Cromwell, Skujins grab solo wins at inaugural FNLD GRVL race

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Toms Skujins (Trek-Segafredo) and Tiffany Cromwell (Canyon-SRAM) won the inaugural Finland Gravel race, known as FNLD GRVL, on Saturday across the 177km ‘Midnight Sun’ route. 

For Cromwell, it was her fourth victory on gravel in four events, having won a week ago at Unbound Gravel 100. Her solo victory in Emporia, Kansas came across a wet and muddy course and a massive margin of more than 25 minutes over second-placed Maria Doering. The Australian dominated the field again but this time by slightly under nine minutes on dry double track and wide gravel roads that wound past freshwater lakes and dense forests north of Lahti, Finland. She finished in a time of 5:14:00.

Heidi Franz (DNA Pro Cycling), who won Hutchinson Ranxo Gravel in early June,  remained in chase mode until the finish line, trailing in second overall for women by 8:59. Another 15 minutes ticked by before Tiia Tulokas (Reaktor Stanga Racing) finished third, one-and-a-half minutes in front of Maja Johansson (Team Rule 58 x WMNGRVL) and Annabel Fisher (Cafe du Cycliste), who sprinted for fourth and fifth, respectively. 

Other notables among the pro women’s field were Angela Naeth in ninth, Unbound Gravel 200 winner Carolin Schiff in 13th, Kae Takeshita in 18th and Alison Tetrick in 29th.

Skujins called the ride “wicked fast” as he also rode solo across the finish, but with only 1:14 to his advantage after 4 hours, 46 minutes, 9 seconds. The duo of Anttijussi Juntunen (ABLOC CT) and Paul Voss (Aut’Said) sprinted in the chase, with Juntunen taking second ahead of Voss, who won 3RIDES in Germany.

A runner-up at Unbound Gravel 200, Petr Vakoc placed fourth in Finland, less than a minute in front of Brennan Wertz and Peter Stetina.

Other notable pro men crossing the finish line well off the winning pace were Jasper Ockeloen in eighth, Nicolas Roche in 10th, 2022 Unbound Gravel 200 champion Ivar Slik in 12th and Kerry Werner Jr in 15th.

The Midnight Sun route, the longest of the trio, provided a prize purse of 20,000 split evenly among the top five finishers in both the men’s and women’s categories.

Cromwell, along with partner and F1 driver Valtteri Bottas and SBT GRVL founder Amy Charity, brought the new off-road event to fruition this summer, providing three routes. Bottas finished third overall in the 77km lakes route, five minutes behind winner Jani Heikkinen and second-placed Joonas Jämsén. Emily Shields finished in the same time as Bottas for fourth overall and captured the women’s victory ahead of Katherine Shields.