The province of Treviso will be filled with champions for the 2023 UCI Gravel World Championships on 7-8 October. Wout Van Aert is aiming for the rainbow jersey and will face tough competition from many strong contenders, including Alejandro Valverde and Matej Mohorič
TREVISO – Getting closer to the event, the starting field of the 2023 UCI Gravel World Championships, which will compete on the roads in the Treviso province next weekend, is becoming more and more defined. To the joy of the fans, there will be many interesting names to look out for, promising a great event to follow along the roads or on the TV.
The top name is undoubtedly Belgium’s multi-discipline superstar Wout Van Aert. Considered as the most all-round rider in the world, he is a three-time Men Elite cyclo-cross UCI World Champion, has won four silver medals at the UCI Road World Championships (two in the road race and two in the individual time trial) and was second in the road race at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games. In UCI WorldTour racing, he has won numerous one-day races and Classics such as Milan-Sanremo and Strade Bianche in 2020, Gent Wevelgem in Flanders Field and Amstel Gold Race in 2021 and Bretagne Classic in 2022. He has also claimed victory in nine Tour de France stages .
2023 has not been a particularly lucky year in terms of results, but the UCI Gravel World Championship come at the perfect time to turn things around. A little over a month ago, in Houffalize, Belgium, he made his debut in a gravel race, Houffa Gravel, winning nine minutes ahead of the runner-up.
“I’ve actually been riding gravel since I was a kid, when I used to do long distance rides with my cyclo-cross bike,” Van Aert says. “However, I started to appreciate it in the covid year, it allowed me to do new routes and roads in training, and I followed its rapid rise with curiosity. This year I was looking for a good goal for the end of the season, and the UCI Gravel World Championships seemed the most interesting one, so I asked the team for permission to ride it”.
From Thursday Wout will be at Ca’ del Poggio to start getting familiar with the roads of Treviso: “I studied the route a little online, I know there will be some tricky côtes, but from Thursday I’ll be there and I’ll try to discover it as best as I can, because in gravel races it’s essential to know the route well,” Van Aert continued. “I don’t know the province of Treviso and the area of the UNESCO World Heritage hills, I’ve never been in this part of Italy, and also for this reason I’m looking forward to the weekend, all the more because the weather seems to be very nice. Rivals? Definitely the riders coming from the WorldTour, but I will also have to pay attention to the gravel specialists, who are perhaps not as well-known and could represent a surprise. These are races where it’s complicated to have a clear view of what’s happening on the course, so you’ll need to be very sharp at all times. If I had to name a few, I would say the two Vermeerschs, the defending World Champion Gianni and Florian, and then Ineos Grenadiers’ Connor Swift. But I’m waiting for the next few days to see who all my opponents will be. It is going to be fun”.
VALVERDE’S EXPERIENCE – Among his most likely rivals is Spanish rider Alejandro Valverde. The Imbatido is no longer competing in professional road cycling, but his desire to compete has certainly not waned.
In his career he won 133 races, including the UCI Road World Championships (road race) in 2018, four editions of Liège-Bastogne-Liège, five editions of the Flèche Wallonne and the Vuelta Ciclista a España in 2009. His retirement coincided with the discovery of gravel, which led him this year to win, and indeed dominate, two UCI Gravel World Series events in Spain: La Indomable and the Hutchinson Ranxo Gravel.
“When I retired from professional cycling, I had it clear in my head that I wanted to discover the world of gravel,” Valverde explained. “For me it was something totally new, but it allowed me to keep my most competitive streak alive. For the whole of 2023, therefore, I’ve been training with the big goal of the UCI Gravel World Championships in mind and the desire to aim for the best possible result. Already in the next few days I’ll be in the Treviso area to discover the route. I’ve already studied it but I want to get to know every corner of it. I know that against some of the best riders in the world it won’t be easy to battle, but one thing I can say for sure: even for them it won’t be easy to beat me.”
MANY WELL-KNOWN NAMES – There will be many contenders for the second rainbow jersey in the history of the UCI Gravel World Championships. The Slovenian winner of Milano-Sanremo in 2022, Matej Mohorič, who also won a stage at the Tour de France this year, will be there, as will the dangerous Belgian squad that, in addition to Van Aert, will be able to count on reigning UCI Gravel World Champion Gianni Vermeersch, as well as Florian Vermeersch and Quinten Hermans, who often play a leading role in road cycling’s Classics.
Like Valverde, other riders with successful careers in professional road cycling will be at the start, such as Niki Terpstra, winner of Paris-Roubaix in 2014 and Tour des Flandres – Ronde van Vlaanderen in 2018, Jan Bakelants, local Sacha Modolo, Laurens Ten Dam, Nathan Haas, Nicholas Roche and Petr Vakoc.
Finally, there are many other well-known names, such as Spaniard Ivan Garcia Cortina, American Luke Lamperti, Croatian Fran Miholjević, former British Champion in the road race Connor Swift and Italians Giovanni Carboni, Daniel Oss, Simone Velasco and Alessandro De Marchi, joining the start field this weekend.
