How do you win the UCI Gravel Worlds? You take your trade team sponsor’s unreleased adventure bike and pedal like hell.
OK, it wasn’t quite that simple for Matej Mohorič, who became only the second UCI Gravel World Champion last Sunday – he still had to put in the race of his life – but the all-new Merida Silex he rode was a carefully orchestrated piece of the puzzle: mountain bike-esque geometry and compact gearing meets 140mm stem and superlight deep sections wheels. The Slovenian rode without a power meter, used tyres he’d never raced on before and took his own tubeless repair kit and saddlebag.
In any other world this might seem odd, especially in a Gravel Worlds peloton where endurance road bikes were very prominent. But this is Matej Mohorič, a rider famous for his thoughtful setups – remember that dropper post at Milan San-Remo? Still, even his bike sponsor Merida was amazed.
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‘We were super-surprised when Matej saw the bike and said he wanted to try it out,’ says Merida’s product manager, Hannes Noller. ‘He could have used our dedicated gravel race bike, the Scultura GR, but he was super curious about this bike, even though the geometry is so different to what he races on. But he said “Give me the bike and I’ll find my position.” So we gave him two bikes, a small and a medium, and in the end he decided he liked the small because it had a lower stack height.
‘The main reason he wanted the Silex over the Scultura GR is because of its geometry, which he felt best suited the course.’
Of the old Silex, Merida calls geometry ‘MTB-inspired’, with a long top tube, long wheelbase and slack head angle. ‘But normally it comes with a much shorter stem,’ adds Noller, with the usual 80mm stem swapped out for Mohorič’s road-favoured 140mm FSA NS ACR stem. That gave Mohorič the aggressive position he wanted, plus his team enough space to stick on the homemade course markers masking tape.
Each little picture is a bottle, representing points in the race Mohorič would get a bottle hand-out, while the cross is actually a little knife and fork denoting a food musette.
The components here are essentially transposed from Mohorič’s Bahrain Victorious road bike, right down to the Shimano Dura-Ace groupset and Vision Metron SL wheels – 45mm deep, 1,390g claimed weight and certainly not recommended for gravel riding, albeit perhaps Vision might now reconsider.
There are, however, some notable tweaks. For a WorldTour road pro, even one at a gravel race, gearing is unusually low with a 50/34t chainset and 11-34t cassette, and there’s a conspicuous lack of power meter, which Mohorič explained was down to the team’s difficulty in sourcing a compact chainset Shimano Dura-Ace power meter – interesting to note even the big players are finding supply chains tough. ‘Instead I raced with just heart rate,’ Mohorič explained at a post-race press camp.
Mohorič also explained the 40mm Continental Terra Speed tyres were a first-time ride for him – nothing like new shoes before a marathon – and he’d come up with his own approach to the general lack of in-race mechanical support, with the course unsuitable for team vehicles.
While pretty much every rider over the weekend had some kind puncture repair kit, most likely a CO2 cannister and tyre plug taped to a top tube, Mohorič was a positive rolling bike shop. In his bar ends he stashed Muc-Off’s Stealth tubeless repair kit, replete with little knife-saw to cut the protruding end off any plug.
Underneath his seat was a Continental saddlebag containing two CO2 cannisters and Muc-Off inflator, a bottle of Stan’s No-Tubes sealant, valve core remover and valve cores. The guy wasn’t about to break down.
Furthering the self-supporting cause in place of any minor aero gains, Mohorič left both removable thru-axle levers in his wheels for speedy changes if necessary, while carrying a third in his jersey which he’d use to remove undo the Muc-Off Stealth plugs 4mm retention bolt. (Each lever clips into the thru-axle end and features a 6mm Allen key whose end steps down to a 4mm.)
It's interesting to note, however, that aerodynamics was still on the Slovenian’s mind. The bike’s fork has mounting points for luggage racks, hardly very race-winning pro. But rather than just remove the bolts, the team fitted silicone blanks to cover the holes.
Likewise, the chainstay exit point for the rear brake hose in was taped over, although this might have had as much to do with stopping rattling as marginally slippery gains.
In the event, Mohorič didn’t need any of his mechanical solving kit. The bike performed admirably, the Slovenian even better, and there was only one heart-in-mouth moment.
‘We were down at the finish, watching the last few kilometres on the big screen. We couldn’t believe what we were seeing!’ says Noller. ‘And then Matej crashes! Luckily he had such a lead he got back on and won. It’s why the lever is bent in like that.
‘To see him win like that was next level. He told me yesterday he loves the bike so much he’ll keep riding it for his winter trainer, because you can also fit mudguards.’
