Lotte Kopecky's first race as 2024 world champion will not be in the rainbow jersey but in the hunt for another rainbow jersey at the UCI Gravel World Championships in Belgium on Saturday.
New under-23 road world champion Puck Pieterse will also chase another jersey after also dominating mountain bike racing and cyclocross this year.
The entry list also includes Fem van Empel, Lorena Wiebes, former cyclocross World Champions Sanne Cant and Lucinda Brand plus Marianne Vos, Ashleigh Moolman-Pasio, Tiffany Cromwell and 2023 Paris-Roubaix winner Alison Jackson.
Kopecky went for an early-morning run on Sunday before returning home to Belgium. She is a gravel novice but surely a contender for another rainbow jersey on the flat 133km Flemish Brabant forest course after winning Paris-Roubaix Femmes and Strade Bianche this year.
"I've never ridden a gravel race in my entire life but it'll be fun," Kopecky admitted in Zurich.
"I'm excited to do a different kind of race. I heard there's a lot of asphalt as well as the gravel and I'll do a recon when I'm back in Belgium.
"It' be nice to win another rainbow jersey. It's a goal but without ever racing on gravel, it's hard to say what I can do. I just want to enjoy the race. Of course, I'll try to be up there to win the race."
Kopecky is also expected to target more world titles on the track at the end of October in Denmark.
Pieterse will target her fourth cycling discipline of the season.
“The plan is to be at the start of the Gravel World Championships in Belgium next weekend, although I heard that almost all the elite women from the Netherlands are also racing. It should be a fun race to watch," Pieterse said, with a clear sense of humour after the Netherlands tactical blunder in Saturday's women's road race.
"I'll continue to surf on a positive vibe for a while just like the last few weeks. It has been very busy but so far everything has always worked well."
