Pro racer Marianne Vos won the Gravel World Championship for the first time in her career this past weekend. Adding a 14th World Champion rainbow jersey to her astonishing racing resume. It could have ended differently, as the Dutch rider suffered a flat tyre in the final. Thanks to GRAVAA, our innovative tyre pressure system, the flat tyre had no impact, and she went on to win the sprint against Lotte Kopecky. That didn’t go unnoticed. Competitors and national and international media are praising our technological development.
Praise for GRAVAA
With our tyre pressure system, riders can release air from their tyres and pump them back up using a button on the handlebars. Ideal for a gravel race, where gravel and asphalt require different tyre pressures. This earned Vos the rainbow jersey. GRAVAA was mentioned by numerous prominent national and international media outlets, including Wielerflits, Algemeen Dagblad, and de Volkskrant in the Netherlands, and Sporza, Grinta!, and Het Nieuwsblad in Belgium.
“Marianne Vos is the newly crowned gravel world champion, thanks to an innovative system that gave her extra tyre pressure for the sprint against Lotte Kopecky.”
The Global Cycling Network (GCN), the largest cycling channel on YouTube worldwide, is also impressed with GRAVAA, starting its new episode with compliments: “All the chatter among racers here is about the tyres and the pressure, which is why I’m starting with this really cool piece of technology.”
Cyclingnews.com headlined: “Self-inflating tyres and decisive final sprint helped Marianne Vos win the Gravel World Championship.” The American platform Velo wrote: “Vos’s ride on Saturday was the ultimate launch party for the system’s mass market.”
English outlets Road.cc and Raw Cycling Magazine were similarly impressed, along with Germany’s BikeX, Spain’s EsMTB.com, and Brazil’s Brujulabike.com.
Proven Effectiveness
The Dutch podcast In Het Wiel, hosted by former cyclist Thijs Zonneveld and sports reporter Hidde van Warmerdam, also extensively covered GRAVAA’s success during the Gravel World Championship in Leuven. The experts noted that GRAVAA seems to be the only system that has moved beyond the experimental phase, while previous tests with other tyre pressure systems failed.
“I could regulate the tyre pressure. That was very convenient.”
Psychological Game
In addition to praising GRAVAA’s proven effectiveness, the podcast hosts highlighted another important point. According to them, GRAVAA creates a psychological advantage during the race. In their post-race interview with Lotte Kopecky, Vos’s rival, Kopecky said:
“Every time Marianne changed her tyre pressure, I knew: damn, now I’m pushing 20 watts too much.” The sound of pumping up and deflating tyres was “demotivating to the core,” the hosts remarked.
Zonneveld and Van Warmerdam also interviewed Marianne Vos after the race, asking if GRAVAA’s tyre pressure system helped her in the sprint, as she could quickly switch from lower pressure on the gravel sections to higher pressure for the final sprint on asphalt.
“I think so,” Vos responded. Zonneveld called it “fascinating.”
“Every time Marianne changed her tyre pressure, I knew: damn, now I’m pushing 20 watts too much.”
Proud!
The Gravel World Championship not only brought victory for Marianne Vos but also marked the breakthrough for GRAVAA. We are incredibly proud of her achievement and that we were able to contribute to her success. Congratulations, Marianne!