UCI Gravel World Series: Joaquin Plomer and Maria Laura Bugarin take elite victories at Vuelta Altas Cumbres Gravel on home soil in Argentina

Maria Laura Bugarin and Joaquin Plomer claimed the elite category victories at Vuelta Altas Cumbres Gravel, the first UCI Gravel World Series race in Argentina, which ran on Sunday.

It was a clear solo win for each of the riders on home soil, the 112km course testing competitors across 1,930 metres of elevation gain and 92% gravel paths.

The event has been staged as a mountain bike race, and is now in a 15th edition, though this time as a gravel race with qualifications on the line for the Gravel World Championships.

Bugarin was the first of the elite women over the line with a time of 4:59:34 while Sidney Sitton was second in the category, more than 26 minutes back and Pamela Martino was third in the elite category. However, it was Carolina Maldonado who won the overall women's category, with the age group category rider finishing in 4:56:00 while another 40-44 category rider Fiorela Malaspina came second overall, a little over two minutes behind, with the first elite rider, Bugarin, just behind, in third overall.

"I’ve been riding the route at Vuelta Altas Cumbres for over a decade now, and I can honestly say that in this edition - beyond winning the Women's Gravel Overall - what I 'really' won was the chance to enjoy the entire weekend with some truly wonderful people," Maldonado, a two-time Pan-American mountain Bike champion, wrote on her Instagram feed.

Plomer, who was second at Gravel Brazil a month ago, was dominant in the men's category, finishing in a time of 3:53:54 to win the elite and overall category. USA's Lance Haidet (Colnago-SRAM-Velocio-ZIPP-Fizik) took second in the men's race while Franco Orocito was third in the elite category and Germán Dorhmann of Argentina was third overall.

The course in the Traslasierra Valley included about 35 kilometres of sustained climbing through the first 68 kilometres and a fast technical 33-kilometre descent takes riders back to the finish in Villa Cura Brochero.

The UCI Gravel World Series delivers events around the world which act as qualifiers for the UCI Gravel World Championships, this year being held in Nannup, Western Australia in October.

The top 25% of riders in each category qualify, though if riders want to qualify for the elite World Championship races through this route they need to race in the elite category in the series. There are, however, other qualification avenues including wildcards and qualification for national champions.