The 2023 UCI Gravel World Championships for elite men was ridden on a 169km course which was the same as that of the women elite with some additional loops.
A big group was gradually reduced by the time the peloton went over the finish line for the first time, but the race really opened when seven riders broke away after 68km with Belgians Florian Vermeersch and Wout van Aert, Spanish Alejandro Valverde, Slovenian Matej Mohoric, British Connor Swift and Cameron Mason and German Paul Voss who scored most posts in the UCI Gravel World Series this season.
Van Aert had some problems after a flat tyre and a crash and lost more than 10 minutes while Vermeersch, Mohoric and Swift got into the final break halfway in the race. The gap towards the rest only got bigger and bigger.
In the final 20km, Swift was the first to be dropped on one of the short but very steep climbs and it was eventually Mohoric who got away from Vermeersch with 15km to go in between the Unesco Heritage Prosecco vineyards to win with 43 seconds to Vermeersch while Connor Swift lost 3m40. Alejandro Valverde outsprinted Keagan Swenson for fourth place.
Another worldtitle for Mohoric who already was road world champion in the junior and U23 categories but who rode for the first time a gravel race.
