"Big, fat German rode straight into me": Gravel World Championships went south for Zonneveld... After only 500 meters

192nd place — that was the result for Dutch journalist Thijs Zonneveld at the Gravel World Championships in Leuven, Belgium, won by Mathieu van der Poel. In his podcast In het Wiel, he explained what led to this outcome after a wild day on the Flemish gravel.

"We were riding into that 180-degree turn at the start, which was like a Grand Casino times a thousand, with all these guys going past and around the barriers," Zonneveld said. "This big, fat German guy then rode straight into me. Really, straight into me. I’m going to look up who it is because I'll get back at him for that," the Dutchman sighed.

"He knocked the handlebars out of my hands, so after five hundred meters, I was already on the ground. But I got back on the bike, and it did give me a big adrenaline rush," he continued recounting his race. "I felt I was in pretty good shape and had some punch, so I ended up in a group with guys like Quinten Hermans. But after sixty kilometers, I got a flat tire, and I couldn't fix it," Zonneveld shared.

Zonneveld drank a beer with group of Belgian friends, but still finished

"I was stranded there in the middle of nowhere, so how do you get back to Leuven? I just started walking," he explained. "Eventually, I found myself on a little climb where a group of Belgian friends said they had a spare gravel tire for me. They also offered me a beer, so I thought, 'why not?' I drank that beer while one of the guys was putting the tire on."

"Then I ran into some Dutch folks from BEAT, and that beer was starting to kick in, so I figured it would be a shame to quit," he went on. "I got a lot of cheers, and how often do you get to ride for the Dutch national team? Do you then just stop? I'd rather finish last, so I rode pretty hard for two hours. In the last half hour, the alcohol hit me, and by then, I was definitely done."

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