Biesterbos gives van der Poel a worthy successor, but Florian Vermeersch proves too strong at Gravel World Championship

The men started at 11:45 AM local time, with the finish expected around 4:15 PM local time—180 kilometers of pounding over the most beautiful gravel roads of South Limburg. The Belgians had the largest squad of riders and thus controlled the opening phase. At a speed of over 40 kilometers per hour, the peloton was quickly halved.

With the enormous pace, and Germany also sharply focused on the front, breaking away was no easy task. Florian Vermeersch was the first to succeed. He was joined by his compatriot Floris Van Tricht and the Dutchman Biesterbos. The gap to the peloton quickly increased to three-quarters of a minute, but Nils Politt still managed to make the crossing.

After 70 kilometers of racing at an average speed of 38 km/h, the leading group of four worked well together. They saw their lead increase to a minute and a half, so something had to happen in the peloton, right? Connor Swift, Quinten Hermans, and Gianni Vermeersch, among others, were keen to chase and took off.

The two Belgians remained and caught up with Fabio Christen and Magnus Bak Klaris, who had broken away a little earlier. When Tim Wellens also wanted to join them, Mohoric intervened, and everything came back together. The Slovenian then attacked himself, with Britain's Tom Pidcock also at the front for the first time. At the front, Politt dropped out of the leading group due to mechanical problems.

Mohoric and Félix Stehli managed to break away in a new attempt to catch up with the leading three. Pidcock saw the danger posed by Mohoric and created a third group of five, where the cooperation was not too good. Vermeersch and Biesterbos still had a 45-second lead over Mohoric and Stehli at this stage, with Van Tricht dropping back from the leaders.

With about 20 kilometers to go, Vermeersch and Biesterbos were well placed to make it. Mohoric and Stehli lost Van Tricht due to a crash and also had to fear Pidcock, who was rapidly moving up from the third group. However, it was too late for the Brit and Wellens. They went on to battle for the places of honor.

For the podium, it was Vermeersch versus Biesterbos for gold and silver, and Mohoric broke away from Stehli for bronze. Vermeersch cracked the Dutch gravel champion 12 kilometers from the finish line. The Dutchman never really gave up and stayed close for a long time, about 10 seconds behind, but the bird had flown. The gap became half a minute.

And so the World Championships came to an anticlimactic end. Vermeersch was able to celebrate with overwhelming superiority, while Biesterbos, with his silver medal, proved a worthy successor to outgoing world champion Van der Poel.