This weekend, the UCI Gravel World Championships will be held in Northern Italy for the second time this year. After Saturday’s women’s competition, three Bahrain Victorious athletes will don their national jerseys on Sunday for a 169km run from Lake Le Bandi and Pieve di Soligo.
Matej Mohorić, Fran Mihojevic and Matevus Gobekar all arrived in Italy having just returned from last week’s Cros race, with Mohoric winning the ‘Queen Stage’ and Mihoric and Gobekar having outstanding performances in the breakaway and sprint respectively. showed. All three are coming to the end of a long and difficult season in slightly different ways.
“Although I have no expectations regarding results, I am still looking forward to racing the gravel bike,” says Mohoric.
“It’s a new experience for me, so I’ll accept it and give it my all. Even after a long and successful season, I’m still in pretty good shape, so I wanted to give it one last push and see how far I can go.” I am.”
Parkour is a roughly 50/50 split of pavement and gravel, with some challenging rough trails. There are nine climbs and a total of 1890m of climbing, most of which is on public roads. Matej commented:
“The course is very varied, with some asphalt sections and some gravel roads, but it’s flat. There are some very technical parts, especially on the last loop, and a short but very steep climb. There are several singletrack segments, and plenty of segments with true “gravel racing” characteristics. ”
Besides the road surface under the wheels, another notable difference from the regular race format is the grid shape it takes at the start. Each competitor will be assigned a starting position based on their previous gravel race results, as well as their UCI rankings for road, mountain bike and cyclocross.
“I think riders with a lot of off-road experience will definitely have an advantage,” continues the Slovenian. “They train and race on gravel bikes all year long. And it would suit cyclocross athletes as well.”
The start list for this event is long, with over 220 participants. As with our players, the star name on the road is Belgian Wout van Aert alongside his compatriot and defending champion Gianni Vermersch.
The UCI Gravel World Championship Elite Men’s race will start at 10:30 local time in Veneto, Italy.