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Pro Log: Double Dutch delight at Gravel Worlds; Tadej Pogačar wins first race in rainbow jersey
Welcome to the latest edition of Pro Log, where we look at the pro cycling news from the past week. Here’s a rundown of the latest results:
- UCI Gravel World Championships, Men’s Elite Race (181km), Sun 6th Oct: 1st Mathieu van der Poel, Netherlands, 04h 41min 23sec; 2nd Florian Vermeersch, Belgium, +1min 03sec; 3rd Quinten Hermans, Belgium, +3min 47sec.
- Paris-Tours, Men’s Race (213.8km), Sunday 6th Oct: 1st Christophe Laporte, Visma-Lease a Bike, 5h 00min 27sec; 2nd Mathias Vacek, Lidl-Trek, +0sec; 3rd Jasper Philipsen, Alpecin-Deceuninck, +21sec.
- Tour de Langkawi, Men’s Race (Overall), Sunday 6th Oct: 1st Max Poole, DSM-Firmenich-PostNL, 26hr 28min 14sec; 2nd Thomas Pesenti, JCL Team UKYO, +13sec; 3rd Unai Iribar, Equipo Kern Pharma, +20sec.
- UCI Gravel World Championships, Women’s Elite Race (134km), Sat 5th Oct: 1st Marianne Vos, Netherlands, 4h 01min 07sec; 2nd Lotte Kopecky, Belgium, +1sec; 3rd Lorena Wiebes, Netherlands, +3min 57sec.
- Giro dell’Emilia, Men’s Race (215.3km), Friday 5th Oct: 1st Tadej Pogačar, UAE Team Emirates, 5h 14min 43sec; 2nd Tom Pidcock, Ineos Grenadiers, +1min 54sec; 3rd Davide Piganzoli, Team Polti Kometa, +1min 54sec.
- Giro dell’Emilia, Women’s Race (113.8km), Friday 5th Oct: 1st Elisa Longo Borghini, Lidl-Trek, 2hr 53min 20sec; 2nd Évita Muzic, FDJ-Suez, +9sec; 3rd Juliette Labous, DSM-Firmenich-PostNL, +9sec.
Mathieu van der Poel solos to win at Gravel Worlds
Mathieu van der Poel didn’t have to wait long for another rainbow jersey. A little over a week after his road reign in the rainbow bands ended at the hands of Tadej Pogačar, he soared to victory through the forests of Brabant in Belgium to win the Gravel World Championships.
The Dutchman dropped breakaway companion Florian Vermeesch of Belgium in the final 14km and rode solo to the finish line in Leuven. Vermeersch held on for silver as a chasing group dominated by Belgian riders contended for bronze, with Quinten Hermans prevailing.
After the race in which 4th place Jasper Stuyven left medalless, he hit out against his Belgian teammates, saying the Alpecin-Deceuninck riders in the squad were there for trade teammate Van der Poel despite expectations ‘we would race in [national] teams’. That’s a dig at Hermans and Vermeersch.
The GOAT adds another title to her palmarès
Marianne Vos has done it again. One of the greatest cyclists to grace the sport claimed another World Championships title this weekend, her first in the gravel discipline.
She broke away with road World Champion Lotte Kopecky in the last 50km and the pair built their advantage to over four minutes. It was clear the duo would not be caught and they engaged in a fierce sprint to the line, with Vos taking the victory to claim her 14th World Championship title.
Behind, Vos’s compatriot Lorena Wiebes took the final podium spot, almost four minutes down, with MTB XCO World Champion Puck Pieterse behind.
After her victory, Vos said, ‘It’s something fairly new but it’s a World Championship so you try to do your best. It was nice to be in the front with Lotte and you know it’s going to be hard as well… I wasn’t confident for the sprint but I also knew it was hard to escape. When I saw I wasn’t going to make it, I decided to wait.’
Tadej Pogačar and Elisa Longo Borghini win at Giro dell’Emilia
Resplendent in his new rainbow jersey, Tadej Pogačar did the expected and broke away for victory at the 215km Giro dell’Emilia in rainy conditions. In a sentence that could be copy and pasted from most of his results this season, the 26-year-old launched a lengthy solo attack that couldn’t be matched.
It was the first race in which Pogačar could show off the spoils from his road race success at the World Championships. What curse? Tom Pidcock won the fight for best of the rest, with Polti-Kometa’s Davide Piganzoli finishing third.
In the women’s Giro dell’Emilia, Italian national champion Elisa Longo Borghini soloed to victory at her home race after attacking on the San Luca climb. It’s her fourth win there with previous victories coming in 2015, 2016 and 2022.
Longo Borghini’s win came hot on the heels of her announcement that she will move to UAE Team ADQ for 2025 on a three-year contract. It ends her time with Lidl-Trek, where she has been since 2019.
See you next week.
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