WorldTour stars find Unbound Gravel a struggle

Matej Mohorič might be the gravel world champion, but he was unable to complete gravel's biggest race last weekend

- Adam Becket & Anne-Marije Rook

Despite wearing the rainbow stripes of gravel world champion, Matej Mohorič had a hard day out at the discipline’s biggest race, the Unbound 200 last weekend.

The Bahrain Victorious rider was a last-minute addition to the men’s peloton at gravel’s premier event, 200 miles of tough racing through Kansas, USA, along with his team-mates Matevž Govekar and Łukas Wiśniowski.

Interviewed halfway through the event, Mohorič joked: “We’re going to stick to road racing guys. It’s a beautiful day for cycling, beautiful weather, not so beautiful surface; it could be more smooth, it’s pretty rocky. My sidewall does not like it but hopefully, my second tube of the day will hold now.”

After puncturing twice and ultimately cracking his rim, the Slovenian abandoned somewhere between 101 and 113 miles, the last of the mini Bahrain team to do so. A different test will soon await Mohorič at the Tour de France.

Ex-pros star

While the current World-Tour riders failed to fly away from the field in the dust and mud of Kansas, two notable former professionals had a much better time of it.

The race was won by Lachlan Morton (EF Education-EasyPost), – the Australian who quit the world of elite road peloton to focus on an off-road calendar – and marked possibly the biggest result of his career.