Courtney Sherwell hold off chase to take second place in elite women's race while Lance Haidet and Matthew Wilson clinch second and third in men's race
The Trek Driftless duo of Daxton Mock and Cécile Lejeune both got to celebrate victory at the Belgian Waffle Ride California on Sunday while sailing through the line solo.
Mock, however, didn't have quite as much time up his sleeve with Lance Haidet (Colnago-SRAM-ZIPP-Velocio) claiming second place in the elite men's race just 19 seconds back. Matthew Wilson (Scott Sports USA) then came through the line another four seconds back to take third.
Lejeune, however, had plenty of time up her sleeve with Courtney Sherwell (Santa Cruz-SRAM-Kenda) taking the runner-up spot just over 14 minutes later, while it was more than another five minutes until Hannah Shell crossed the line in third.
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The women's race had broken up early on in the 107-mile (172.2km) mixed terrain course, with the lead group down to five by 20 miles in, and then it wasn't long before it was just Sherwell and Lejeune out front. Then, by 35 miles into the event, Lejeune was solo.
"I took off on the Highlands and kept looking back, but I was alone for the rest of the day," said Lejeune in the post-race interview.
Adding in an Instagram post that "I kept pushing hard even after hearing my gap increase as I wanted to get a big TSS day in (Unbound incoming) and wanted a cushion in case I got a mechanical."
It may have been clear early who the winner of the women's race would be, but the chase for second was contested for longer, with a group of three getting close to reeling Sherwell back in at one point. Still she then pushed the pace and ultimately built a handy buffer.
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In the much tighter men's race it took longer to whittle down the field to smaller groups. Brennan Wertz (Scott-Skipstone) was one of the early aggressors, taking off with Thomas Fuller (Bigwheel Coaching-Enve-Shimano-Cyclery US). Wertz pushed on alone but then was reeled in first by Wilson, and then the group swelled again.
Mock, Haidet, Wilson, Truman Glasgow (ENE-DNA Cycling) and Hayden Christian (Trek-MAAP) came together, and the splits on the run to the line then determined how they would divvy up the top five spots, with Mock getting to celebrate his second win in a row after claiming victory at Highlands Gravel just last week.
Simone is a degree-qualified journalist that has accumulated decades of wide-ranging experience while working across a variety of leading media organisations. She joined Cyclingnews as a Production Editor at the start of the 2021 season and has now moved into the role of Australia Editor. Previously she worked as a freelance writer, Australian Editor at Ella CyclingTips and as a correspondent for Reuters and Bloomberg. Cycling was initially purely a leisure pursuit for Simone, who started out as a business journalist, but in 2015 her career focus also shifted to the sport.
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