UCI Gravel World Series – Femke Markus outsprints Franz, Hansen and Klöser for ladies’s victory in Sweden

Femke Markus (SD Worx-Protime) charged from a four-rider dash to win the ladies’s Category of Gravel Grit ‘n Grind in Sweden, a part of the Trek UCI Gravel World Series. British rider Toby Perry (Classified Ridley Factory Team) flew solo to win the boys’s race. 

Markus emerged from the entrance of the ladies’s lead pack within the finale simply three seconds forward of Heidi Franz (Lifeplus-Wahoo), with a profitable time of 4:30:28. Klara Sofie Skovgård Hansen (PAS Racing) took third forward of 2024 Unbound Gravel 200 winner Rosa Klöser (MAAP x Rose).

The 24-year-old Perry earned a stable win with a 2-minute margin to his nearest opponents, ending in 3:53:38.  From a pack of 10 riders within the lead chase group, Tijmen Eising (BEAT Cycling) sprinted forward of jasper Ockeloen (Sockeloen.com) for second place. Finishing behind the pack in eleventh was Mattia De Marchi (sufficient biking collective).

A full three days of racing on the Swedish occasion included a time trial and two gravel phases, with stage 2 outcomes counting as a qualifier for the UCI Gravel World Championships. 

The 136km qualifier course, positioned simply exterior Halmstad in Sweden, included a mixture of wide-open gravel roads with brief however steep climbs that added as much as 1,800 metres of climbing. After a begin within the backcountry on gravel roads, the village Torup marked the half-way level with the steepest climb. Then it was onto a sequence of difficult forest tracks and the ultimate stretch on technical, rocky sections again to Halmstad.

Other notable riders within the subject for the ladies had been Morgan Aguirre (Enough Cycling), who completed seventh and Danni Shrosbree (FELT UN1TED), who was sixteenth. In the boys’s subject, Conor White (Austin Outlaws) completed twenty second, Niki Terpstra (Speed on Wheels Racing) completed twenty fifth, Ted King (iamtedking.com) got here in thirty fourth and the silver medallist from Cyclocross World Championships Joris Nieuwenhuis, who gained the time trial, was 67th. 

Perry additionally gained stage 3 on the boys’s facet, whereas Markus swept all three phases for the ladies.