Belgian Waffle Ride: Matt Beers and Sofia Gomez Villafañe win in California

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Matt Beers (Specialized Off-Road) and Sofia Gomez Villafañe (Specialized Off-Road) both surged away on long solo breaks to claim victory at Belgian Waffle Ride California, the final round of the Tripel Crown Series.

Villafañe was also the clear cut winner of the Tripel Crown series – which has a $25,500 prize purse split evenly between the top five men and top five women –
taking a sweep of the waffle distance races at Arizona, Utah and also the weighted points round of California. Peter Stetina (Canyon Waffeleurs & Ale drinkeurs) claimed the men's Tripel Crown, finishing fourth in the 119.7 miles (192km) Californian race but he was the first of those competing across the three race series over the line.

In the Californian event, with its 10,000 feet (3,048m) of climbing and the signature unpaved Double Peak just a few miles from the finish, it was Alexey Vermeulen (ENVE/Q+M) who crossed the line second in the men's race. He was less than a minute behind South Africa's Beers while Petr Vakoč (Canyon Integray L27) finished almost two minutes further back in third.

"Eventually got one of these big gravel races under my belt, I think it was 110km solo ... pretty smoked right now," said Beers in an interview on Instagram straight after finishing. 

Courtney Sherwell (Prova Cycles/QOM/Ekoi/Schwalbe/SRAM) continued her impressive run at her first block of US gravel racing, as the Australian was second over the line in the women's race. She claimed the runner up spot in California, three seconds ahead of third placed Caroline Wreszin (Cinch Racing), to also take second in the Tripel Crown series. Still, no one could get even close to the dominant Villafañe, who finished her first Belgian Waffle Ride California with a gap of more than 15 minutes ahead of her nearest rival, despite not having a completely smooth run.

"This course is savage," said Villafañe. "It was so fun out there. I had a good day, I had a flat early on, but I was able to ride my insert all the way to a feed zone and get a new wheel and after that it was kind of game on – try to increase my lead through the single-track and protect my tyres a little bit more."  

The out-and-back course, with a few side loops, served up 30% ‘unroad’ terrain ranging from light gravel to rough singletrack. It may be the last race in the Tripel Crown but there are still more events to come in the series, with BWR North Carolina up next in June. 

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