Jasper Steiven accused several Belgian teammates of riding to support Dutch rider Mathieu van der Pol in Sunday's gravel world championships in Leuven.

Van der Pol won by 1:03 over Belgian Florian Vermersch, while another Belgian, Alpecin Deceuninck's teammate Quinten Hermans, finished third by 3:47.

Stuyven finished fourth, giving the Belgians four of the top five places, although he later said that Hermans and fifth-placed Gianni Fermersch were running to support van der Pol's ambitions rather than the Belgians.

“It's infuriating. Those guys didn't take turns, but they do when it suits them,” he told Sporza of the riders who were chasing behind Van der Pol, the lone winner.

“It was obvious that all the Alpecin riders were here to help him. I thought he was going to race for the [national] team, though."

‘I thought he was going to be a good racer,’ he said.

Van der Pol launched an attack just 60km into the 182km race, forming a lead group of 16 riders, including seven Belgians. This group included seven Belgian riders.

With 40km to the finish, Florian Vermeersch went clear along with Van der Pol.

Behind them, the chase group of Stuyven, Hermans, Gianni Vermersch, Connie Swift (GBR), and Matej Mohoric (Slovenia) were well away from the two leaders, leaving them to battle for the bronze medal.

Vermeer, who won the first Gravel World Championships in Veneto two years ago, said to Stuyven, “It's always good when someone from Alpecin wins,” a statement that seemed to confirm Stuyven's accusation.

“It wasn't us who closed the gap. But we were never the limiting factor. But we were never the limiting factor. I wanted to win myself.

“At the end of the day, we all want the title. I don't think that was really a problem.”

Hellmans, who finished sixth in his debut race last year and won the bronze medal, said, “The plan was to run with the team.”