Matthew Holmes (OGT-Orientation Advertising and marketing) and Geerike Schreurs (SD Worx-Protime) claimed victory at The Gralloch UCI Gravel World Sequence spherical on Saturday, with each riders breaking away from their rivals within the dry and quick circumstances of the race which began and completed within the Dumfries and Galloway city of Gatehouse of Fleet.
Holmes – a former highway skilled who beat Richie Porte to the road on the prime of Willunga Hill to assert stage 6 of the Tour Down Underneath in 2020 – made his transfer 25km from the end line of the 111km race and took the solo victory a minute-and-a-half forward of the a chasing group of six. Nathan Haas (Colnago) received the dash for the minor placings, taking second forward of Petr Vakoč (Canyon CLLCTV Gravel).
The primary spherical of the Gravel World Sequence in the UK is an 85% off-road route by way of the Galloway and Southern Ayrshire UNESCO Biosphere. The occasion, which has doubled in measurement in its second yr to incorporate 2,000 riders from 35 international locations, additionally delivered a definite ladies’s race – a rarity in gravel the place the mass begins usually imply the ladies’s subject is rapidly scattered by way of the boys’s classes.
Schreurs, who earlier this month was second at The Traka 360, put herself on the entrance of the ladies’s subject by breaking away with former Australian highway champion Nicole Frain (Hess Biking) at round 5km into the race.
“I needed a tough race, and it is at all times simpler to be with a smaller group on the gravel,” stated Schreurs. “We had no concept in regards to the hole, however we simply put our heads down for a 110 km time trial. I am proud to take a commanding win however due to Nicole for working with me.”
The SD Worx-Protime gravel attacked Frain on the ultimate descent to determine a 29-second successful margin, whereas the chase was underway behind to assert the following spots. Ultimately, Tiffany Cromwell (Canyon-SRAM) claimed third, outsprinting Tessa Neefjes (Liv Racing) and Amelia Mitchell (Ribble Collective).