Karolina Migoń (PAS Racing) and Fabian Rabensteiner (Torpado Kenda FSA Factory) won the elite Grand Tour 3 Cime Lavaredo on Saturday, both winning solo at the Italian event which is one of four UCI Gravel World Series races playing out over the weekend.
Migoń came over the line over four and a half minutes ahead of UAE Team ADQ road pro Erica Magnaldi in the elite women's race on the challenging course, where the climbing hits hard and early. Italian MTB Marathon champion Debora Piana was third.
The men's race finish was a lot closer, with Leonardo Paez taking second in the men's elite race in, just 26 seconds back on Rabensteiner, whilst Norway's Eskil Evensen-Lie was third, a further two minutes down.
Though it was a gravel race, most of the podium finishers came from a mountain bike background, with Rabensteiner and Piana both national XCM champions, testament to the mountainous course in the Dolomites.
The 133km race with 3,200m of elevation gain started and finished in ski village of Auronzo di Cadore, with the first peak of the Danta di Cadore just 10km in and another where the ascending starts at 30km, the Klammbach peak, marking the high point of the race at 1,929m. After that the course flattened out a little but there was still another challenge at around the 100km mark, the Passo Tre Crocci.
Migoń led over all three 'cime' climbs to take a dominant victory, whilst in the men's race, Paez crested the Passo Monte Croce first, but Rabensteiner came from behind – not even in the top three over the first 'cima' – to go over the Carbonin and Passo Tre Croci in the lead and hold on to the line.
The four qualifiers across three continents this weekend also included Australia's Devils Cardigan, Eislek Gravel Luxembourg and OG Classique in Canada. Across all rounds, the top 25% of competitors in each category qualify for the Gravel World Championships, this year taking place in Nannup, Western Australian from October 10-11.
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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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