"Suddenly one of them comes riding by on a moped" - Thijs Zonneveld describes his encounter with Wout Van Aert on Gravel World Championships course
Cycling
The Gravel World Championships in Veneto was won convincingly by Matej Mohoric, who left everything and everyone behind him in a real battle of attrition and soloed to victory with flying colors. AD columnist and BEAT Cycling Club rider Thijs Zonneveld also made an appearance in northeastern Italy, where he ultimately finished in 38th place.
A top forty ranking in a very strong field of participants: is that something the 43-year-old Zonneveld is satisfied with? "The level was unprecedentedly high. When such strong riders participate, competing with the very best is not a realistic goal for me. It went ridiculously fast from the start. It was literally one big cloud of dust, right from the first kilometer," he aptly describes the survival journey in an interview with In de Leiderstrui.
"Just before the first climb, a rider crashed right in front of me. I fell over him. He tapped my wheel and that caused my quick release to come loose. So I had to get hold of that. That took quite some time. The group was broken in two and so I ended up in the second part. And there was no one left who was good enough to get back. I decided to go by myself. What followed next was one big catch-up race," Zonneveld says bluntly.
"Suddenly one of them comes riding by on a moped..." Zonneveld starts the anecdote about how he ended up in the same group with Wout Van Aert, laughing. "It's not normal how fast that guy goes. At first I thought it was relaxing to be in a group with him. It soon became apparent that it was not actually relaxing at all."
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Ondrej ZhasilCycling Journalist
Ondřej Zhasil is a cycling journalist at CyclingUpToDate and has been part of the team since 2023. He is based in Ostrava, the third-largest city in the Czech Republic, and covers professional cycling across the main UCI competitions, including the Tour de France, the Giro d’Italia, and La Vuelta a España. A key focus of his work is startlist analysis and pre-race coverage, where he examines team selections, rider line-ups, and tactical scenarios ahead of major events.
Alongside WorldTour coverage, Ondřej has developed specific expertise in junior cycling and in racing across East Asia, including competitions in China and Japan. He also maintains a broad working knowledge of other disciplines and levels, including cyclocross, while continuing to expand his understanding of mountain bike racing.
Ondřej holds a bachelor’s degree in Mathematics and Physics, which supports his analytical, data-driven approach to performance and race analysis. In his reporting, he regularly uses ProCyclingStats for results, statistics, and historical context. He places strong emphasis on careful sourcing, editorial accuracy, and updating articles promptly when new, verified information becomes available.
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yuckly10-10-20233
Quick release?
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- The UCI do have their favorites.
Front24208-11-2026 - On a positive note, you maybe notice turning this topic into a discussion has the benefit of eliminating certain participants who do not see how they can turn it back to their sole interest ;-)Jumpyjohn08-11-2026
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- That may be but that was unknown to others and nothing says that’s the whole truth. Again, don’t try to misinterpret, it is a call and technically it is correct. Besides, even if there is a valid reason, that does not disqualify the ruling or punishment as far as the rules have been developed. I don’t think they’re as far as in football where for handball there is a distinction (in some ways and specific cases) between intentional or not. And football can be just as harsh and people live with it, eg the offside rule, also judged to within tiny fractions but often wrong or ignored. It’s the nature of every collective organisation and sometimes I wonder if our rebellion against it isn’t seated in the feelings we carry from the injustices we’ve felt personally, like being flashed driving 1km/h too fast when we are explained limits are just a security measure but we are absolutely certain not to have endangered anyone with our transgression. The problem is, nobody has better solutions and no 2 people have the same interpretation of where a limit should be.Jumpyjohn08-11-2026
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- And we, what are we doing?Jumpyjohn08-11-2026
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