UCI Gravel World Series: Early sprint clinches Geerike Schreurs victory at The Gralloch while Lukas Pöstlberger crosses the line solo to keep wins rolling

Lukas Pöstlberger (Rose Racing Circle) and Geerike Schreurs (Specialized Off-Road) claimed victory at The Gralloch, taking the top spot at the UCI Gravel World Series event in Scotland from among a power-packed field.

The Gralloch 2024 winner Schreurs, who earlier this month was third in The Traka 360, managed to get one up on Karolina Migoń in the run to the line at Gatehouse of Fleet while her PAS Racing teammate Wendy Oosterwoud claimed third over a minute back by holding off Danni Shrosbree (Rapha-Argon 18) through the final charge.

The Traka 200 winner Pöstlberger, on the other hand, crossed the line solo. Pöstlberger escaped early in the race with Jenson Young (Ribble Outliers) and Michael Woods and while there was a solid group in pursuit, they couldn't make the junction so through much of the race it looked to be a three-way battle for the top spot.

At around 14km to go Young had to drop away from the leading trio to fix a puncture and then it was Woods who slipped away, leaving the Austrian champion with time to enjoy a solo win. Still the race for the rest of the podium was far from over and even after the late puncture British rider Young managed to catch and pass Woods plus hold off the chase to claim second.

"Very cool to show what I can do at a home race whilst racing alongside a few legends of the sport," Young said in an Instagram post. "Definitely surprised myself with this one today."

Woods was also caught by the pursuers, with Belgian gravel champion Niels Vandeputte (Alpecin-Premier Tech Development) snaring third by leading a group of four to the line, while Woods had to settle for seventh.

The women's race, similarly, broke up early with Danni Shrosbree, Migoń and Schreurs out front, though there initially wasn't much of a gap to the riders in the early pursuit which included Alison Jackson (St Michel-Preference Home-Auber93) and Austrian gravel champion Jana Gigele. As a result Wendy Oosterwoud (PAS Normal) managed to link up with the lead three, meaning it was a group of four at around 30km into the race and then at around the halfway point Schreurs and Migoń split off the front.

"Karolina put a high pace down on the climb and I was the only one who could follow and we worked well together," said Schreurs in an interview put out on the race social media. "Then it came down to a sprint and I knew I needed to make it a long sprint."

It was a tactic that worked to perfection, with Schreurs dropping Migoń in the final dash to the line and crossing with a two second margin in the 111 kilometre race with 1,761 metres of vertical ascent.

The event delivered a course to and from Garries Park in the centre of Gatehouse of Fleet, with more than 80% gravel as it wound through the lochs and rugged hillsides of the Galloway Forest Park. It was one of two races in the series this weekend, with SEVEN in Nannup, Western Australia also unfolding on a course that will host the Gravel World Championships on October 10-11. The top 25% of riders in each category of the UCI Gravel World Series qualify for the rainbow jersey races.

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