Mads Würtz Schmidt and Morgan Aguirre claim runner-up positions in Spain
Romain Bardet (Factor Racing) started out his European season at Santa Vall, coming second overall in the Gravel Earth Series opener for 2026 behind Mads Würtz Schmidt (Specialized Off-road), but at Castellón he reversed the order(Image credit: @GravelEarthSeries | @SantaVall | @Roger Salanova)
Romain Bardet (Factor Racing) and Sofia Gómez Villafañe (Specialized Off-road) claimed victory at the Castellón Gravel Race on Sunday, with both taking solo wins in the UCI Gravel World Series race that starts and finishes in the Spanish village of Llucena.
Last week's Santa Vall winner Mads Würtz Schmidt (Specialized Off-road) claimed second in the men's race, with the European Champion finishing more than two minutes back from Bardet, while Mathijs Loman (Canyon x DT Swiss ATR) took third.
It was Bardet's second victory on the young gravel season, adding Castellon to his win at RADL GRVL.
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In the women's event it was Morgan Aguirre (PAS Racing) who took the runner-up position while new gravel racer Elena Hartmann – who won the Swiss national time trial title on the road from 2022-24 – came third.
Villafañe, who started the season by sweeping both stages and the overall at Santa Vall, took off after the first 10 miles, working through the men's fields on the route. Aguirre, though, had certainly not let off in the pursuit behind, finishing just 17 seconds back.
"In the closing moments of the race I did get a good reminder at the end of the race that you don’t ease up specially when you aren’t aware of time gaps because I got quite the surprise when Morgan Aguirre was right behind me with just one kicker left before the finish line," said Villafañe in a social media post.
The race took place in the mountains near the east coast of Spain, with the 97km event 80% off-road and including more than 2500 metres of elevation gain.
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The Castellón Gravel Race is the second event in the UCI Gravel World Series so far this year, with the racing in the qualifying series for the UCI Gravel World Championship having kicked off in 2026 with The Ceder in South Africa, which was won by Hayley Preen (Honeycomb 226ers) and Filippo Colombo (Scott-SRAM MTB).
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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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