Jasper Stuyven (Soudal-QuickStep) was desperately trying chase down Strand Hagenes in the final straight, but had to settle for second on the line, with Visma going 1-3 as Christophe Laporte sprinted to the final spot on the podium.

A strong 12-rider breakaway had been away for much of the 216km race, with a select group of five establishing themselves over the gravel sectors, but they were reeled back in with 21km to go as the finale kicked into action.

The final 20km saw multiple attacks and multiple riders and groups get away, with a group of 11 coming into a cagey final 3km.

It was an acceleration from Toms Skujiņš (Lidl-Trek) that was actually the catalyst of Strand Hagenes' move, with the Norwegian launching off his wheel and powering through the final kilometre for victory.

"During the day I didn't feel the best, but I just kept on fighting," the 23-year-old said at the finish. "I knew [that] quite often after the climbs it got a little bit back together, and I knew a lot of the guys were watching Christophe, so I could benefit a little bit from that. I tried to find the good moment, and then when I had the gap it was all-in to the line.

"We messed up a little bit in the beginning, with not being in that big morning break, but the guys went all-out to try to make it so that we could still race for the win. I really appreciate that work, they were giving it their all out there so me and Christophe could fight for it. I think this is a big team performance today."

This is the second time Strand Hagenes has tasted victory in Tours, having won the under-23 edition of this race in 2022. This Sunday's espoirs edition was won by newly-crowned European champion Hector Alvárez (Lidl-Trek Future Racing).

"I like the race," Strand Hagenes said. "I'm always suffering a little bit in October, but it's a nice race to finish off the season. It's the last day of racing so you just give it your all. It's an interesting race where anything can happen, and you also need some luck to not have a puncture, and today I had that."

How it unfolded

The 120th edition of Paris-Tours rolled out of Chartres for 216km of racing across the French countryside, with 10 off-road farmyard sectors littering the final third of racing to make one of the toughest semi-Classics of the year.

Despite the flat start to the race, it didn't take long for a group to get away, and a fair large one at that, with 12 riders going up the road after less than 10km. The group included the likes of Jakob Söderqvist (Lidl-Trek), Stefan Bissegger (Decathlon CMA CGM) and Yves Lampaert (Soudal-QuickStep), but the peloton were clearly not entirely happy with a group of that size and strength going away, and they were initially kept on a tight leash, gaining just 25 seconds after 20km out front.

After some will-they-won't-they, however, the break was finally given a little more leeway, and pulled out a gap of two minutes, eventually growing to three as the situation held steady for the first 120km of racing. In such a long race, many riders and teams were saving as much as possible for the pointy end of the course with the off-road sectors and punchy climbs.

Martijn Rasenberg (Unibet Rose Rockets) was the first rider to drop out of the lead group after an untimely puncture, and he was absorbed by the peloton to make it 11 riders in the lead.

With 80km to go, the peloton were standing to ramp up their pace, with Visma-Lease a Bike and Netcompany Ineos on the front, bringing the gap down to two minutes. With 76km to go, a handful of riders came down in a crash in the middle of the bunch, including Aimé De Gendt (Pinarello-Q36.5) and Rayan Boulahoite (TotalEnergies) who stayed down the longest whilst the other riders got going again.

The first chemin de vigne sector passed without major incident, but the second saw Tim Merlier (Soudal-QuickStep) puncture and take a quick bike change, but even though it was a speedy swap, he still had to chase back on.

The gap dropped below a minute for the first time with 50km to go, shortly before a mass crash hit the peloton – on a tarmac stretch – with multiple riders veering off onto the grass verge. Plenty of big names and potential contenders were involved, including Dorian Godon (Netcompany Ineos) and Arnaud De Lie (Lotto Intermarché), and several of the worst-affected riders stayed down, not able to continue.

The bunch had been going at full pelt at the time of the crash, though, so rather than slow up as they hit the next sector, they had no choice but to push on and the gap to the leaders kept falling.

Up front, unaffected by the crash, a group of five forged on from the break to go clear of the rest of the group, but the bunch were hot on their heels at this point as the carnage of the sectors had riders spread across the road.

The acceleration in the bunch saw the remainder of the break caught and the gap down to 25 seconds, but a resettling on the next long tarmac stretch saw the gap go out again and the five leaders had a gap of a minute with 40km to go. The five leaders were Lampaert, Bissegger, Matis Louvel (NSN), Storm Ingebrigtsen (Uno-X Mobility) and Julius van den Berg (Picnic PostNL).

With such strength in the lead group, they were working well to try and survive as long as possible, dropping Ingebrigtsen in the process, but the peloton was pushing equally hard to bring them back, with Lewis Askey (NSN) particularly active as the gap fell below 20 seconds with 25km to go. There had been a big split in the peloton, leaving fewer than 30 riders in the main chase, but things regrouped slightly with some dropped riders coming back.

However, this didn't last long as the next big push saw Pierre Gautherat (Decathlon CMA CGM) attack on a climb to not only reel the four leaders back in with 21km, but go clear himself onto the penultimate gravel sector. The counter-attacks were rolling behind Gautherat, who was dangling about 10 seconds ahead of the bunch, but it took a while for anyone to definitely catch him – that came with 14km to go when Per Stand Hagenes (Visma-Lease a Bike) dragged himself and Gautherat's teammate Rasmus Pedersen up to the leader.

The rest of the peloton rejoined the front of the race shortly after, with a big regrouping on the final gravel sector, 11km from the finish line in Tours. The attacks certainly didn't stop there, though, with various moves coming and going before a reduced group of 11 finally formed in the lead with 5km to go.

It was a cagey finale, with riders gambling between long-range attack attempts but also trying to save something for a possible sprint. Four riders – Strand Hagens, Skujiņš, Stuyven and Florian Senechal (Alpecin-Premier Tech) – broke off the front, rolling constant attacks, and it was a final big acceleration from Skujiņš with 1.3km to go that Strand Hagenes launched off of to go solo towards the line.

Stuyven was the quickest to react, finding himself in a desperate late chase between the leader and the chasers, but he couldn't quite reel the Visma in, and just about held off the pursuing group to grab second as Laporte sprinted to third.

Paris-Tours marks the last major one-day race of the season, with Visma-Lease a Bike claiming their 51st victory of 2026.

Results

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Yordi Corsus made it a 1-2 for the team, with Joran Wyseure (Crelan-Corendon) out-sprinting Pauwels Sauzen's Gerben Kuypers to prevent a clean sweep of the podium.

Vanthourenhout attacked into the uphill sand section, powering over the tricky deep sand at the top of the hill while the rest had to dismount, and it was all he needed to get the winning margin.

"I actually had an idea in my head the whole race to put everything into that final lap," Vanthourenhout said. "Going up the stairs for the last time, I knew it would be tough for anyone to stay on my wheel. And then I just opened the throttle wide open.

"And then, as Mario De Clercq always says: ride fast where you need to ride fast. And that was simply trying to ride up the sand section well, which worked out right away. Then I knew the barriers suited me well too. From there on, I always tried to ride fast on the sections where I could, and then try to hold onto that lead."

The Pauwels Sauzen-Altez Industriebouw team dominated the 10-lap race, lining out the 50-rider field from the start.

Gerben Kuypers (Pauwels Sauzen-Altez Industriebouw) led through the opening lap with Cameron Mason (777TV CX).

At the start of lap 4, Victor Van de Putte (Charles Liegeois CX) led Vanthourenhout, Wyseure, Kuypers, Mason and Ryan Kamp (Bomba Join) but no separation came until much later in the race.

Pauwels Sauzen continued to control the race heading into the halfway point, with Yordi Corsus leading Vanthourenhout and a group of 13 riders with Laurens Sweeck (Crelan-Corendon) swinging at the back.

Corsus, Wyseure, Vanthourenhout and Kuypers pushed the pace on the fifth lap, getting a little separation after a surge on the sandy climb. They had six seconds at the start of the next round, with Witse Meeussen (Crelan-Corendon) leading the chase with Van de Putte, Niels Vandeputte (Alpecin-Premier Tech), Kamp and Mason.

By the start of lap 7, the quartet had extended their lead to seven seconds on Kamp and Vandeputte, but the rest of the chase had exploded. With Wyseure still in their midst, the Pauwels Sauzen riders sat up slightly in a technical section to let Kuypers go on the attack, forcing the Crelan-Corendon rider to burn matches in pursuit.

Wyseure made a somewhat frustrated surge in response but lost traction on his rear wheel in a turn and lost his momentum. The four riders went into lap eight with Vandeputte in solo pursuit just six seconds behind, Kamp in no-man's land at 10 seconds, and Mason in a group of three at 17 seconds.

As Wyseure went to the front, Vandeputte made contact with the leaders, and Kamp was closing in, making contact across the pump-track section. The pressure was off, and even Mason and Meeussen were able to rejoin.

Vanthourenhout made an attack at the bell, pulling away with Wyseure and Corsus, but the surge was short-lived. Vandeputte positioned himself in fourth wheel and was a real danger as the top sprinter in the group.

Vanthourenhout had only one weapon against the Alpecin man: his technical skills. He blasted through the sand and rode over the crest, helped by a bobble by Wyseure to open up a gap.

Once there was daylight between him and the chase, Vanthrouenhout opened up the jets and with Wyseure suffering with the Pauwels Sauzen riders on his wheel and Vandeputte sitting on, too, there was no bringing back the lone leader.

Results

Opening the series formerly known as Exact Cross, Brand didn't win solo, but put down such power and force on the final lap that the riders on the wheel couldn't even sprint against her as she charged for the line.

Her best match was Ceylin del Carmen Alvarado (Fenix-Premier Tech), who took second, whilst Denise Betsema (De Ceuster Bouwkranen) completed the podium in third.

"It's very important, it's always good to kick off in a good way," said Brand, who recently revealed she is leaving Lidl-Trek but staying with the Baloise Lions CX set-up.

"It was not an easy race, the level was really close to each other on a difficult course with so many corners. You always think you're prepared in the first [race] but once you come on the course of the race then it's different!"

Round 1 of the HG Cross series in Dendermonde marked the first major European cyclo-cross event of the 2026/27 season, with the majority of the big names all in action on Sunday.

World champion Brand took control of the race from early on, not attacking but taking her place at the head of the bunch from the opening lap, setting the pace and sharing first position with the likes of Ceylin del Carmen Alvarado and Denise Betsema.

Things stayed together in a large group for quite a long time, with the top 10 best riders all sticking together for much of the first five laps before Brand started to crank things up. It was a gradual upping in pace at first, but then Brand really put the hammer down on the sandy climb on lap six, which immediately strung things out.

Alvarado was the rider who was able to stick closest to Brand, although not directly on her wheel, with Betsema and Aniek van Alphen (777TV CX) just behind

On the final lap, Brand had just a couple of seconds on Alvarado, with the two chasers seven seconds further back, and the field split apart behind that. But rather than pull out a gap, Brand found herself caught by Alvarado and Betsema, and forced to lead the trio out for much of the final lap.

However, instead of play a tactical game, Brand just put the power down for the full final lap, meaning that by the time they got to the finishing straight Alvarado and Betsema had little left to give, and Brand was able to power to the line and take the win.

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Results

With every day in China pan-flat, every stage has culminated in a bunch sprint, and every stage has seen Wiebes beat Lara Gillespie (UAE Team L'IMAD) to the line, and the final stage was no different.

Once again, it was a relatively close-run sprint by Wiebes' standards, but she powered to the line just ahead of Gillespie to make it three from three.

Tang Xin of Chin rounded out the top three with an impressive third for the home national team.

Wiebes and Gillespie took the top two overall spots, with Clara Copponi (Lidl-Trek) rounding out the GC podium.

"This was another good day. We tried to secure the polka-dot jersey with Lisa van Belle. She attempted to surprise Sofie van Rooijen by coming from behind, but Van Rooijen spotted it quickly and responded. I then took the sprint to keep the mountains jersey within our team. In that classification, Lisa and I finished first and second," Wiebes said.

"After that, we maintained good control of the race. There was an attack, but Femke Markus managed it well. The other teams had their sights set on the intermediate sprint and closed the gap. We knew there would be more attacks afterwards. One more breakaway went clear, but Femke Markus and Femke Gerritse controlled it well.

"That left Lisa van Belle, Barbara Guarischi and me in the sprint train. I briefly lost them in the chaos, but just before the final corner I found them again. We decided to use Lisa as the final lead-out rider. Barbara initiated the lead-out, and Lisa then delivered me perfectly once again. It’s great to finish this successful trip to China with a third victory."

Traditionally, the Women's WorldTour would have one more event in China, the season-closing Tour of Guangxi, but the one-day race has been cancelled for 2026, meaning that Sunday wrapped up this year of top-level racing.

Results

Vermeersch crossed the line in second place, letting out a curse in frustration a few seconds later, while Swift, who finished third, bowed his head over his handlebars.

Bak Klaris had spent most of the day working for Würtz Schmidt, closing down attacks, until the four riders escaped in the final five kilometres. Then, the Traka 260 winner attacked with Swift on his wheel but it was Bak Klaris who closed the gap.

Putting pressure at the front. Würtz Schmidt then slid out on a corner, but with Swift appearing to ease off rather than press the advantage, the Dane was able to catch back on, as the four riders sped towards the finish line. Bak Klaris also took a moment to look back for his compatriot and take a break from pulling.

Using their numbers, the Danish squad was content to stay mostly at the front of the field, accelerating on the climbs to shed riders off the back while a break of three was up the road. Austrian gravel champion Lukas Pöstlberger, British national champion Jenson Young and Peter Schulting (Netherlands) stayed off the front for 117 kilometres, getting a maximum gap of close to three minutes.

In the finale, Würtz Schmidt made numerous attacks, but it was his teammate that was fastest across the line.

"I can't believe it right now. It feels like it's it feels unreal right now," Bak Klaris said, describing the final kilometres, including Würtz Schmidt sliding, out as "hectic".

"I think we were all pretty tired at that point, and that's what we saw yesterday as well [when Rosa Klöser crashed in the women's race]. That's when you start to make mistakes. I tried to take advantage of we both from Denmark, so I tried to wait for him and let the other guys do some work, and in the end, everything just turned out.

"I usually don't have a really good sprint, so I just tried to find the wheel, and I think I was pretty lucky with how Connor Swift did the final, so I could just stay in the wheel, pretty much the last K, and then have a small last kick."

An exciting edition of the men's title race

For the fifth edition of the 2026 UCI Gravel World Championships, the elite men tackled 3,713m of climbing on a 144km loop out from Nannup. With 85% of the route on gravel, the demanding course wound through the Blackwood Valley, pine plantations, rolling farmland and forested terrain before returning to the off-road cycling hub of Nannup.

A few brief showers passed through in the morning, but the sun was peeking through as the 79 riders took the start. With little rain forecast and temperatures hitting 16°C, the elite men faced much drier conditions than the women did on Saturday, although some puddles and muddy sections remained on the course.

The first attack came early on the opening 9km paved section, with Austrian national champion Lukas Pöstlberger, British national champion Jenson Young and Peter Schulting (Netherlands) pulling away, with Jo Pirotte (Belgium) falling out of the group. The trio established a one-minute lead as they rolled onto gravel.

The trio saw their lead tumble down to 1:02 from a maximum of 2:33 as the dwindling pack led by Connor Swift crested Brockman Climb (1.7km at 12%). The first two ascents, starting with Killarney Climb, caused splits in the pack, with riders shelled off the back with 112km to go. Some of the riders falling off the pace include defending champion Florian Vermeersch, Matt Beers (South Africa), Daan Soete (Belgium) and Henrique Avancini (Brazil).

The peloton regrouped, with Vermeersch, Beers and Avancini rejoining on the undulating high roads after the climb as the three riders off the front continued to work well together, tackling Mader Climb first and then Shale Climb.

Jonas Lindberg moved to the front of the roughly 25-rider peloton, setting a hard pace for Danish team leader Mads Würtz Schmidt to close the 2:30 gap to the break. His hard tempo began to split the group as he looked to reduce the numbers even more to improve his teammate’s chances.

Schulting had some trouble staying with Young and Pöstlberger on a fast descent, churned with ruts, but he did manage to chase back onto their wheels as they rode through a short paved section, holding their lead with 88km to go.

The lead three riders had a strong three-minute advantage as they started the 27km Arcadia loop added to the course that the women raced on Saturday. Behind them, the Danish team once again drove the pace in the reduced peloton on the Arcadia climb, clawing back a minute by the top of the 2.5km ascent.

The peloton, down to 16 riders, included Beers, Avancini, Swift, Keegan Swenson (USA), Martin Stošek (Czechia), Casey South (Switzerland), Paul Voss (Germany), Dutch duo of Mathijs Loman and Jordan Habets, Mark O’Brien (Australia), Loïc Bettendorff (Luxembourg), Belgian duo of Vermeersch and Stan Dewulf, and Würtz Schmidt and his teammates Lindberg and Magnus Bak Klaris.

Denmark’s Bak Klaris and Lindberg, followed by Avancini sitting in third place, set a blistering pace through one of the course’s toughest sections, where narrow tracks, deep ruts, overhanging foliage, numerous potholes and even a wallaby hopping across the road made for challenging riding. But even though the pace was high, the break’s lead was still holding at 2:30 with 63km to go.

Mark O’Brien (Australia) overcooked a corner, slid out and then had to stop to fix his handlebars before remounting, covered in mud, to try and chase back onto the pack.

Under the impetus of Würtz Schmidt, setting a difficult pace on Ellis Creek Road Climb (2km at 9.1%), the toughest ascent of the day, the gap was down to around the one-minute mark, and only a few riders, such as South, Vermeersch, Stošek, Swift, Bak Klaris and Dewulf were able to stay on his wheel.

Not able to follow on the climb, Beers, Voss, Avancini and Swenson were able to claw their way back into the group with 57km to go. And that led to a lull in the pace, and the gap increased by a few seconds.

Lindberg managed to bridge back to the 13-rider chase group and immediately moved to the front, looking to close the 1:28 gap to the leading trio with 47km remaining. A few kilometres later, Vermeersch swung around to talk to the other riders, while Lindberg gestured for others to contribute to the chase. With three Danish riders in the group, the rest appeared content to leave the work to them, and the pace slowed down again.

With 41km to go, Pöstlberger, Young and Schulting still had 1:50 on the chase group as they tackled the Glacier Climb, but the Brit lost contact on the 3.8km ascent.

Meanwhile, behind, Würtz Schmidt put in a big acceleration, stringing the chase group, forcing his rivals to dig deep to stay with him while shelling a few more off the back, reducing the numbers to 10.

First Stošek and then Swift came to the front of the chase group to set a hard pace, sweeping in Jenson inside of 32km to go, as the duo up ahead still had a minute advantage.

Even though Schulting and Pöstlberger were still hammering at the front on a paved section, the gap had tumbled to 35 seconds with 25km to go, including the final climb of Folly (2.4km at 4.8%). The duo enjoyed the cheers from the fans lining the road as their lead continued to go down.

Stošek attacked on the climb, splitting the chase group and drawing six riders clear, while Swenson fought his way back as the leading duo were caught. The Danes immediately countered, triggering another selection that saw Swift, Würtz Schmidt, Bak Klaris and Stošek break away with 21km to go.

Though the group included two Danish riders, both Swift and Stošek also took turns at the front to drive the pace. The quartet had 10 seconds on a Vermeersch-led five-rider chase group five kilometres later.

Vermeersch, Voss, Dewulf, Schulting, and Swenson connected with the lead quartet with 12km to go, leading to another reshuffle at the front. Dewulf quickly shut down a move from Voss, as they sped back towards Nannup.

As the nine riders started to play cat-and-mouse games, Beers clawed his way back onto the lead group with 8.5km to go but it would a brief journey in the front group for the South African.

Würtz Schmidt attacked on an uphill with Swift covering along Bak Klaris with as Vermeersch worked hard to close the gap. Swenson and Stošek joined together to give chase with 5km to go.

A kilometre later, Würtz Schmidt continued to put the pressure on, with Swift covering his attack and Bak Klaris closing the gap to the duo. Soon after, the Traka 360 winner slid out on a corner, forcing Swift to slow down to avoid him. Neither Swift nor Vermeersch seemed to want to take advantage of their rival’s mishap, and the Dane was able to reconnect with 1.4km to go.

Bak Klaris took the front until Swift attacked on the right-hand side with the Dane jumping on his wheel. Swift was then forced to lead the quartet to the finish line, and Bak Klaris was able to come around to take the surprising win.

Results

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The 20-year-old had his team working on the front all day, but Seixas himself stayed patient until the crucial moment, putting in one big acceleration on the Civiglio climb that no one could follow for more than a minute or two. From there, despite being chased by some of the strongest riders in the world, the Frenchman could not be reeled back in.

Vuelta a España winner Enric Mas (Movistar) ditched the uncooperative Giulio Ciccone (Lidl-Trek) in the finale to try and chase down Seixas solo, but his efforts were futile as the Frenchman soloed to victory by 49 seconds.

Mas settled for second, as Ciccone rolled in a few seconds behind him to cap off his career with Lidl-Trek with a third place.

Pre-race favourite Remco Evenepoel (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe) sprinted to fourth from the chase group as an unsatisfactory consolation prize, after being visible and active all day but ultimately not being able to react to the crucial move.

Earlier in the day, a 14-man breakaway was up the road for most of the day, with seven riders surviving into the final 20km, but Seixas' move spelled the end of their day, with Michael Leonard (EF Education-EasyPost) the final rider to be caught.

With his win just two weeks after his 20th birthday, Seixas becomes the youngest-ever winner of Il Lombardia, and the fourth youngest men's Monument victor in history.

"It's crazy. I think I don't realise for now," he said at the finish. "Everything went perfect. The teammates [did a] great, awesome job. Everyone pushed more than what they had to do, and yeah, I had amazing legs.

"I had the feeling that today was a great day, and I managed to make the difference at the moment I chose, maybe a bit earlier, because I felt like the rhythm was not high enough at the start of the climb – for me at least – to make the difference, so I had to accelerate early, maybe a bit too early. There was some not really steep parts, so I had to manage really efforts and accelerate in the hard parts.

"Then I did the best I could, a TT, me against myself and yeah, it was crazy."

He knew he had a decent gap, but said it was "not enough to think about the win before the end of the last climb".

"Then at the end of the last climb I started believing and I just had to not make mistakes on the downhill, so I was careful. I don't realise [what I've done], I think."

An unusual start before business as usual

After the 239km race eventually got underway after the peloton staged a protest about safety by delaying the start, business as usual resumed with the attacks starting straight out of the neutral zone. Martin Marcellusi (Bardiani CSF 7 Saber) was the very first rider to attack, but the day's break wasn't going to get away that easily, and the battle continued all the way up the opening climbs.

An initial group of five got away midway up the Selvino climb, but the fight was continuing behind them with multiple counter-attacks, and the leaders were joined over the top of the ascent to make it a 14-rider break.

The riders were: Ben O'Connor (Jayco AlUla), Antonio Tiberi (Bahrain-Victorious), Michael Leonard (EF Education-EasyPost), Maxime Decomble (Groupama-FDJ United), Johannes Kulset (Uno-X Mobility), Andrea Mifsud (Polti VisitMalta), George Bennett, Pau Marti (NSN), Fausto Masnada (MBH Bank CSB Telecom Fort), Gijs Leemreize (Picnic PostNL), Sylvain Moniquet (Cofidis), Louis Vervaeke (Soudal-QuickStep), Victor Campenaerts (Visma-Lease a Bike) and Julien Bernard (Lidl-Trek).

With most big teams represented, the peloton seemed relatively happy to let this break go, and they soon built a gap of two minutes – though they weren't given much more than that as UAE, Red Bull and Decathlon controlled the gap.

Back in the peloton, a mechanical and bike change for world champion Brandon McNulty (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) saw him dropped from the peloton and facing a substantial chase back on, but he made it back to the bunch and his teammates without too much trouble.

The longest climb of the day, the Valpiana, passed without much action, with the breakaway riders managing their efforts and keeping the gap stable towards the 150km to go mark. On the long descent, however, the breakaway actually managed to grow their advantage over the peloton, stretching the gap out to three minutes for the first time all day as the still 14-strong group took on the long flat before the next climb.

Things were certainly not slow in the peloton heading into the final 120km, but teams and riders seemed to be just making sure they didn't do too much, too soon with the decisive climbs all still to come.

The important climbs begin

It did not take too long for the pace to kick back up in the bunch, though, and the gap started slowly falling again on the Giovenzana climb as UAE lined up at the front of the peloton and started burning through riders.

With 90km to go, the break briefly split apart, and whilst they reunited relatively quickly, it was the first sign of the leaders perhaps getting ready to attack and take opportunities. The long, flat, lake-side stretch before the Madonna del Ghisallo gave the break a chance to reset and regroup, though the peloton were winding up towards full pace in their pursuit.

The break hit the Madonna del Ghisallo 2:30 ahead of the peloton, with the stronger climbers quickly coming to the fore and O'Connor settling the early pace. His efforts saw Tiberi among the first riders to be dropped, and soon hardly anyone could hold onto the Australian's wheel, with him and Leemreize pulling out a gap on the early slopes. Leonard was able to pace back up to them, making it three in the lead, but Leemreize soon dropped back as the leaders' gap fell back below two minutes.

That shrinking of the gap was because, just as had happened in the break, the bunch hitting the climb signalled the arrival of the favourites and climbers at the front of the peloton; no one was quite attacking, but Red Bull and UAE were both battling for supremacy on the front of the group.

O'Connor and Leonard were rejoined by five riders from the break halfway up the climb, but the seven leaders were now less than a minute and a half ahead of the bunch, led by Red Bull's Giulio Pellizzari.

The big attacks start

The attacks began near the top when Louis Barre (Visma-Lease a Bike) led out a big move from Matteo Jorgenson, with his compatriots Quinn Simmons (Lidl-Trek) and McNulty on his wheel, plus XDS Astana's Christian Scaroni. The quartet went clear over the top of the climb, and though they didn't have a huge gap on the peloton, it left Evenepoel, Red Bull and Decathlon with work to do on the descent.

Red Bull enlisted Primož Roglič to help in the chase, and with 50km to go, the attackers – with Masnada from the break now tagging along too – were 13 seconds ahead of the main group, with the leaders another 50 seconds up the road. The attackers were caught only a few kilometres later, though, and there was a brief rest as the favourites weighed up their next moves.

This slight lull saw the leaders' gap go back out, and they still had 1:20 with 35km to go as the race entered the finishing circuit and the final three climbs. After looking strong, Simmons had a poorly timed mechanical at the start of the circuit and dropped out of the reduced bunch and faced a tough chase back on.

All the favourite teams were amassed at the front of the peloton, but there was still a lot of work to be done to actually bring the leaders back if the big names were to contest the finish. On the first time up the San Fermo della Battaglia climb, Pellizzari hit the front once again to wind things up for Evenepoel, with McNulty, Tom Pidcock (Pinarello-Q36.5), Isaac del Toro (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) and Seixas behind them.

Pellizzari paced to the top of the climb, and his efforts took a big chunk out of the leaders' advantage, though they were still working hard up front to try and give themselves as big a chance as possible of holding on. The gap sat at 40 seconds with 20km remaining.

On the Civiglio climb, Leonard pushed on up ahead to be the final survivor of the break, but the favourites were hot on his heels as Paul Seixas made his first serious move towards the top, which reeled Leonard back in but – more crucially – saw Evenepoel struggling to hold on at the back of the group.

Seixas' move was not explosive, but a steady winding up of his speed was an effort that only Pidcock and Ciccone could follow, with Evenepoel and Del Toro noticeably off the pace. It didn't take long for Seixas to drop his companions, too, and the young Frenchman went solo with 18km remaining. He went over the top of the climb with a gap of 25 seconds on Ciccone and Mas, which was not insurmountable, but Seixas looked much stronger than the riders trying to chase him down, and his gap only grew as he settled into his rhythm.

Ciccone and Mas weren't working well together behind, so Mas pushed on solo without the Italian, but even that was fairly futile as he was still nearly a minute down on Seixas with 5km to go. That gap meant the Frenchman was able to savour his victory as he soloed to the line, capping a phenomenal season with an historic first Monument victory.

Mas rolled in for second just ahead of Ciccone, whilst Evenepoel sprinted it out for fourth from the large chasing group, but ultimately could not live up to his favourite status.

Results

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The victory brought Vos’ tally to 15 rainbow jerseys across four disciplines: eight in cyclo-cross, two in gravel, plus world titles on the road and track.

After rolling with Rosa Klöser (Germany) for 21km, Vos launched a powerful attack in the final 4km in an attempt to drop the German. Klöser fought hard to regain her wheel, but she slid out after hitting a rut on the right-hand side of the road and watched the rainbow jersey ride away from her.

Vos and Klöser broke away from a lead group that had fluctuated in size throughout the race. Both had remained in contention as the front group dwindled to three riders before swelling again, with their attack coming after Sofia Gomez Villafañe (Argentina) and Tiffany Cromwell (Australia) each made impressive efforts to chase back to the leaders.

Getting back up quickly after her crash, Klöser crossed the line 27 seconds down to take second place, and immediately congratulated Vos.

Larissa Hartog (Netherlands) outsprinted Nele Laing (Germany) to take third place, making it two Dutch riders on the podium.

With 16 riders in the field, just one fewer than the host nation, the Dutch squad went to the front at the start, and consistently maintained at least two riders in all the splits at the front until the finale.

Vos, 39, seemed to be at a loss for words when asked what the win meant to her, simply answering "A lot. Yeah, a lot."

"It was more muddy than expected, actually. We had to be careful and some really slippery parts. And Rosa was really, really strong, so on the uphills I had to dig deep to follow," she said.

"I knew that that final corner around the top and then the descent were going to be tricky, so I wanted to be in front and take them my own lines. But of course it's unfortunate that Rosa crashed there.

"I was really happy when the World Championships were announced here, and it's a fantastic course here in Western Australia, and it's great to take the rainbow jersey."

Whittling down the peloton

For the fifth edition of the 2026 UCI Gravel World Championships, the elite women faced a 125.6km course with 3,179m of climbing centred around Nannup, Western Australia. With 85% of the route on gravel, the demanding course wound through the Blackwood Valley, pine plantations, rolling farmland and forested terrain before returning to the off-road cycling hub of Nannup.

51 riders took the start in chilly conditions, with temperatures forecast to reach a maximum of 16°C. Overnight rain had compacted the gravel roads, which helped reduce the slipperiness of the pea gravel.

Australia’s Ella Bloor made the first move, attacking after 3km with no reaction from the pack, still massed together, and rode on the opening paved section. After giving a few looks over her shoulders, Bloor has a 50-second lead as she hit the first muddy gravel section lined with puddles, 6km later.

As the sun peeked through the clouds, the first climb of the day, 5.4km Killarney Rd, caused the first selection, with around 12 riders shelled off the back of the Dutch-led pack. Bloor was reeled in with 105km to go.

A puncture for one of the pre-race favourites, Rosa Klöser, forced the German to stop to fix her tyre, and after spending minutes working on her sealant, she had a long solo chase on the horizon to the peloton, down to 25 riders.

Sophie Wright (Great Britain) upped the pace on the approach to Brockman Farm, with more riders being shelled off the back on the 2.4km climb with an 8.2% average gradient, as Klöser made her way through dropped riders to reconnect with the 15-rider lead group with 96km to go.

The lead group continued to whittle down, now at 10 riders, including the four Dutch riders Marianne Vos, Geerike Schreurs, Elisa Serné and Larissa Hartog. Also making the split were Nicole Frain (Australia), Sofia Gomez Villafañe (Argentina), Erica Magnaldi (Italy), Irina Lützelschwab (Switzerland), Nele Laing (Germany), Ashleigh Moolman-Pasio (South Africa) and Klöser. One rider who was not able to follow the pace was Wendy Oosterwood (Netherlands), winner of the 2026 Gravelking UCI Gravel World Series.

Staying on the undulating high roads after the climb, Klöser put in a little dig to try and reduce the Dutch number in the lead group. Behind, the chase group included Oosterwood, Wright, Tiffany Cromwell (Australia), Carolin Schiff (Germany), Maria Laurie (New Zealand), Haley Smith (Canada), Flora Johnson (Great Britain), Janni Spangsberg (Denmark), Joyce Vanderbeken (Belgium) sped down the descent and on flat roads and reconnected with the lead group with 84km to go.

Attack and regroup

Cromwell then attacked solo, dug deep to get a small gap as a heavily marked Vos gave up on chasing her twice, as the Australian gravel champion yo-yoed off the front, but not giving up, she slowly built up her gap.

Behind, inside of 73km to go, Schreurs and Moolman-Pasio went off the road on a descent, with the Dutch rider receiving medical attention after the hard crash.

As the rain fell, Cromwell’s 1:09 advantage evaporated on the Ellis Creek Climb (2km at 9.1%), where Vos, Laing and Klöser caught her with 500 metres remaining to the summit. The tough ascent had shattered the group, but Hartog and Magnaldi trailing by 22 seconds, and Gomez Villafañe was down two minutes, with the other riders scattered in between.

With around 57km to go, Magnaldi and Hartog bridged back to the leaders, swelling the front group to five riders: two Germans, two Dutch and one Italian.

The lead group worked well together, although Vos skipped a few turns to take on some gels. On the wide roads, they passed age-group competitors, some of whom tried to briefly latch onto the group.

With 40km to go, the chase group of Frain, Lützelschwab and Serne clawed their way back to the front, with Cromwell dangling solo behind on Glacier Climb (3.8km at 3.1%).

Hartog got a small gap on the descent, with her Dutch teammates sitting on, leaving the others to do the chasing while Frain countered on a paved section. Vos and Laing reacted immediately with 32km to go, but Magnaldi shut the move down as the pace increased.

With three Dutch and two German riders among the eight leaders, riders were watching each other as the pace eased with 28km to go. Meanwhile, Gomez Villafañe, with a new front wheel on her bike, made an impressive chase to the front group after losing two minutes on an earlier climb.

Cromwell caught back on and immediately attacked again in the final race of her career with 25km to go, and got big cheers from the fans lining the feed zone as she weaved her way through the age-group riders as she tackled Folly Climb (2.4km at 4.8%).

With Vos on her wheel, Klöser jumped from the group to chase down Cromwell. Laing tried to follow but could not keep up with the pace. The duo had a 37-second lead on Laing and Hartog as they crested the climb with 20km to go.

The pair worked well together, increasing their lead to over one minute with 7km to go.

With 4km to go, sitting on her rival’s wheel, Vos tightened her shoes and put in a massive acceleration. Klöser managed to get back on her wheel, but then slid out and hit the deck, and was out of contention for the victory, allowing Vos to solo away to the rainbow jersey.

Results