Mads Würtz Schmidt (PAS Racing) and Geerike Schreurs (SD Worx-Protime) each claimed victories in tight battles to the road at Turnhout Gravel, one in every of two Belgian stops for the UCI Gravel World Series this season.
Schruers prevailed within the 144km elite ladies’s race, regardless of not having the best of runs with flat tyres, by taking out a good dash with two fellow Dutch riders Wendy Oosterwoud (PAS Racing), who got here second, and Teuntje Bekhuis (UNO-X Mobility) in third. Great Britain’s Sophie Wright (Ribble Outlier) came to visit the road an additional two seconds again to take fourth from among the many group of 14 riders who had come towards the road in a bunch.
“I had a number of flat tires and needed to chase again a number of occasions. At one level, I rode over 35 kilometers on a flat tyre,” mentioned Schreurs on an Instagram put up. “But I stored pushing, and within the ultimate 10 kilometers, I attacked on the technical singletrack.
“I knew positioning could be key, so I went all-in with 500 meters to go and completed it off within the dash,” mentioned the Women’s WorldTour rider, who earlier this month raced on the street with SD-Worx Protime at Nokere Koerse and Ixina GP Oetingen.
Würtz Schmidt, who till final 12 months raced on the street with Israel-Premier Tech, outsprinted his PAS Racing teammate Magnus Bak Klaris for the victory within the elite males’s catetory. Bak Klaris had bridged to Würtz Schmidt and Mathijs Loman (Swatt Club) after the pair received away within the second of the 2 72km laps, the duo finally leaving Loman in third.
Turnhout Gravel is the primary of two Belgian stops for the UCI Gravel World Series, with Houffa Gravel going down August 30.
The UCI Gravel World Series, which additionally acts as qualifying for the UCI Gravel World Championships, continues with the 114 Gravel Race in Spain on Saturday, March 29. Five rounds of the worldwide sequence will then play out in April – Wörthersee Gravel Race in Austria on April 6, Monaco Gravel Race on April 20, Italy’s Giro Sardegna Gravel on April 25, Highlands Gravel Classic within the US on April 26 after which Paris to Ancaster in Canada on April 27.
