Rosa Klöser defends title at Alentejo Gravel in Portugal for early ticket to 2027 UCI Gravel World Championships

Rosa Klöser (Canyon-SRAM-MAAP) defended her title at Alentejo Gravel in Portugal on Sunday while Filipe Francisco (Aviludo-Lauletano-Loulé) out-sprinted two Belgian rivals to win the elite men's division at the 2027 UCI Gravel World Series event.

A silver medallist at this year's UCI Gravel World Championships in Nannup two weeks ago, Klöser went back to work and won her third UCI Gravel World Series race of the year, this one counting towards qualification for next year's rainbow jersey race.

The German was part of a small group of six riders who chased two escapees across the first half of the 119km course in southern Portugal and then she rode away solo for the win, 11:01 ahead of Sarah Lange. Émilie Morier (St Michel- Preference Home-Auber93) of France was third, another 6:39 behind the US rider.

Ester Maqueda set the pace with a solo charge and opened a three-minute advantage on Celina Carpinteiro (CDASJ) with 61km to go. As the bulk of the 1,750 metres of climbing took place in the Algarve hills, it was on these southern-most dusty trails through Santa Clara A Nova where Klöser and Lange made their moves.

"The course did not have any long climbs so I figured my best move would be to use the 'climb-y' section of the course starting at mile 30 to try to break things up. I pushed the pace on the longest climb (which was still less than 4 minutes) and Rosa and I were able to get a gap on the rest of the ladies," Lange, who was eighth a week ago at Big Sugar Gravel, explained in an Instagram post.

"We worked together for the next 10 miles until the elite men came rolling by us. Rosa had the legs to hop on their train but I didn’t have that gear."

Klöser had planned to race Gravel Burn in South Africa this week, but changed her plans for the GWS event to stay closer to home, where her partner Paul Sandmann was recovering from "a freak accident with a car". She did not explain the details, as Sandmann also competed at Alentejo Gravel and finished ninth in the elite men's division.

"With a large gravel race calendar, choices are never easy. While I was really looking forward to race Gravel Burn, a last-minute change of plans (amongst others Paul [Sandmann] getting hit by a car) meant I was happy to return here again. Now it’s time for off-season!"

Alentejo Gravel debuted last year, with Lukas Malezsewski (GVA Gold Gravel) taking the elite men's victory. His bid to repeat fell short as he finished one spot off the podium, 2:22 away from a three-rider sprint.

Francesco, who earned the silver medal last month in a photo finish at Portugal's Gravel Nationals, was part of a three-rider breakaway that rode at the front with last year's runner-up Daan Grosemans and Olivier Godfroid (Baloise Verzekeringen-Het Poetsbureau Lions). Riding on home roads in southern Portugal, Francesco edged Godfroid for the win, with Grosemans another second back for third.

The wrap-around calendar for qualification events in the UCI Gravel World Series had two races on two continents on Sunday, with a wet and muddy Gravelista contended in Seymour, Victoria, Australia. The next races take place in Thailand for Dustman Gravel on November 14 and Greece for The Gravel of Marathon on November 15.

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