UCI Gravel World Championships: Lorena Wiebes claims elite women's world title with sprint victory for dominant Dutch team

The Netherlands' Lorena Wiebes sprinted to victory and the rainbow jersey in the elite women's race at the UCI Gravel World Championships, after the chasing group dramatically caught solo leader Shirin van Anrooij in the final 500 metres.

Wiebes outsprinted defending champion and Dutch teammate Marianne Vos to take the win, with Silvia Persico of Italy taking third behind the pair in orange.

Despite the Dutch success, it was heartbreak at the last minute for their compatriot Van Anrooij, who had attacked with 12km and was solo all the way into the final kilometre, but was swept up as Wiebes and Vos launched the sprint.

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It was an entire day of Dutch domination, with the riders seemingly given free range to race against each other, and Wiebes and Vos looking the strongest, after going away together in the final 25km.

However, things came back together into a group of eight at the front – six of them Dutch – and it was from here that Van Anrooij launched her attack on a stretch of tarmac, pulling out a gap of 20 seconds.

After several kilometres of attacking each other, the Dutch team finally played the tactical game in the finale, refusing to chase down their teammate and forcing Julia Kopecký (Czechia) to take on the bulk of chasing, and this looked like it would play into Van Anrooij's favour.

However, after Kopecký dropped away in the final two kilometres, Yara Kastelijn (The Netherlands) started to lead out the sprint – at that point for the medals – but once Vos and Wiebes launched in earnest, their speed was too much for the tiring Van Anrooij as they sped past her to the line.

"I knew exactly how this climb was. [Vos] attacked a couple of times before on the climbs, but I knew also on this climb that you need to pace it a little bit, because otherwise you blow yourself completely up," Wiebes said about the final big climb of the day at Bronsdalweg with 15km to go. "I pushed till the end, and I was happy to be there still with the others."

Wiebes said after Van Anrooij took off over the climb, she just had to focus on keeping the pace high to catch her national teammate. It was Kopecký work at the front of the chase group until 1,500 metres to go that helped Wiebes make the pass of Van Anrooij with under 500 metres remaining.

"When Shirin was in front, I was not sure to get her back. But luckily, I had my other teammate, Julia Kopecký [of SD Worx-Protime], and she did a really strong race."

Though she didn't defend her title from last year, second-placed Vos had no complaints at the finish.

"I'm really happy actually," she told Cyclingnews. "Of course, you always go for the maximum and try to get the maximum out of it. But I think today, second was the maximum. So I'm very happy."

Despite being outnumbered by the Dutch, Persico pointed to some lack of cohesion as to why she was able to take third.

"I think that today they were racing not really by national team in general, but they were racing alone and chasing eachother," she said. "So for me, it was super nice, because I just needed to stay in the wheel. I don't know what was the tactic, but of course, they were chasing each other. I'm just happy and thank you to them."

How it unfolded

The riders covered 131km on Saturday with 1,190 metres of climbing following a variety of surfaces, approximately 80% on unpaved paths and trails. There were no long, sustained climbs on the route, just a relentless amount of short, steep hills in south Limburg.

From Beek under the grey skies, the riders followed a loop running in a counter-clockwise direction, with the first lap about 30km and the second a bit longer. After two-and-a-half laps of the circuit, riders would veer on a very hilly closing leg to Maastricht, with six gravel sections, including the Bronsdalweg and Hagenstraat climbs, and an unpaved final section along the Groene Loper ('green carpet') to the finish.

The first ascent of the race came in the first 5.5km at the Adsteeg (700 metres at 5%), which is featured in Amstel Gold Race. It was a swarm of orange at the front, with Lorena Wiebes, Geerike Schreurs, Wendy Oosterwoud and Femke Markus at the front of the field for the Netherlands and Rosa Klöser (Germany) close behind in the opening kilometres on pavement.

Klöser took over the pacemaking early at the front to stretch out the peloton, Wiebes and Silvia Persico on her wheel. The large contingency of Dutch riders had defending champion Vos tucked in 15th position. After making a first pass of the Wijnandsrade Castle with 20km covered, no one had been able to break free at the front.

Another 10km later and the main field, down to 86 riders, was mainly orange at the front with the Dutch domination included 14 riders among the first 20 positions, while Czechia's Julia Kopecký and Australia's Nicole Frain joined along.

With 80km to go, Schreurs was still doing a lot of work at the front for the home team alongside Shirin van Anrooij and Maud Rijnbeek.

Approaching the mid-point of the race, Wiebes was at the front with Persico and Romy Kasper (Germany), while the front of the peloton remained largely orange. In the mix were Tiffany Cromwell (Australia), European gravel champion Erica Magnaldi (Italy), and 22-year-old Paula Blasi (Spain), the U23 European road champion and U23 bronze medalist at Road Worlds in Kigali.

It was on the second full circuit that gaps began to form in the peloton, not huge chunks of time, but seconds that were difficult to recover with speeds averaging 32.1 kph.

Maddy Nutt (Great Britain) had crashed a bit earlier on loose gravel in a corner and was among a few riders trying to catch back to the main peloton, now down to 70 riders.

Headed to the final 54km, Quinty Ton (The Netherlands) was the first rider to make a successful acceleration to break free of the peloton, doing so on a wide dirt road dividing farmland on either side. She never gained more than a handful of seconds and was pulled back.

Ton's move was a signal for more attacks, with 52km to go, Kasper taking off with four Dutch teammates – Femke Gerritse, Rijnbeek, Wiebes and Vos. They soon had 30 seconds on chasers, the group including Persico, Blasi and Klöser.

Another 15km on, a group of seven closed within 20 seconds of the Vos and Wiebes group. The first chase group included Shirin van Anrooij, Mischa Bredewold, Femke de Vries, Larissa Hartog – all Dutch – plus Persico and Kopecký. Klöser was missing from the chase group, having not made the decisive moves after a lot of work at the front.

The final 35km began to unfold, the full circuits completed, and the lead quintet held just 17 seconds. Persico at one point put up her arm as if to say 'let's go', but the five Dutch riders maintained their pace, which was not in a hurry to catch the front group.

With 22km to go, the seven chasers could see the leaders ahead, but once on a stretch of pavement on a small twisting climb, Vos accelerated away, joined by only Wiebes. The two had to navigate around some of the age-group riders on the way, who had started behind them but only made one local circuit. Kasper and her two Dutch companions were soon joined by the seven chasers for a pack of 10. The peloton, now about 20 riders, trailed 40 seconds farther back.

With just one 'major' climb left, Vos and Wiebes took off and established a gap of 20 seconds. For a while, it looked as if it might be a two-up battle to the finish, but with only a small gap, it wasn't long until the motivated chasers rejoined the leaders – first Silvia Persico bridged across, and then the front group became eight again with 16km to go.

After the regrouping, the attacks did not let up, with the Dutch riders seemingly battling against each other with only two non-Dutch riders in the group. On a narrow climb, Yara Kastelijn pushed the pace and drew out a group of five with Wiebes, Vos, Van Anrooij and Persico, and Kopecký soon joined too.

With 12km to go, Van Anrooij launched a solo move on the tarmac and quickly pulled out a gap of 20 seconds. At first, her Dutch teammates continued the chase behind, but soon they sat back, trying to force Kopecký and Persico into chasing, which worked in Van Anrooij's favour. With 5km, her gap was 15 seconds, but the chasers weren't making big inroads as the finish approached.

After her efforts, Kopecký dropped from the chase with 2km to go, and once Kastelijn took over, the gap started closing quickly on the final straight, and when Vos and Wiebes launched properly, they soon swept up Van Anrooij, who was denied a world title within sight of the line.

As one would expect from the imperious sprinter, Wiebes claimed her first gravel world title as Vos and Persico took second and third. Kastelijn took fourth, whilst Van Anrooij settled for fifth as the Netherlands locked out four of the top five spots, and indeed seven of the top 10. Despite her valiant efforts, Kopecký was rewarded with only sixth, simply outnumbered by the dominant Dutch, who looked destined to take the rainbow jersey one way or another the whole day.

Results

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