Pre-race favourite Tom Pidcock came to the start after finishing sixth in Saturday\u2019s Il Lombardia and started the race without having seen the course. This was also his first-ever gravel world championship, and he has spent very little time on his gravel bike recently due to his busy road schedule. \u201cIt\u2019s a bit of everything. It\u2019s something new for me, something different,\u201d he told\u00a0Cyclingnews<\/a>.<\/p>\n He was caught out by Vermeersch\u2019s early attack and probably a bit undone by the many narrow trails and paths and repeated changes of direction, all of which did not help the chasers. He finished sixth, 1:41 behind, a decent finish considering all the riding he has done in the second half of the season.<\/p>\n The women\u2019s race, run on Saturday, was dramatic, suspenseful, thrilling, shocking and even baffling. With 35 km left to ride on the 131 km course from Beek to Maastricht, the race was down to two lead groups of five and seven riders, respectively, nine of whom were Dutch. The three exceptions were Romy Kasper of Germany, Italy\u2019s Silvia Persico and the 21-year-old Czech Julia Kopeck\u00fd.<\/p>\n In those final 35 km, the lead group of five consistently held a lead of around 20 seconds on the seven-rider chase group. About 20 km from the finish, Lorena Wiebes and defending champion Marianne Vos attacked from the lead group, which changed everything. Because Persico chased and caught them at 16 km, and she dragged riders from both groups with her. Eventually, a lead group of eight riders formed, which was temporarily cut in half on a short, steep climb.<\/p>\n With 12 km left to ride, the young Dutch rider Shirin van Anrooij burst out of a lead group of six and soon opened a gap. With 9 km left to ride, she led by 21 seconds; at 7 km, the lead was down to 17 seconds as the young Kopeck\u00fd led the chase, clearly giving up her own chances for one or more of the Dutch riders. But for whom?<\/p>\n Well, Kopeck\u00fd rides for the SD Worx\u2013Protime team, as does Wiebes. It was the Czech rider who dragged the Dutch riders after van Anrooij, who looked to be on the verge of the first major victory of her career. But when Kopeck\u00fd tired with 2 km left to ride, van Anrooij\u2019s Dutch teammate Yara Kastelijn took up the chase until, 200 meters from the line, Wiebes burst past her and van Anrooij, as did the irrepressible Vos. Wiebes was too strong and held off the legend, preventing her from taking the 259th win of her amazing career. Wiebes may yet catch her in that race too, because the victory was her 118th, that\u2019s 10 more than Tadej Poga\u010dar,<\/a> and the Dutch rider is six months younger.<\/p>\n Van Anrooij was crushed after being chased down and overtaken by her fellow Dutch riders and finishing fifth, 10 seconds behind the winner. \u201cMy chance to win the world title has been taken away from me,\u201d she told NOS<\/a>. \u201cI just don\u2019t understand why it has to be closed down now. It\u2019s clear: if someone is leading the race and is certain to become world champion, and they\u2019re from the same country, you let them go.\u201d<\/p>\n Well, no. Not always. Dutch team head coach Laurens ten Dam told Cyclingnews<\/a>, \u201cIt\u2019s a gravel race, so tactics look strange, but at the end, it\u2019s also more or less individual [racing]\u2026 I feel for [van Anrooij] too, you know, like for that disappointment. So the feelings are mixed. It\u2019s just half an hour after the finish, those feelings are all dashed. I really feel for her.\u201d<\/p>\n That didn\u2019t do it for the unhappy van Anrooij, who went on to say: \u201cUltimately, I think I was strong enough to stay ahead of them and become world champion here. I don\u2019t want to say too much about it; I don\u2019t want to say anything wrong. But I think this was my chance at the world title, and it was taken away from me.\u201d<\/p>\n On Sunday, Kastelijn apologised for her part in her teammate\u2019s defeat. \u201cI absolutely didn\u2019t want to make Shirin lose,\u201d she said through her\u00a0Fenix-Deceunick<\/a>\u00a0team, according to Wielerflits<\/a>.\u00a0\u201cI just wanted to get the most out of myself. Laurens ten Dam, our national coach, had also made clear before the race that the Gravel World Championships aren\u2019t raced with the same mindset as the European Road Championships. I took that a bit too literally in the final. I regret it now, though.\u201d<\/p>\n Results 2025 Elite Men\u2019s Gravel World Championship<\/p>\n Florian Vermeersch, Belgium 4:39:12 Results 2025 Elite Women\u2019s Gravel World Championship<\/p>\n Lorena Wiebes, Netherlands \u00a0\u00a03:58:16![\"UCI](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/UCI-Gravel-Championships-profimedia-1045004452.webp.webp\")
<\/a>Three times was a charm for Florian Vermeersch, who won Sunday\u2019s Elite Men\u2019s Gravel World Championship after finishing second the previous two years. \u00a9 Profimedia
\nDrama, suspense and disappointment<\/p>\n
\nFrits Biesterbos, Netherlands +0:40
\nMatej Mohori\u010d, Slovenia +1:23
\nFloris Van Tricht, Belgium +1:40
\nF\u00e9lix Stehli, Switzerland +1:41
\nTom Pidcock, Great Britain \u201c
\nTim Wellens, Belgium +1:46
\nRick Ottema, Netherlands +2:46
\nTimo Kielich, Belgium \u201c
\nMagnus Bak Klaris, Denmark +3:59<\/p>\n
\nMarianne Vos, Netherlands \u00a0\u00a0\u201c
\nSilvia Persico, Italy \u00a0\u00a0+0:02
\nYara Kastelijn, Netherlands +0:04
\nShirin van Anrooij, Netherlands +0:10
\nJulia Kopeck\u00fd, Czechia +0:19
\nFemke Markus, Netherlands +0:43
\nFemke De Vries, Netherlands \u201c
\nLarissa Hartog, Netherlands +1:36
\nRomy Kasper, Germany +1:38<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"He dropped the last of them, the surprising Frits Biesterbos, on a gravel climb 18 km from the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":198163,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[4985,101,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-198162","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-cycling","8":"tag-cycling","9":"tag-sports","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom","12":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/198162","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=198162"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/198162\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/198163"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=198162"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=198162"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=198162"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}