Adrie van der Poel about big plans for next years in Hoogerheide: "We have requested the Gravel World Championships for 2029"

Hoogerheide will be the final stop of the 2023/24 World Cup. The winter that produced more questions than answers, especially regarding the future of the regularity classification. However race organizer and patron of the Adrie van der Poel GP, the Dutchman himself has the future for his race lined up quite clearly.

"If we have seven to eight thousand paying visitors, then we are very satisfied with that," says Van der Poel in an interview with WielerFlits. "We have never had fifteen thousand spectators at the cross, have we? Those are the real numbers. I don't have to make it bigger than it is."

Last year Hoogerheide was sold out with around fifty thousand visitors for the rainbow race. That won't repeat this year, but there are already ambitious plans for years to come. "We have requested the Gravel World Championships and the World Championships for G-athletes for 2029. We also want to do more on a social level."

"We simply want to maintain our identity in Hoogerheide. I'm not going to do anything that's a step back. We don't. In twenty years, I think we have built up a good name with the way we have organized our course. But every year we try to make our cross a bit more attractive to the public. After all, there is always room for improvement, in all areas within the event," he concludes.