Jasper Stuyven unable to medal at Gravel World Championships: “Mathieu does not need a super day to take control”
Gravel
Jasper Stuyven, the 32 year-old
rider for Lidl-Trek and reigning European gravel champion, couldn’t secure a
podium finish at the Gravel World Championships in Leuven, Belgium, on Sunday.
Despite his efforts, he was unable to match the pace set by Mathieu van der
Poel, who dominated the race to take the gold medal.
Reflecting on his performance,
Stuyven admitted it wasn't his best day. "I suffered a lot today, I didn't
have my best day. I think the support of the public helped me to keep going. I
enjoyed it and thought it was great to be able to ride in the final," he
told Wielerflits.
However, Stuyven was unable to
respond when van der Poel and Florian Vermeersch made their decisive move.
"At a certain point you try to gamble and not react to everything, I hoped
that others would react, but that did not happen."
With limited cooperation in the
chasing group, Stuyven knew his chances of catching the leaders were slim.
“Then you know it’s going to be difficult. We didn’t go full circle with the
three of us, we did half turns and therefore stayed around twenty seconds
behind. The cooperation didn’t happen, especially because two of Mathieu’s
teammates were on his wheel. When the spring broke, I knew they were riding
away and we were fighting for third place.”
Commenting on van der Poel's
performance, Stuyven acknowledged the Dutchman's ability to control a race,
even without being at his absolute best. "I did not have the feeling that
he had a super day, like last week. But it is common knowledge that someone
like Mathieu does not need a super day to take control of the race."
Despite missing out on the
podium, Stuyven’s showed his strength as a gravel competitor, and he will
surely be looking to build on this result in future races.
Fin MajorCycling Journalist
Fin Major is a UK-based writer at CyclingUpToDate and has been part of the team since 2024. He is the site’s main writer for FAQs and evergreen explainers and has written around 2,000 pieces for the platform. Alongside this work, he focuses on in-depth analysis and covers the biggest races on the calendar, including the Tour de France, the Giro d’Italia, and La Vuelta a España, providing clear context around performance trends, tactics, and key storylines.
In his reporting, Fin uses reputable data sources such as 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. Outside of writing, Fin is an active cyclist, which supports his practical understanding of the sport and its demands.
claps 0visitors 0
Just in
Popular news
Latest comments
- What a win! It's been been so long in the waiting but I'm so glad for Cameron that he's finally got that victory. Sad to see Brand crash out like that. It didn't look too bad initially but there was clearly something very wrong. It could be like van Aert's last year
Rafionain-Glas11-11-2026 - since you called pidcock pogi's BIG RIVAL in another article a few days ago ... i guess adding ciccone to the mix makes him almost unbeatable, no?Ketterechts11-11-2026
- 🤣🤣🤣what a headlineabstractengineer11-11-2026
- When you have four or five guys who are defined leaders of teams that are winning races or at least placing highly in big races, a lot of guys who are racing will not be seen as assets to those teams. If they can't be part of the program then they are let go. I remember back if you won a single stage of the Tour and maybe had a good classic result you would have a cemented place on a team. That is not the case now in the era we live in because the top guys are so good and their goals are so defined. It's bad in a way for them but good for us as fans.awp11-11-2026
- Lots of people seem fed up of Pogi's phenomenal dominance, but I've been drawn into watching professional cycling again (after the Armstrong doping era, that's when I stopped) because of it. I don't think I'd be as interested if it wasn't for Pogi. People call it boring, it’s the exact opposite for me, I will never ever tire of watching absolute greatness in action. He is the greatest athlete this planet has ever produced. Ad acta!!!PogiSloFans11-11-2026
- dfsdfsdfsdfwajohe447911-11-2026
- I have no sympathy for Ayuso or the situations he gets himself into. He was a traitor in the UAE team, he hated Pogi and never wanted to work for him. He always had excuses why he couldn't perform. No riders in the team liked his character and did not approve the kind of person he was on a deep, moral, or personal level. I just don't care about him. Ad acta.PogiSloFans11-11-2026
- Great response! I love the article also. Interesting to see which "Legends" will be covered. There are a few out there :-)
DareDevil11-11-2026 - This is one of the reasons why Ineos is failing, G can comment on his pod but why has he not attracted talent from the peloton to Ineos. He has lot of inside track. Also ratcliffe handling of Man United is also disastrous.abstractengineer11-11-2026
- Theirs a few on the team who may be able to step up/progress to Grand Tour wins but that'll come, not in '27 tho 🤷 - Roglic mayve appealed on a 2 yr for immediate results but other riders would be set aside and the existing riders wouldn't like that
leedorney11-11-2026
Loading
Write a comment