Matei Mohori won the UCI Gravel World Championship yesterday. He will arrive solo to the finish line at Pieve de Soligo in Italy, ahead of defending champions Gianni Vermeeersch and Connor Swift.

Being a member of Bahrain's winning World Tour team means Mohorish raced in the frame of Merida and the Slovenians rode what appears to be a brand new unpublished version of the brand gravel bike, the Silex. Cyclingnews was able to take a few shots of the bike that won at the end of the race.

Up until last year's race, the story of equipment and technology was different, and many riders had chosen to use road bikes with gravel tires in search of all-out speed. This year's course in the Veneto region of northern Italy presents more technical challenges and coarser terrain for the competitors and outlined many of these in a comprehensive technical preview a few days before the event.

It has been pointed out that Matei Moholich is a rider who focuses on the details and optimizes some of the road bike's setups to get as much speed as possible. He is also a rider who was very nearly exploded for days after the road cycling world won the monument using a dropper seat post.

Mohori Uma appears to have chosen not to ride the Scultura Endurance GR gravel bike that Merida released in May and instead is racing with a new version of Silex; more of the gravel all-rounder currently having a range of 8 models. Perhaps this new frame is a lace version. In any case, the world title will not be a bad start for a new bike before it is officially launched.

The frame does not look like an all-round gravel aero with a round seat post and handlebar. Although the rear has dropped seatstays, they are not extreme, though they are a different shape to anything in the current Silex range. The mounting points can also be seen on the bike fork legs and top tubes, again showing the bike packing and adventure features.

The new Silex frame may seem a bit more rounded than some aggressive gravel race bikes, but the Mohori Xt setup is definitely focused on performance. The least likely chain ring combination the Slovenians had in the Dura-Ace2x group set, 11-34t cassette at the rear and the front was 34-50T.

The wheel is a Vision Metron45SL disc clincher with a white decal dedicated to the team. The tubeless setup was a Continental Terra Speed tire with a light tread pattern throughout the tire and a puncture protection layer.