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The Traka 360: Mads Würtz Schmidt completes the double with dominant victory, as Rosa Klöser wins with impressive 90km solo on challenging Girona gravel
European champion Mads Würtz Schmidt (Specialized Off-Road) and Rosa Klöser (Canyon-SRAM zondacrypto) claimed victories at The Traka 360, both triumphing solo in the 325km race in Girona race which draws the attention of the gravel world.
Hugo Drechou (Gravel Nation) was second among the men's pro field with Matt Beers (Specialized Off-Road) third after the chasing group split apart in an aggressive finale, eventually finishing some 11 minutes down on Würtz Schmidt.
In the women's race, Axelle Dubau-Prévot (EF Education-Oatly) was the runner-up for the second year in a row, unable to match the formidable effort from Klöser, whilst Geerike Schreurs (Specialized Off-Road) took third after a long solo chase in the race, which is the jewel of the Gravel Earth Series.
Würtz Schmidt spent nearly 100km solo, pulling out a huge gap on a large chasing group, and completing the course in nine hours, 57 minutes and 38 seconds. It was a much quicker time than previous editions, with 2025 winner Tobias Kongstad (PAS Racing) taking 11:37:30, but there were also course modifications in 2026 which shortened the distance by more than 30km.
It's back-to-back Traka wins for the Dane, who won the 200km event last year, and indeed he is the first rider to win both headline events at The Traka –
"I'm really proud of that, maybe I completed Traka then," he said at the finish. "But no, I really love this race. I live in Girona, it's a beautiful course, it's demanding, it's super difficult, it's super technical, it has a lot of climbing. It's got everything, and you really need to be a complete rider to be able to do a good race here. So I'm extremely proud of what I've done."
However, asked if he might go for the triple and try to win the 560 race, Würtz Schmidt told Cyclingnews, "Never ever, never never never. I'm back on the 200 next year. I'm happy I won this, because now I don't have to do it again."
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Klöser finished in a time of 11 hours, 27 minutes and 57 seconds, finishing 12:53 ahead of Dubau-Prévot in the end, and 18:29 clear of Schreurs
"I think honestly I just had really good legs today," she said of her win. "I could tell already from the first climb that I was feeling really, really good, so I launched an attack just before the top of the first climb, and after that, we were already only a group of four.
"I really hope Karolina [Migoń] is OK. I was just sending a message to her," she said of the defending champion who seemingly had an incident on the course.
"So then I was riding with Gee, who made an amazing effort to bridge back to us and Axelle. Then on the long climb in the north, it was basically Axelle and me, but I turned around once and saw Gee pretty darn close, so she was definitely putting in a good job, but then I decided it was go time.
"Sometimes it's good getting your ass kicked at the race before, because then you really want it, and today I made it."
The Traka 360, which was actually only 325km in 2026, started early in the morning on Friday and quickly hit the climbs with 4,150m of elevation gain, with three large sections of climbs in the 80% gravel course. The first started at just 6km into the day of racing and the final section began with around 100km to go, though the climbs didn't really let up after that, but just became shorter, with the last uphill kick coming at under ten kilometres to go, and then it was a largely downhill run to the Girona finish line.
The Traka continues on Saturday with the 200.
Elite men
In the men's race, Würtz Schmidt followed in the footsteps of Tobias Kongstad's mammoth solo last year, Leaving behind Drechou and going solo with more than 90km to race – even after having just had to chase back to the French rider on two occasions after a mechanical and then wrong turn – and building a lead of several minutes over the chasers to claim a dominant victory.
There was a large chasing group in pursuit of the European champion, but even their strength in numbers couldn't match his solo strength, and they were left fighting for second, 12 minutes down going into the final kilometres.
Canada's Ben Perry launched an attack from the chasers in the final 6km on singletrack to get away from the group and try to grab the runner-up spot, but was chased down by Drechou, who passed him and proved strongest in the finale, riding to second.
Matt Beers set off to try and reel Drechou back in, using his mountain bike skills in the technical finale to shake off Romain Bardet, and he nearly made it. The South African could see Drechou on the finishing grass stretch, but couldn't quite catch the Frenchman and settled for third on the line, making it a 1-3 for Specialized Off-Road.
Perry's late efforts were rewarded with fourth, whilst Bardet took fifth. Defending champion Tobias Kongstad couldn't repeat his win from 2025, settling for seventh, 16:25 down on the winner.
Elite women
The women's race was also won solo, and the front of the racing stayed closer for only slightly longer than the men's race, after Klöser herself had forced an early selection over the first climbs.
A small elite group formed in the first 200km of racing, eventually whittling down to just two, in Klöser and Dubau-Prévot, having dropped Geerike Schreurs and left behind defending champion Migoń who had a crash then a mechanical.
Former Unbound winner Klöser then put the hammer down on a climb with just over 90km to go to dispatch the French champion.
Klöser had a lead of three minutes after only 20 more kilometres, which initially looked closeable for Dubau-Prévot, with Schreurs also only a few minutes back, but despite the best efforts from the two chasers, the gaps only got bigger, not smaller, as the riders spread across the course in the final hours of racing.
Ultimately, Kloser would pull out a lead of nearly 13 minutes over Dubau-Prévot, who had to settle for second once again, whilst Scheurs seemed happy with third.
The rest of the field came over the line in dribs and drabs, with gaps of over an hour even within the top 10 after a long and hard day on the Girona gravel.
Matilda is an NCTJ-qualified journalist based in the UK who joined Cyclingnews in March 2025. Prior to that, she worked as the Racing News Editor at GCN, and extensively as a freelancer contributing to Cyclingnews, Cycling Weekly, Velo, Rouleur, Escape Collective, Red Bull and more. She has reported on the ground at all of the biggest events on the calendar, including the men's and women's Tours de France, the Giro d'Italia, the Vuelta a Espana, the Spring Classics and the World Championships. She has particular experience and expertise in women's cycling, and women's sport in general. She is a graduate of modern languages and sports journalism.
