Victor Bosoni (Factor Racing) repeated as men's champion and Maddy Nutt (Q36.5 Off Road Racing) won her debut outing at Traka Adventure, the 560km non-stop, ultra-endurance test, held in conjuction with Gravel Earth Series events The Traka 200 and The Traka 360.
Bosoni posted a time of 22 hours, 11 minutes, a searing ride where he overcame several technical issues and a challenge from Max Agut, who finished seven minutes back. Ole Bjørn Smisethjell took third, one hour and 23 minutes behind Bosoni.
In the opening 100km of the men's race, the defending champion had to stop for a mechanical, but was able to close the gap back to the leaders before the three largest climbs of the day began. He moved into the solo lead another 100km on. Once darkness approached, Bosoni had a water bottle he could not open. This left him with only 1.5 litres of water for the final 150km of the contest.
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The 24-year-old Frenchman's water struggles slowed his pace enough that Agut made up a chunk of time and took the lead, which was noted by dotwatcher.cc. Then a mechanical for Agut in the final 15km allowed Bosoni to strike for the pass and the win.
"Last year, I think I delivered the best performance of my life," he wrote on Instagram the day before taking the start in The Traka 560 a second time. He was back to prove his worth, completing the course one hour, 45 minutes faster than the victory from a year ago, when he won solo by nearly two hours.
Nutt posted a time of 27 hours, 27 minutes for her victory, moving to the longest distance at The Traka event after finishing seventh in the 360km distance last year.
Marei Moldenhauer (Canyon x DT Swiss All-Terrain) was reported by Dotwatcher.cc to have crashed in the middle of the race just after the sun set, which allowed Nutt to make the catch. Nutt was then able to move slightly ahead for the solo win, but only by 14 minutes.
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Jana Kesenheimer (Rapha-Specialized-SRAM) rounded out the women's podium in third. All three women posted times faster than last year's winner Svenja Betz, who won in 28::52:09 and was not on the start list this year.
The Traka Adventure is the longest category on offer at the high profile European gravel event with 9,269 metres of elevation gain. Riders began just after 7:00 a.m. local time in Girona and rode through the night. It was the second edition of the 560km contest.
Jackie has been involved in professional sports for more than 30 years in news reporting, sports marketing and public relations. She founded Peloton Sports in 1998, a sports marketing and public relations agency, which managed projects for Tour de Georgia, Larry H. Miller Tour of Utah and USA Cycling. She also founded Bike Alpharetta Inc, a Georgia non-profit to promote safe cycling. She is proud to have worked in professional baseball for six years - from selling advertising to pulling the tarp for several minor league teams. On the bike, she has climbed l'Alpe d'Huez three times (not fast), and spends time on gravel around horse farms in north Georgia.
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