Chaos at Women’s Belgian Gravel Championships as 2nd and 3rd place accuse winner of cheating: ‘Suddenly we saw a third person’

Wout van Aert was the crowd favourite at the Belgian Gravel Championships, but the Visma | Lease a Bike rider had to settle for silver behind Daan Soete. In the women’s race, there was also a surprise as Nathalie Bex claimed the national title, but it sparked a major controversy. The second- and third-place finishers allege that Bex cut the course.

Bex beat Loes Sels and Marthe Truyen in the sprint and took the win. But Truyen, who finished third, can’t understand how she was even able to sprint for the win. “At one point, the two of us were out in front: Loes and me,” she tells Sporza. “And suddenly we saw a third person appear in front of us instead of behind us.”

Sels tells the same story. “I’m sure Nathalie was driving behind us, and suddenly she was in front of us. Out of nowhere.” Nathalie told us that she unintentionally cut a corner. That was on a stretch where the motorcyclists were riding straight ahead, so I can assume you’d follow them there. But it wasn’t visible on the timing records. So they left it at that.”

The jury did indeed consider the complaints from the second- and third-place finishers, but saw no reason to strip the winner of her title. “It’s a bummer for me, because the outcome might have been different. Although we can’t be sure of that, because maybe Marthe would have beaten me in the sprint,” Sels says realistically. “This is how it is now, and I’m going to accept it.”

Truyen, too, has now come to terms with her third-place finish, though it’s still a bitter pill to swallow. “We’ll never know if Nathalie would have come back if she hadn’t done that. Nathalie didn’t do anything with any bad intentions; she rode a phenomenal sprint and is the deserving winner. I fully support the jury’s decision.”

Winner Bex, who races on the road for the continental Velopro-EGS Group-Alpha Motorhomes team but has long been putting in strong performances on her gravel bike, is a bit frustrated by all the fuss. “I don’t want to comment on it, but I do think it’s a bit unsportsmanlike. We could start discussing other things, because Marthe and Loes rode away in the slipstream of the men.”

Bex insists she didn't do anything wrong, and she's upset by her rivals' accusations. I'm not going to say it ruined my day. But I do think it’s a real shame. Because if it could be proven in black and white that I did something wrong, then I wouldn’t be standing on the podium right now wearing the Belgian champion’s jersey.'