For an idea of how much the Gravel World Championships have already caught the interest of some of the top riders in the women’s road peloton, just look at the two riders who did battle for the gold medal today. In the blue corner, representing Belgium, the best rider in the world at the moment, Lotte Kopecky; in the orange corner, adorned in the colours of her Dutch nation, Marianne Vos, the best rider of all time.
It was the kind of showdown that the UCI would have longed for, two of the very biggest names on the road renewing their rivalry on the gravel. Just last weekend Kopecky underlined her status as the world’s leading rider, by winning the World Championships road race for a second year running. That was her 14th win of the season, among them Strade Bianche and Paris-Roubaix titles, as well as overall victories at the Tour de Romandie and Tour of Britain. Whatever the format, whatever the terrain — and on Saturday, it turns out, whatever the road surface — she’s more often than not the woman to beat.
As for Vos, she has continued to pick up more major wins throughout the year in races like the Amstel Gold Race and Omloop Het Nieuwsblad, bringing her career tally to a truly astonishing total in excess of 250. She’s also retained a habit for saving her best for the big occasion (as at the Olympics, where she earned a silver medal on the road), and for new challenges that pique her interest, and drive her to continue to race and add to her palmarès — of which the Gravel World Championships were the latest for her to conquest.
The race evolved into a contest between the sheer strength of the powerful Kopecky, and the wily experience of Vos. Kopecky was the aggressor throughout the race, gradually shedding her rivals with a series of accelerations whenever there was an especially hard part of the course. First she reduced the peloton to just 11 riders, within the first third of the race. Then another move saw her go away with just Vos, Lorena Wiebes and Soraya Paladin for company. And finally only Vos to keep up with the pace, so that the two were already clear with over 50km still to ride. For a rider participating in her first gravel race, the surface didn’t seem to pose Kopecky any problems whatsoever.
Vos might have been able to stick with Kopecky, but it was far from easy for her. “It was nice to be in the front with Lotte,” she said at the finish, before admitting “though you know it’s going…