Former Olympic champion Greg Van Avermaet made his debut within the Unbound Gravel 200 on Saturday, racing to seventh place behind winner Lachlan Morton (EF Training-EasyPost). The retired WorldTour street star had blended emotions after making the lead group solely to puncture and should chase again on twice.
“I might have been higher,” Van Avermaet informed Cyclingnews and Biking Weekly as he sat on a patch of grass lined in mud after ending seventh in his debut at Unbound Gravel 200.
“I had two flats actually early, so it was actually annoying since you see the peloton in entrance of you and you understand that they’re saving just a little bit, particularly the favourites, and also you’re there alone, chasing again. That is annoying. However it’s like it’s. That killed my race, I believe.”
After 9 hours, 16 minutes and 34 seconds of gravel-pounding, full-gas racing throughout the Flint Hills of Kansas, Van Avermaet was requested if he would return subsequent yr. He laughed, saying, “That is not the most effective second to ask that, I believe. If you happen to ask all people now, the reply is at all times going to be ‘no’.”
Nevertheless, Van Avermaet appeared pleased with his accomplishment of combating again and ending the race with a stable consequence regardless of the bodily and psychological setback of getting to chase again twice.
“I used to be considering it was nonetheless early within the race, I’ve to make it again. You see them driving far-off since you at all times have these slopes. You simply should go for it.
“I made my journey all the best way right here, so simply to surrender hope, it is not my fashion of racing, both.
The newest race content material, interviews, options, opinions and professional shopping for guides, direct to your inbox!
“If you happen to see my outcomes on the street, I by no means really stopped any race in my profession, nearly, or I needed to have a crash. So if I am going to the beginning line, I’ll attempt to give it my greatest, and that is additionally what I did at the moment.”
Unbound Gravel is a special expertise to even the largest Monuments of biking like Paris-Roubaix – it is longer than any of the trendy street occasions and hard to maintain the motivation up.
“It is a lengthy race and 9 hours on the bike. It is actually one thing that performs within the head. You see the kilometres probably not shifting, and particularly you probably have just a little little bit of unhealthy luck additionally, you see 120km, then 60km… really, I am not good anymore and I nonetheless should go to the end. In order that’s mentally fairly a tough race.”
However there have been additionally some similarities, reminiscent of chasing again when the peloton was in items.
“It is higher that you’ve got a flat, really, when the race goes open, then you may at the very least go from group to group,” Van Avermaet mentioned. “And after I got here again, I simply mentioned to myself, ‘Simply hold on so long as doable’. I keep in mind even considering to do some assaults.
“It is also gravel, so that you’re probably not all in a peloton the place you’ve gotten a draft, you may have it just a little bit, nevertheless it’s not the identical like on the street.
“You need to watch out for studios, you must watch out for crashes. It is a exhausting race. And naturally, you want good preparation to come back right here to additionally compete, as a result of in any other case it is even much less enjoyable. So you must be actually ready.”
The Belgian veteran was half of a big contingency of European riders, lots of them present or former street professionals, who made the journey to Kansas for Unbound Gravel. Six Europeans completed within the high 10, Tobias Kongstad of Denmark, Piotr Havik of the Netherlands, Mattia De Marchi of Italy and Simen Nordahl Svendsen of Norway going third to sixth forward of Van Avermaet, and Austria’s Sebastian Schönberger in eighth. It resembled an Olympic Video games meeting of athletes for the US race.
“As I mentioned, when you may make the highest 10, you need to be completely happy, and you should not have any regrets, particularly that is the best way I attempt to journey. So it is positive,” he thought-about about ending 4:47 off the successful tempo of Australia’s Morton.
“I am tremendous completely happy that I might comply with the main group often because I did not have contemporary legs anymore, however I used to be able to following. And it was enjoyable. You realize, if you’re nonetheless within the race, I actually take pleasure in it. Once you’re out of the race, it is horrible. So I am used to being on the entrance, so in case you’re not there, it is exhausting. So I am tremendous completely happy.”
