HYSK Gravel Classic Yakurai deliver solo victories on course with mountains of the Miyagi Prefecture as backdrop
UCI Gravel World Series rounds act as qualifiers for the UCI Gravel World Championships (pictured above) which will this year be held outside Europe for the first time(Image credit: MASSIMO FULGENZI AFP via Getty Images)
The first UCI Gravel World Series race in Japan played out at HYSK Gravel Classic Yakurai on Saturday, with Toki Sawada and Shu Wei Hsu taking solo victories.
The race took place over 106km with 2,616m of elevation gain through the steep climbs and technical gravel sectors with the mountainous backdrop of the Miyagi Prefecture in northern Japan.
Sawada, who won the Dustman in Thailand early in the UCI Gravel World Series season calendar, claimed the elite men's victory in 4:12:58. The Astemo Utsunomiya Blitzen rider was more than three minutes ahead of Koki Shirakawa while it was more than a minute further back to Hijiri Oda who completed the all Japanese podium.
In the elite women's race Taiwan's Hsu crossed the line at 5:36:57, carving out a substantial gap to home nation riders Sachi Kataoka and Chiharu Ukai, who took the remaining podium places.
The UCI Gravel World Series rounds offer riders an opportunity to qualify for the UCI Gravel World Championships, which this year will be held outside Europe for the first time ever. It will be held at Nannup, Western Australia on October 10-11.
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Top 3 elite women
Position
Rider
Time
1
Shu Wei Hsu
5:36:57
2
Sachi Kataoka
+28:53
3
Chiharu Ukai
+37:46
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Top 3 elite men
Position
Rider
Time
1
Toki Sawada
4:12:58
2
Koki Shirakawa
+3:29
3
Hijiri Oda
+4:42
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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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