UCI Gravel World Championships: Matej Mohorič uses climbing strength to win rainbow jersey

Slovenia’s Matej Mohorič took victory in the elite men’s UCI Gravel World Championships race, going solo for nearly 20km after conquering the difficult off-road climbs on the Veneto course.

The Bahrain Victorious road professional dropped and then held off Florian Vermeersch (Belgium) and Connor Swift (Great Britain), with the Belgian trying to chase back on but settling for silver on the line. Swift also held off the chasing group to take bronze.

The trio of Mohorič, Swift and Vermeersch had gone away with a larger group after 70km of racing, and then subsequently dropped their fellow leaders to go away as a three for almost half the race.

Swift was the first to be dropped, struggling on a climb with 24km to go, and with 18km left it was Vermeersch’s turn to be distanced as Mohorič showed off his stronger climbing abilities on the course’s many tough ascents.

“The feeling is great. The parcours today was beautiful. I had one of the best days on the bike, I enjoyed it so much,” Mohorič said at the finish. “As a kid I always wanted to start mountain biking and then I started to practise road cycling because my friends did, but today I really enjoyed. It hurt my legs, but I was happy, my mind was super happy.

“Congrats also to Florian and Connor, I think they were also super super strong, but I used the weight advantage on the climbs in my favour. I’m super proud of this achievement.”

Mohorič won aboard an as-yet-unreleased Merida gravel bike.

US gravel pro Keegan Swenson (United States) and the retired Alejandro Valverde (Spain) broke away from the chase group in the finale to battle it out for fourth, with Valverde proving his spark hasn’t gone by outsprinting the younger American on the line.

Strongest riders break things up early in Italy

The men’s race rolled out of Le Bandie under clear skies and warm conditions on Sunday morning as they started their 169km race. Early in the first loop around the start line, the race was already significantly strung out, and this testing pace continued into the first part of the race.

Within an hour of racing, some riders were already struggling whilst at the front a large main peloton had emerged. Many of the big names were in this group, which contained around 60 riders, including Wout van Aert (Belgium), Keegan Swenson, Matej Mohorič and Alejandro Valverde.

Around 60km into the race, Wout Van Aert crashed, and it was around this time that the race began to split up significantly. After 70km of racing, a group of six riders had attacked off the front of the peloton, made up of Mohorič, Valverde, Connor Swift (Great Britain), Florian Vermeersch (Belgium), Paul Voss (Germany) and Cameron Mason (Great Britain). They had a 15 second lead over the nearest chasers, and only 12 more riders - including Swenson - were within a minute of the leaders.

With almost 100km still to race, the likes of defending champion Gianni Vermeersch (Belgium) and Alexey Vermeulen (United States) were over a minute down, whilst Van Aert was trailing by nine minutes after crashing. The six leaders soon became three as Valverde, Vos and Mason were dropped, joining a chasing group 26 seconds down.

At the 100km completed mark, the trio of Mohorič, Swift and Vermeersch had grown out to a minute and a half over Swenson, Valverde, Valverde and Alessandro De Marchi (Italy). The leaders were working well together, whilst the chasers were stalling slightly, and the gap only went out. Heading into the final 40km, the leaders were almost four minutes ahead of the next group, which had swelled in size as the dropped riders rejoined the chasers.

In the chase, it was US gravel pro Keegan Swenson who was doing a significant amount of work, even though his hope of a podium looked to be fading into the distance - however, with no race radio and a lack of information, the American possibly didn’t know quite how big the gap was.

Hitting the San Vigilio climbing with 24km to go, Swift was the first to lose contact with the break, dropping as soon as the road went uphill and Mohorič and Vermeersch pushed on. With 18km to go, Mohorič took his second victim, using another climb to set a pace that Vermeersch just couldn’t match, and the Slovenian accelerated towards victory.

Over the remaining 18km, Mohorič pulled out a 50 second lead over Vermeersch, attacking difficult descents and pushing the limits of his equipment in search of the rainbow jersey - clearly racing hard, not knowing what his gap was. A small slide out with 3.5km to go gave the Slovenian a scare, but he was back riding quickly, with little damage done to his lead.

From there, Mohorič just had to make it to the finish, and had time to sit up and celebrate the second rainbow jersey of his career, adding to a road title as an under-23. Florian Vermeersch came in second, whilst Swift held on for the bronze medal. In the chase group, Valverde and Swenson dropped their companions in the finale, before the Spaniard outsprinted the US gravel star on the line to take fourth place.

Remarkably, after being over 10 minutes - and tens of places - down earlier in the race, Wout van Aert put in a very impressive ride to come back to finish in eighth, a top-10 result after a day derailed by crashes and punctures.