Cycling, Espargaro qualifies for the Gravel World Championships: “I had a lot of fun”

Rome, 1 April 2025 – Until a few years ago, the news, on this date, would have taken on the character of the perfect 'April Fool's': instead, the entry of Alex Espargaro in the world of cycling, and precisely among the ranks of the Lidl Trek, is a well-known story dating back to last winter. The new piece that joins this very exciting story is that the former MotoGP rider has just won the qualification pass for the next Gravel World Championships.

I dettagli

In fact, apart from the initial suggestion, it had been made clear by all parties involved that the Spaniard, although dreaming of making his debut on the road sooner or later, would have taken the path of a discipline that is clearly on the rise and which is also very successful among motor enthusiasts. In fact, there is the precedent of Valtteri Bottas, that last year in gravel world championship, for which he had qualified at the beginning of May, finished in 133rd position out of 232 participants, completing the 182 km scheduled in 5h40'04", with an average speed of 32.246 km/h. For the Finnish driver, linked in his private life to the cyclist Tiffany Cromwell, now at Canyon-SRAM, that had been a parenthesis before his return to Formula 1, albeit this year only with the reserve role for Mercedes and McLaren. Instead, Espargaro, also a Honda tester, has a real contract with the Lidl-Trek development team, going well beyond the role initially assumed as a simple ambassador for a team on the rise that includes, among others, Giulio Ciccone, recently immortalized in training sessions with a certain Jannik Sinner. The Catalan in fact took part in the Elvas stage, in Portugal, valid for the Uci Gravel World Series: the pass to the World Championship was up for grabs for whoever was in the top 25% of each category.

Mission accomplished for the former pilot, who on his Instagram profile did not hide the satisfaction he felt a few months after entering an evocative but nevertheless challenging world. "Racing is fun! Despite poor technique with the gravel bike, I had a lot of fun and had good legs to take seventh place overall at my first World Cup stage. I qualified for the Gravel World Championships."

Healy's statements

Ben Healy's Goals are quite different: we start with those in the Classics. "This year I decided to tackle the Ardennes in a more targeted way, also racing less at the beginning of the season to improve on what I did last year. The dream would be to win the Liège-Bastogne-Liège, the most important race that closes the Classics bracket". We move on to the Grand Tours. "I would like to focus more on the classification: I don't know how far I could push myself, but this would certainly be a start. To do so I have to manage the pressure, while continuing to have fun on the bike as I already do now".