Cycling, Gravel World Championships: Sunday Van der Poel challenges Sagan in Vicenza

The scenario will be that of the provinces of Vicenza and Padua, among the most anticipated protagonists the Slovak Peter Sagan and the Dutch Mathieu Van der Poel. These will be the tastiest ingredients of the first Gravel World Championship (vehicles suitable for dirt roads) scheduled for Saturday and Sunday. The start from Vicenza and the finish line positioned in Cittadella after touching Padua.

Routes and categories

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Over 50 women and men will compete on Saturday 8 October over a distance of 140 kilometers, with an active altitude difference of 700 meters, while the professionals will compete the next day on a course of about 190 kilometers and 800 meters of altitude difference, which also includes two final laps of almost 27 kilometers. Men in the 19-49 age groups, on the other hand, will do just one lap of the final circuit for a total distance of 165 kilometers. The unpaved part of the routes corresponds to about 75% of the total.

Big expected

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There will also be the big names in cycling at the first Gravel cycling world championship. Peter Sagan, the Slovakian champion, three times world champion on the road, has decided to take part in the event that on 9 October will elect the first Elite Gravel World Champion in the history of cycling. “I don’t have much experience in Gravel, on the contrary, for me it will be my debut in competitions of this type – says Sagan, who in his career boasts, in addition to the three road world championships, a Paris-Roubaix, a Tour of Flanders and three Ghent- Wevelgem, seven green jerseys at the Tour and a cyclamen jersey at the Giro d’Italia -. Gravel intrigues me, it is a specialty that is creating a lot of interest among enthusiasts and professionals “. Together with Sagan there will be Mathieu Van der Poel, on his first outing after the vicissitudes of the road world championship in Australia. “Today I trained for the first time with a gravel bike, in truth I have never participated in a race that takes place entirely on dirt (actually 75% of the course will be on dirt, ed). Adaptation and adjustments seemed simple enough to me, and I’m happy to be able to participate in the world championship. If the sensations are good on Sunday, obviously we will do our best to get the best possible result ”.