Former Olympic champion Greg van Avermaat made his debut in the Unbound Gravel 200 on Saturday, finishing seventh after winner Lachlan Morton (EF Education-EasyPost). The retired World Tour roadster had mixed emotions after puncturing the lead group and having to chase twice.

"It could have been better," Van Avermart told Cyclingnews and Cyclingweekly, sitting on a patch of dust・covered grass after debuting at Unbound Gravel200 and finishing in 7th place.

"I had two flats really early, so you look at the Pelotons in front of you and you know they're saving a little bit, so it was really annoying, especially the favorites, and you're there alone, chasing back." It's annoying. But it is so. I think it killed my race.

After hitting the gravel for 9 hours 16 minutes 34 seconds across Flint Hills in Kansas and running a full gas race, Van Avermart asked if he would return next year, he laughed and said, "I don't think that's the perfect moment to ask it." If you ask everyone now, the answer will always be "no"."

However, van Avermaet, despite the physical and mental setback of having to chase 2 times, fought back and completed the race with a solid result

"I thought it was still early in the race, I have to get it back. You always have these slopes, so you see them riding in the distance. You have to go for it.

"I've traveled so far, just to give up hope, it's not my racing style either.

"If you see my results on the road, I've never actually stopped any race in my career, almost, or I'm a crash, so if you go to the start line, I'll try to do the best of it, and that's also what I did today."

Unbound Gravel is a different experience than the biggest monuments of cycling like Paris-Roubaix - it's longer than any of the modern road events and keeps you motivated

"It's a long race and nine hours of cycling. It's really something to play with in the head. You see the kilometers are not really moving, and especially if you have a little bad luck, you see 120 km, then 60 km...In fact, I'm not good anymore, so I still have to go to the finish. It's a pretty difficult race mentally.

But there were also some similarities, such as chasing when the Peloton was falling apart.

"In fact, once the race is open, you can at least go from group to group," Van Avermaet said. "And when I came back, I just said to myself, "Good luck as long as possible." I even remember thinking about doing some attacks.

"It's not really all to the Peloton that you have a draft because it's also gravel, you can have it a bit, but it's not the same as on the road.

"You have to be careful with the flat, you have to be careful with the crash." It's a difficult race. And of course, you also need good preparation to come here to compete, because otherwise it will not be even more fun. So you really need to be prepared.

The Belgian veteran was part of a large contingent of European riders, many of whom are current or former road pros, and made a trip to Kansas for unbound gravel. 6 Europeans entered the top 10, with Denmark's Tobias Konstad, the Netherlands' Piotr Havik, Italy's Mattia de Marchi and Norway's Simen Nordal Svensen coming in from 3rd to 6th ahead of Van Avermaat, and Austria's Sebastian Kurz coming in third. Bastian Schönberger was in 8th place. It was similar to the assembly of athletes Olympic games for the US race.

"As I said, when you can make the top 10, you have to be happy and don't regret it, especially because it's okay for me to ride," he thought about finishing 4:47 from Morton's winning pace in Australia.

"I'm super happy that I was actually able to follow a major group because I didn't have fresh legs anymore, but I was able to follow. And it was fun. I really enjoy it when you're still in the race. It's terrible when you're out of the race. So I'm used to being at the front, so if you're not there, it's hard. So I am super happy."