Matej Mohoric soars to Gravel World Championships title; Florian Vermeersch and Connor Swift complete podium
Cycling
Matej Mohoric put on a display of power and technical prowess to win the Gravel World Championships in Veneto. The Slovenian put on an impressive performance, topping Florian Vermeersch and Connor Swift who complete the podium.
The 167-kilometer long race in Veneto was considerably more challenging than last year, adding climbs to the mix and not only the much awaited gravel roads. The region is famous for it's landscape and after Katarzyna Niewiadoma won the women's world title, the men were now to battle for it.
Wout van Aert was one of the big favourites but fell out of contention early on, having punctured but then crashing too. Over the many sectors the peloton split quite a lot and the front group began taking shape. A selection of six riders was made and from there on a trio had the upper hand when the race exploded once more.
Matej Mohoric, Florian Vermeersch and Connor Swift stood out in front in the final 50 kilometers, with a hefty lead over a chasing group containing Alejandro Valverde, Alessandro De Marchi, Paul Voss and Keegan Swenson. Quinten Hermans and Sebastian Schweinberger joined up with the group but it was a fight for minor places.
It was a race of attrition however. Swift was dropped with 24 kilometers to go and then on another ascent Mohoric dropped Vermeersch with 18 kilometers to go. The Belgian fixed it quickly but had a mechanical right after which saw the gap expand to around 30 seconds. It then became a time-trial for both riders, with Mohoric slowly expanding his gap.
The Slovenian didn't take it easy however in any way. The final descent to the line provided quite a spectacle as he soared through tight corners, surface changes - even crashing at one point with 3 kilometers to go. He was the strongest on the day however, and crossed the line to become the new World Champion. Florian Vermeersch and Connor Swift hung on to finish second and third on the day.
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Niko6708-10-20233
Amazing Mohoric
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- lol yeahmij08-11-2026
- I know, their headlines can be so misleading. Pidcock had a great season with 5 wins. and some solid 2nds. no reason to take away from that with a fake headline.mij08-11-2026
- You can clearly see the the posture change from slightly sitting to again out of the saddle while changing of gears in the video of the sprintabstractengineer08-11-2026
- He has already beaten Pogi twice in the TDF. the achievement is over. He cannot beat Pogi now and he only has a few years left at the top. Win Giro and compete in the TDF, maximise palmares.abstractengineer08-11-2026
- Just looked again at the photo. Yeah I stand by that. If MS had fallen over in Brands direction I don’t even think she would have hit her. You must be a UCI race commissioner. I’ll be sure to check my sock height should I ever see you on a ride. Looks like everyone else on here sees what I see.mij08-11-2026
- I said looking at the photo it doesn’t appear she deviated. Chill out, not stating my word is the final judgement. Just commenting that based on the photo I don’t see it. And BTW the Dutch coach even said she didn’t impede her.mij08-11-2026
- Blah Blah Blah !frieders308-11-2026
- MS said she was changing gears so that caused her slight deviation. Nothing was intentional.frieders308-11-2026
- How can you use a photo post incident to judge the incident itself (which is not hard to find if you’re prepared to invest the same amount of time in searching as writing that comment? It’s harsh but technically right even though this or worse is not always sanctioned in every race. The two things that went against MS (who unfortunately for her would still have won without making her mistake) are that it was not a bunch sprint where there could have been an overlooked incident or mitigating circumstances explaining a deviation. Everything was focused on just those 2, Schreiber was riding beautifully balanced which made her sudden deviation look unnatural stroke as if it could have been in some part intentional whilst she was slowly drifting ever closer towards the barrier to a point that would have reached obstruction level. In her defence, it might have been the realisation she was heading towards that that made her react suddenly and caused the deviation involuntarily. In any case, congratulations to her for the ride of her life, in people’s minds she will be credited for it.Jumpyjohn07-11-2026
- Good boy Obviously doesn’t need that much help dealing with pressure, as some have suggested. Wiser (and humbler) than many far further along their careers. About offering him the moon, recently someone came up with an explanation of the downfall of a football great (either referring to Maradona or Portuguese Ronaldo) saying it was kind of normal after coming back from the moon, except that others, including some who actually did go to the moon like Armstrong (Neil in case anyone is too switched off to realise) didn’t go through any of the same motions after coming back. A lot of how you deal with situations has less to do with the situation than with your character.Jumpyjohn07-11-2026
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