Van der Poel searching for success at Gravel World Championships: "We will obviously do our best to get the best result possible"

This weekend some of the world's best road riders will take to the lengthy Gravel World Championships race in Veneto, Italy, and Mathieu van der Poel will be amongst those looking for a medal off-road.

"We are writing a bit of history on Sunday, as it will be the very first gravel race in my career," van der poel said in a press release issued by the team. "Although it is not completely new of course. I trained on the gravel bike for the first time today and it feels like something between road racing and cyclo-cross. The adaptation on the bike wasn't too bad. It is mainly fun to be there."

The team will also have cyclocross rider Gianni Vermeersch take part in the event, before the two take a small recovery period before building into the Cyclocross season that has in the meantime begun. "And if the feeling is ok on Sunday, we will obviously do our best to get the best result possible," van der Poel confirmed.

This will be his return to competition following the disastrous World Championships, where both his road race and mixed relay TTT were severely hampered, and an altercation with two minors saw him getting briefly arrested and in fear of being stranded in Australia for up to six weeks.