02/10/2023

Gravel European Champion Lorena Wiebes doesn't have big ambitions for World Championships in Veneto: "I just want to enjoy it"

She had to leave the Dutch title to Fem van Empel last week, but the European gravel title now belongs to Lorena Wiebes.

In the final the strange situation arose that the Australian Tiffany Cromwell rode away. Of course, she was not eligible for the European title, so Wiebes stayed put. "I also had an idler at the front, so I wanted to keep the pace low so I didn't have to take any risks in the corners," she says. "It was a bit bumpy in the sprint."

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Also notable: the many doubles that sometimes seemed to disrupt the course of the race. "Sometimes they hindered us, but sometimes it was also a great help with pacing," says Wiebes.

Next week's World Championships in Veneto, will that be a goal now? "It is a difficult course with quite a few steep climbs. It is always nice to stay in Italy and I also go on holiday there. So I just want to enjoy it."