UCI Gravel World Series – Toon Aerts and Tessa Neefjes take victory at Gravel Fondo Limburg

Toon Aerts claimed a good dash with Piotr Havik within the elite males’s race on the Gravel Fondo Limburg, whereas Tessa Neefjes gained the elite girls’s title on the UCI Gravel World Series.

Neefjes, who has gained a number of rounds of the sequence the previous two seasons, carved out a spot of simply over two minutes on Irina Lützelschwab whereas Wendy Oosterwoud came visiting the road almost a minute-and-a-half later to take third within the 123km race with round 1,300m of elevation acquire. Femke de Vries, who simply two weeks earlier than had been racing the roads of Limburg within the Amstel Gold Race, got here fourth whereas it was fifth for Marjet Groen.

The race, which begins and finishes in Valkenburg and takes within the Cauberg and Keutenberg, got here right down to the wire within the males’s elite class with Aerts not solely profitable an in depth dash with Havik, however the prime ten finishers within the packed subject had been all effectively inside 4 minutes of the cyclocross powerhouse who first returned to racing in February to take fourth in Exact Cross in Sint Niklaas after the expiration of his two-year doping suspension. Adne Koster got here third, 21 seconds again from Aerts.

“Opening the summer time marketing campaign with a bang at Gravel Fondo Limburg,” mentioned Aerts in an Instagram post including that he was, “hungry for extra!”

Jasper Ockeloen and Johnny Hoogerland got here in collectively to take fourth and fifth, then there was a bunch of 5 led over the road – within the metropolis that additionally offers the end line for the Amstel Gold Race – by newly retired highway skilled Greg Van Avermaet.

“It wasn’t my first race round Valkenburg nevertheless it was the primary one with a gravel bike,” said Van Avermaet in an Instagram post. “Managed to safe a stable sixth place regardless of the difficult wind. I suppose this race put some additional rigidity on the legs for the subsequent ones.”

The Limburg occasion was considered one of 4 rounds of the UCI Gravel World sequence to happen over the weekend of twenty seventh April, with the rounds of the sequence going down throughout the globe performing as qualifiers for the UCI Gravel World Championships, which shall be held in Belgium in October.

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