Houffa Gravel – Romy Kasper, Sebastian Schönberger take prime steps at UCI World Series spherical in Belgium

Romy Kasper (Human Powered Health) entered the gravel racing fray and went straight to the highest step on the Houffa UCI Gravel World Series race whereas Sebastian Schönberger (Team Felt Felbermayr) added one other collection victory to his tally.

The skilled highway participant, Kasper, first labored with the 2022 Australian highway champion Nicole Frain (Hess Cycling) to get away, however then took off alone to stretch out the hole past 5 minutes. Frain’s second place provides to the runner-up spots she has secured at The Gralloch and in addition RADL GRVL in January. Tiffany Cromwell (Canyon-SRAM) got here third.

For Schönberger, the victory added to his win on the Worthersee spherical of the collection with the Austrian coming over the road simply 16 seconds forward of French rider Alexys Brunel, whereas Arne Baers (Lotto-Dstny Development) was simply over a minute-and-a-half again in third.

Austrian gravel champion Schönberger took the win regardless of dealing with mechanical issues, chasing and catching Brunel – who had damaged away round midway via the race – within the closing kilometres of the race.

The race, one of many qualifying rounds for the UCI Gravel World Championships on October 5 and 6, performed out over 110km in southern Belgium with 1600m of elevation achieve and included the Côte du Saint Roch.