Annabel Fisher (Café du Cycliste) of Great Britain and Lukas Baum (Orbea X Leatt Speed Company) of Germany won elite divisions at the Earth Final gravel race in Cardona, Spain.
The race victory pushed Fisher from fourth place in the overall standings of the Gravel Earth Series to the top of the podium and the women’s first-ever series title after the seventh and concluding contest.
Italian Mattia de Marchi, who led the standings all year with his win at The Traka 360, secured the overall series title for elite men with a fourth-place finish in the Earth Final.
"I may encounter many obstacles along my way, but the work pays or will pay off," said De Marchi on his Instagram. "The race is amazing, really amazing."
It wasn't all smiles for the Italian as he had issues with punctures on the course, but he was quick to stay positive through some bad luck.
"Maybe next time I don't need the best legs but maybe a bit of luck, but this is gravel, this is the game," he said.
Baum finished second in the overall for men, with Dutchman Diederik Deelen in third, Switzerland's Nils Correvon in fourth. and Britain's Toby Perry closing out the men's top five.
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Fisher dominated the women’s field with a solo victory, 13:59 faster than second-placed Svenja Betz of Germany. It was a little more than another seven minutes later before Geertje Schreurs of the Netherlands secured third.
USA’s Amity Rockwell came into Earth Final at the top of the women’s ranking for the series, having scored the highest points with wins at The Traka 360 and Migration Gravel Race. She needed to finish fourth or better to seal the title but faded to an eighth-place finish in the last event which resulted in a second place overall.
Madeleine Nutt of Great Britain finished third in the series, just ahead of Betz and Schreurs, who rounded out the top five.
Klassmark, organisers of the circuit, assigned varying degrees of difficulty for the six races in the regular season, and extra points for Earth Final.
The overall tally for classification leaders took into account the two best scores of the year, plus the required result of an Earth Final.
The series-ending race covered 180 kilometres with 3,150 metres of elevation gain over three distinct sections. Most of the climbing was covered in the first and third parts of the route, with flat, fast terrain in the middle.
Results
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Results - Women top 10
Pos.
Rider Name (Country) Team
Result
1
Annabel Fisher (GBr) Café du Cycliste
7:32:37
2
Svenja Betz (Ger)
0:13:59
3
Geertje Schreurs (Ned)
0:21:40
4
Claudia Galicia Cotrina (Spa) Megamoq
0:23:02
5
Madeleine Nutt (GBr) The Ribble Collective
0:23:52
6
Cara Dixon (GBr)
0:25:39
7
Xaverine Nirere (RWA)
0:33:36
8
Amity Rockwell (USA) TREK/PAS/MAURTEN/SCHWALBE
0:41:00
9
Katherine Sheridan (USA) Mazda Lauf Factory Racing
Jackie has been involved in professional sports for more than 30 years in news reporting, sports marketing and public relations. She founded Peloton Sports in 1998, a sports marketing and public relations agency, which managed projects for Tour de Georgia, Larry H. Miller Tour of Utah and USA Cycling. She also founded Bike Alpharetta Inc, a Georgia non-profit to promote safe cycling. She is proud to have worked in professional baseball for six years - from selling advertising to pulling the tarp for several minor league teams. On the bike, she has climbed l'Alpe d'Huez three times (not fast), and spends time on gravel around horse farms in north Georgia.
