Gravel Worlds surprise shocked to race next to stars like Mathieu van der Poel: "I told him: 'If you need anything from me, just say it'. Moments later, he just rode away..."

Next to his world titles from road and cyclocross, Mathieu van der Poel now has gravel rainbow jersey as well. And while the Alpecin-Deceuninck star was carrying the Dutch flag up high, the second finisher in Orange jersey was surprise Rick Ottema in 14th, third if we excluded the road pros.

The 32-year-old Ottema is no newbie in the bunch with 13 years of performing at a high level in multiple Dutch continental teams. This year was perhaps the best in Ottema's career with 4th place at Muur Classic Geraardsbergen (1.1) and 16th at Betcity Elfstedenrace (1.1) earlier that week after crashing out of the battle for victory.

"It’s going really well, but I can’t really place everything that happened yet," Ottema tells WielerFlits. "Last week was hectic with the crash in the Elfstedenrace. It may not have been entirely responsible for me to start at the World Championships, it was a real rollercoaster. If you do start, you do have ambition. I had starting number 69, so you start at the front. I had reconnoitered the first forty kilometers beforehand, which were hectic. You have a scenario in your head that it could go completely wrong, but in the hilly area I noticed that I could just ride past everyone and make the crossing from group two to group one."

As a result, Ottema found himself riding among the big men in the leading group, with a hundred kilometers to go. "I thought: what am I doing here? Suddenly I was at the front of the race with big spring riders like Stuyven, Merlier and Van der Poel. At one point I was riding close to Mathieu, which was really cool. I wondered if he knew who I was and I was thinking about how there was a scenario where I could help him. I just said to him: if you need anything from me, just say it. In the end, he rode away quite quickly after that."

Ottema himself was then, according to himself, in the 'self-pity box'. "When there was an attack, I thought I couldn't keep up anymore. But after that, many had to let go and in the chasing group I was still one of the engines to keep things going. Due to a small slide and a crooked derailleur, I lost contact with the group that was riding for eighth place in the final phase. When I see how close they still come to Stuyven's group, it still hurts a bit. But yes, it was a beautiful Sunday and I had very good legs."