Nonetheless, the greatest of them all \u2013 Mariane Vos of the Netherlands, the defending champion, and former gravel champs medallist and Dutch road racing powerhouse Lorena Wiebes were very much present and correct. This duo would ultimately sprint it out in Maastricht for the rainbow jersey, with Wiebes getting the best of Vos in the closing meters.<\/p>\n
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It has to be said, this was a fine piece of bike racing, which was completely dominated by the orange flush of the huge Dutch contingent, who placed seven\u00a0riders in the top 10, and countless more backed up behind them.\u00a0<\/p>\n
For decades, the Dutch women have dominated elite road racing, and for this race, some of their biggest names weren\u2019t even on the grid, which is amazing. Strangely, given that they are two\u00a0of the strongest and most traditional cycling nations, there were just two\u00a0Spanish and no French racers amongst the 103 finishers, which perhaps raises questions on how the championship status is perceived in some quarters.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The Dutch riders pretty much lined the whole race out from early on, with a few other nations breaking the over-stretched orange train throughout. The region of Limburg is one deeply rooted in cycling, and is home to the Amstel Gold classic road race, which weaves around these narrow and twisted farm roads with great windswept intensity \u2013 in one of the most, flat countries\u2019 hilliest regions.\u00a0<\/p>\n
This is perfect terrain for the Dutch and Belgian riders, who grew up racing on such roads, err, and I guess that\u2019s perhaps one of the confusing things about this race; although it was a great bike race, and was contested by the best in the game, it played out pretty much as a spring road classic, only with a few gravel caveats.<\/p>\n
The terrain was rurally nice, and the kind of stuff that\u2019s sweet to ride; fast, mildly hilly, pretty smooth, and on a mix of non-technical road-gravel & farm roads, which is definitely stretching some purists\u2019 ideals of gravel racing.<\/p>\n
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2025 shirin van anrooij alex whitehead.jpg, by Liam Mercer<\/a><\/p>\n Perhaps even more confusing (and laced with undertones beyond the orange jerseys) was how the huge Dutch team raced in a tactical sense, which was frustrating to watch at times. It pretty much looked like it was a case of every woman for themselves, right up until the final 9km of the race, which only changed slightly once the riders could sense the finish was close. Even then, the solo Dutch leader\u00a0Shirin van Anrooij was chased down inside the last kilometre by a group spearheaded by her national teammate Yara Kastelijn, seemingly to aid Wiebes’ win (though\u00a0Kastelijn has since apologies to Van Anrooij, saying she regretted her tactics during the race).\u00a0<\/p>\n There seemed to be\u00a0very little national team cohesion involved, and perhaps more trade team loyalties (plus some riders are currently seeking contracts with bigger the bigger teams of the start next season) \u2013 although when Vos\u2019s trade and national teammates chased her down it did question this too, and there were some questions raised by a couple of the Dutch riders after the race. This was an issue we picked up on last year, too, and it has to be noted that these are qualified individuals plus a few wild-card selections, not a traditionally selected national team.<\/p>\n Either way, it was a good race, and Vos\u2019s tactical and technical mastery was on full display \u2013 perhaps this is the way gravel racing should be after all, or at least some of it? Elite men<\/p>\n There were very few surprises when Sunday\u2019s elite men\u2019s race rolled out into the hazily bright back lanes of Limburg. In a near carbon copy of the 2025 race in nearby Belgian Brabant, and only missing the flying Dutchman Mathieu van der Poel, the Belgian \u201cmassive\u201d were out in numbers. It would be fair to say the scene was much like the women\u2019s race the day before, only the riders were wearing the blue Belgian jerseys, not the Dutch orange. The leading line was a virtual \u201cblue wash\u201d, only with a fair few more lone wolves thrown into the big blue mix.<\/p>\n Although this was a top dog field, there were perhaps fewer ‘big hitters’\u00a0than we\u2019d seen in the past couple of years at the Championships. Many eyes were on Britain\u2019s Tom Pidcock, who just 24 hours before had finished sixth\u00a0in the Giro di Lombardia road monument race in Italy. The Yorkshire ace had also won the Amstel Gold in the area in the past, though he had no knowledge of the course, and was riding his first ever gravel race on a bike he\u2019d never ridden before.<\/p>\n The Belgians did indeed dominate the front end of the race in numbers, and after rumbles over national\/trade team tactics in last year\u2019s race, and unlike in the women\u2019s race the day before, there did seem to be a level of national team cohesion amongst them.\u00a0<\/p>\n However, they certainly didn\u2019t have the whole show to themselves, with former champ Matej Mohoric of Slovenia giving them a real run for their Belgian beer money. It turned out to be a far more attritional race than the woman\u2019s race of the day before, and towards the end, former cyclo cross ace turned road pro, and twice silver medalist at the Gravel World, Froilan Vermeersch of Belgium, and Dutch XC\/marathon MTB pro (and Dutch gravel champ), Frits Biesterbos rode off the front.\u00a0<\/p>\n 2025 florian vermeersch alex whitehead.jpg, by Liam Mercer<\/a><\/p>\n The duo never really looked to be in danger of being caught. Vermeersch looked a lot smoother and more in control and left the Dutchman behind in the hilly closing stages, coming in alone for an emotional, well-deserved, and unsurprising victory. Biesterbos held on for second, with Mohoric soloing in for bronze. Pidcock finished sixth\u00a0on the day, as he had in Italy a day before. The next best Brit on the day was Connor Swift<\/a> in 22nd place.<\/p>\n Our main\u00a0takeaways<\/p>\n From the outside, this looked, once again, to be a very well organised and top quality weekend of racing, much like it was last year. Had the original agreed race dates and venue of Nice come through, no doubt the racing would have had a very different flavour, with more climbing, and perhaps more rough stuff \u2013 but that didn\u2019t happen.<\/p>\n
The best of the Brits were Abi Smith in 15th place and Sophie Wright in 17th place.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
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