How Van der Poel Dominated the 2024 UCI Gravel World Champs

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In case you’ve missed it, Mathieu van der Poel is in the form of his life. You might have been distracted by the sight of Tadej Pogačar at the UCI Road World Championships, but you couldn’t have missed the bright orange jersey in the background. That was Mathieu van der Poel, six-time cyclocross world champion, road world champion, and the winner of Paris-Roubaix, Milan-San Remo, Ronde van Vlaanderen, and so much more.

Van der Poel is a one-day race specialist, but he is also a large rider (by cycling’s standards), weighing between 75 and 80 kilograms. It wasn’t a secret that he got lean for the Zürich World Championships, where he was right up there with some of the best climbers in the world, such as Remco Evenepoel, Ben O’Connor, and Enric Mas.

Though he only came away with the bronze medal in Switzerland, Van der Poel showed some of the best form of his life the week before the UCI Gravel World Championships in Leuven, Belgium. The 182km route was nearly 90km shorter than the road race in Zürich, and it had less than 2,000 meters of climbing compared to Zürich’s 4,200+ meters. The stage was set for Van der Poel to dominate, and here’s how he did it.

Power Analysis: Gravel Worlds

The 2024 UCI Gravel World Championships included an 80km run-in plus two 47km laps of a circuit around Leuven. Unlike North American gravel races, there wasn’t an obvious decider somewhere along the course. There wasn’t high elevation, sustained climbing, or 300km of gravel to contend with. The race would be made by the riders, and that’s Van der Poel’s specialty.

However, Van der Poel would have to take down the entire country of Belgium — well, it wasn’t the entire country — but there were 65 Belgian riders in the elite men’s race.

It didn’t take long before the Belgians attacked, putting more than 15 riders into the leading group of 30 with 140km to go. Van der Poel, of course, attacked out of that group, forming a leading breakaway of seven with 130km to go. Quinten Hermans was one of the top Belgian riders in the race, and he would go on to finish third in Leuven.

One of the smallest riders in the gravel peloton at 63kg, Hermans had to go slightly more w/kg compared to the larger riders who had more raw watts. In the first hour of the race, Hermans was pushing nearly 6w/kg Normalized Power.

Hermans – First 40km of the race

• Time: 1:04:56
• Average Power: 307w (4.9w/kg)
• Normalized Power: 351w (5.6w/kg)

Over the next 20 km, Van der Poel kept attacking solo ahead of a group of chasers composed of mostly Belgians. Van der Poel was like the giant Dutch fish that kept getting away. Belgium would start reeling him in, and then his strength would pull him away again.

With 80km to go, Van der Poel had been caught, and he was joined by 15 other riders, including Connor Swift, Rick Ottema, Jonas, Lindberg, and many Belgians. Swift followed Van der Poel’s attack with 60 km to go, one of the few moments that Van der Poel’s wheel could be followed throughout the race. Let’s take a closer look at what it’s like to follow an attack by Mathieu Van der Poel (Hint: it takes 15 seconds at 1,000w.)

Swift – Following Van der Poel’s attack with 60 km to go

• Time: 2:00
• Average Power: 546w (7.1w/kg)
• Following the attack: 1:14 at 655w (8.5w/kg)
• Peak 15 sec Power: 1,008w

The most decisive attack of the race didn’t come from Van der Poel; rather, it was Florian Vermeesch who went with around 45 km to go. Confusingly, Vermeesch was happy to work with Van der Poel despite having at least five Belgian teammates in the chase group. Group two syndrome engaged, and the leading pair widened their gap to 25 seconds with about 30km to go.

This type of repeated anaerobic effort is what destroys the legs of most riders. During this section of the race, it was as if Swift was either riding at 200w or 900w. There was hardly anything in between as the attacks flew.

Swift – Attacking the chase group with 40 km to go

• Time: 5:41
• Average Power: 322w (4.2w/kg)
• Number of spikes over 900w: 8

Swift tried attacking out of the chase group, but he couldn’t escape the pressure from Belgium. By the time the leaders reached 4km to go, Vermeesch looked to be on his hands and knees as Van der Poel attacked up the left-hand side of the road. The Belgian hardly twitched as Van der Poel rode off into the distance.

Hermans won the sprint for third after hitting a peak of 20w/kg, and Swift rolled in for sixth.

Hermans – Sprint for 3rd

• Time: 13sec
• Average Power: 1,090w (17.3w/kg)
• Max Power: 1,263w (20w/kg)

While we don’t have Mathieu Van der Poel’s power file from the UCI Gravel World Championships, we do have his file from the 2019 Amstel Gold Race. If you’ve seen the finale of that race, you will never forget it. That was the day that Van der Poel came from behind, chased down the leaders, and led himself out to an epic sprint victory in front of a home Dutch crowd. It still gives me goosebumps thinking about it.

On that spring day in 2019, Van der Poel took the race into his own hands and started attacking like crazy in the final hour. Over the last 44km, Van der Poel had an average power of 345W and an NP of 435W. If I had to take a wild guess, I bet that his Leuven 2024 file is very similar, albeit 138 km longer.

Here is a closer look at the final hour of Mathieu Van der Poel’s epic Amstel Gold.

Van der Poel – Final hour of the 2019 Amstel Gold Race

• Time: 1:03:13
• Average Power: 345w (4.3w/kg)
• Normalized Power: 435w (5.5w/kg)
• Peak 9 min Power: 445w (NP 518w)
• Final sprint: 41 sec at 841w (peak power 1,400w)

Power Analysis data courtesy of Strava

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