty party lament videos about people taking gravel seriously, making it professional instead of feel good informal, results don't matter it's all about the essence.. Some kind of Grateful Dead bicycle out of body thing.
If you watched what took place in Leuven almost perfect.. All the chaos that you could hope for w the event taking place with access for all including Americans!! You can fly to Brussels and get essentials for same or cheaper price than big American events, Leadville, Big Sugar, Sea Otter, Unbound..
Belgium had wide spectrum fan base and government obviously did what was necessary. In the future ideally for me, little less pavement, more single track and climbing..

View: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=z4BB3XHL80c&pp=ygUYZ3JhdmVsIGNoYW1waW9uc2hpcCAyMDI0


The crashes right after 5:15 on the video claimed my hometown rider..this video gives you a decent feel for wild West racing

 

[jono]

If you have followed it from the beginning in the US, and lots of US media, some bizarre sense of ownership, that gravel was so invented in the US so therefore, that gravel was always supposed to be friendly and have a positive vibe like little league world series were competitors always cared about each other more than winning. Then like a tsunami, aero bars, having support along the race route, people having logistics planned out so they flashed through feed support areas at 30mph without stopping to say high..and some veterans and others would have pitty party lament videos about people taking gravel seriously, making it professional instead of feel good informal, results don't matter it's all about the essence.. Some kind of Grateful Dead bicycle out of body thing.
If you watched what took place in Leuven almost perfect.. All the chaos that you could hope for w the event taking place with access for all including Americans!! You can fly to Brussels and get essentials for same or cheaper price than big American events, Leadville, Big Sugar, Sea Otter, Unbound..
Belgium had wide spectrum fan base and government obviously did what was necessary. In the future ideally for me, little less pavement, more single track and climbing..

View: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=z4BB3XHL80c&pp=ygUYZ3JhdmVsIGNoYW1waW9uc2hpcCAyMDI0


The crashes right after 5:15 on the video claimed my hometown rider..this video gives you a decent feel for wild West racing

I don't think many are upset that the UCI gravel races have lacked the "spirit of gravel" nonsense that is in any case dying out on both sides of the Atlantic. The biggest complaints I've heard are that the races have been too short, and have too much pavement. I think at least one of those complaints is valid.

 

[Wyndbrook]

Perhaps the best way going forward is for US Cycling to get their bid in to hold a future gravel worlds.

 

[Sciatic]

I lived on the West Coast and now live in the gravel heaven of Idaho. No one on this continent can beat the 6 time cyclocross WC.
Fact: my 55 yo road and CX teammate came to the longest gravel ride in Idaho and rode 50+. His cumulative time would have placed him in the top 8 of the Pro race and 3rd in any Masters catagory. He fixed 3 flats and had to soak his feet on the last stage for 5 minutes....The best cyclocross pros on the Euro side would make a mockery of your real gravel riders. The big difference is they get paid extremely well to be the best CX and World Tour riders; something few Americans are willing to dedicate a career to accomplish. That, assuming the current gravel princes of North America actually could go FAST enough to be in a serious group.

I appreciate the very competitive and supportive MTB vibe here and the challenging terrain. It's just not the same level that produces enough Matteo Jorgensons to have gravel riders beating Eurostars.

Where in Idaho? I lived in Moscow for several years during grad school, and indeed not hard to go find gravel riding—wherever a residential street ended and went into the Palouse wheat fields it was all gravel! (other than the main highway).

 

[Oldermanish]

Where in Idaho? I lived in Moscow for several years during grad school, and indeed not hard to go find gravel riding—wherever a residential street ended and went into the Palouse wheat fields it was all gravel! (other than the main highway).

North of Boise where the roads get above 9,000'. Whole different regimen than riding at sea level.

 

[Sciatic]

North of Boise where the roads get above 9,000'. Whole different regimen than riding at sea level.

Out by Bogus Basin? So many amazing (and different) mountain chains in ID.

 

[Oldermanish]

Out by Bogus Basin? So many amazing (and different) mountain chains in ID.

East of there; Sawtooths, Pioneers and hills in every direction. Today they're all inundated with side by sides with hunters doing recon and setting up camps and trailers. The next two weeks you wear your Old School hot colors, not the ironic and muted natural colors.

 

[jmdirt]

I didn't want to get into the "who's better" discussion, but I'm stuck at the car service black hole so...

IMO, there really is no argument that the events that the UCI put on are not what gravel has been (especially in the USA). Much like XCO racess aren't like what XC was in the '90s.

IMO, MvdP is a generational freak who can pretty much win anything that he wants to (I know not GT GC, and I don't wan to go there). But, I also think that Swenson could be at least as good as say Pidcock, if that was his mental focus (this guy is freakish too). IMO, comparing a guy who is paid to win WT races to a guy who is paid to win Life Time Grand Prix races is silly at best. They aren't trainng the same, and they have different mentalities (although MvdP has more of Keegan's mentality than Keegan has of MvdP I think).

 

[jmdirt]

Where in Idaho? I lived in Moscow for several years during grad school, and indeed not hard to go find gravel riding—wherever a residential street ended and went into the Palouse wheat fields it was all gravel! (other than the main highway).

I went to college at LC in Lewsiton so I put in plenty of miles on the Palouse. I've been in Boise for 30 years now though. Oldermanish lives with the elites in Idaho!

 

[Barkintheeye]

I didn't want to get into the "who's better" discussion, but I'm stuck at the car service black hole so...

IMO, there really is no argument that the events that the UCI put on are not what gravel has been (especially in the USA). Much like XCO racess aren't like what XC was in the '90s.

IMO, MvdP is a generational freak who can pretty much win anything that he wants to (I know not GT GC, and I don't wan to go there). But, I also think that Swenson could be at least as good as say Pidcock, if that was his mental focus (this guy is freakish too). IMO, comparing a guy who is paid to win WT races to a guy who is paid to win Life Time Grand Prix races is silly at best. They aren't trainng the same, and they have different mentalities (although MvdP has more of Keegan's mentality than Keegan has of MvdP I think).

There’s a post race interview with Chad Haga. He summarized the race with sprint-corner-sprint-corner- …for the whole race. He didn’t seem to fancy his placing #56 and 37 minutes behind Van der Poel. If I’m not mistaken he sprinted for the victory at Unbound this year.

 

[ManicJack]

There’s a post race interview with Chad Haga. He summarized the race with sprint-corner-sprint-corner- …for the whole race. He didn’t seem to fancy his placing #56 and 37 minutes behind Van der Poel. If I’m not mistaken he sprinted for the victory at Unbound this year.

So 55 riders could have beat him at unbound?

 

[Barkintheeye]

So 55 riders could have beat him at unbound?

What do you think?

We know that he thought it was a very hard and intense race for some whole five hours and that the competition was tough.

About 20% of the starting field DNF most probably due to unfixable mechanicals. Says something about how smooth and easy the course was.

 

[Sciatic]

I went to college at LC in Lewsiton so I put in plenty of miles on the Palouse. I've been in Boise for 30 years now though. Oldermanish lives with the elites in Idaho!

Ah, yes—the old Lewiston grade, that was the one decent-sized (paved) climb within easy reach from Moscow.

 

[jmdirt]

Ah, yes—the old Lewiston grade, that was the one decent-sized (paved) climb within easy reach from Moscow.

Did you ride some of the other old grades out of the LC valley, several of which were dirt/gravel?

 

[jmdirt]

There’s a post race interview with Chad Haga. He summarized the race with sprint-corner-sprint-corner- …for the whole race. He didn’t seem to fancy his placing #56 and 37 minutes behind Van der Poel. If I’m not mistaken he sprinted for the victory at Unbound this year.

I feel like you didn't understand what I typed, maybe I didn't explain it well.

 

[memyselfandI]

View: https://youtu.be/UfjlFBSXYMI?feature=shared

 

[Sciatic]

Did you ride some of the other old grades out of the LC valley, several of which were dirt/gravel?

No, I don’t think so (was almost 30 yrs ago) although I know there were some good ones. I did okay riding the gravel farm roads through the rolling Palouse on my road bike with 28c tires, but gravel climbs and descents on that bike were not very inviting.

 

[jmdirt]

View: https://youtu.be/UfjlFBSXYMI?feature=shared

I like these guys and Simon actually did the race. That being said, his opinion is just another opinion. Just because he liked the race, and has a video channel doesn't make his opinion any greater than anyone else. They do make several good point for sure.