The Rift Gravel – Decker and Svendsen use two-up sprints to win elite titles at Gravel Earth Series stop in Iceland

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Simen Nordahl Svendsen (PAS Racing) and Cecily Decker (Scuderia Pinarello) emerged as the winners of The Rift Gravel, both having to contest two-riders sprints after the 200 kilometres of racing on the sun-drenched day of racing in Iceland.

The 200km route used a counter-clockwise loop around Hekla, with the majority of the 2,165 metres of elevation gain in the opening 70km. The Rift was the fourth of five ‘Global’ events in the Gravel Earth Series.

Svendsen would take on Tiago Ferreira (Montanhas Magicas-BH) in a two-rider sprint for the men’s overall and win The Rift for a second time. Iceland’s Ingvar Ómarsson (Trek Iceland) then replicated the sprint-line action 6:15 later and ride ahead of Hugo Drechou (Groove Gravel), the winner of Oregon Trail Gravel, for third place. 

When Svendsen won The Rift last year, it was the first pro gravel victory of his career. He said this year with 60km to go, he could tell other riders in the front group were suffering from the intense pace, so he made a solo attack. 

“It went perfect. I had a great day and raced hard all day and managed to grab the win in the end,” Svendsen said in a Gravel Earth Series interview at the end of the race. 

The early front group of men had contained a number of key riders - Svendsen, Ferreira, Ómarsson, Drechou, Ole Bjørn Smisethjell (Molde CK/Reser Molde), Nathan Haas (Colnago-Castelli), Mattia de Marchi (Enough Cycling) and a trio from Pas Racing of Tobias Mørch Kongstad, Thomas Bundgaard and Chad Haga. By the 80km marker most of the contenders had fallen away. 

Drechou was the last rider to fall back from the lead group with under 40km to go and leave the sprint to the Svendsen-Ferreira duo.

“I just stayed with the group and pushed on the climbs. We rotated super hard. I went solo [after 60km], and after a while Tiago caught me. We were riding together the last 45k and we were both quite tired. We just wanted to go for the sprint,” Svendsen said.

Decker was matched after the opening 30km in the women’s race by Karolina Migon (PAS Racing), the women's winner of The Traka 360, and the US rider was able to out-kick Migon at the line. 

The duo had distanced all challengers after the opening 30km and opened an 11-minute margin across the middle of the race over Geerike Schreurs (Specialized-SD Worx) and Morgan Aguirre (Enough Cycling), with just under another minute to chaser Klara Sofie Skovgård Hansen (PAS Racing). Schreurs would ride just ahead of Aguirre in another head-to-head sprint to take third place.

“I just tried to make it really hard from the start. Karolina and I got away at about 20k, and she was really strong. We were evenly matched for the whole day,” she said at the finish.

Organisers provided a separate start for the women, taking off 30 minutes prior to the men, and a policy restricting women from drafting off the men should the fields overlap later. Decker, in her first international gravel race, said the rules made the difference.

“I went into the race with an aggressive plan; to make it hard and drive the pace early. The no-draft rule gave me the freedom and confidence to attack and leave the others, knowing they would not be pulled back to me by the men,” she noted on her Instagram account. 

“We also squashed a common misconception that the women’s race will be significantly slower if we are unable to draft off of men. We smashed the course record by over 30 minutes in the first installment of this race with these new rules in place.”

Migon jumped Sarah Sturm in the women's Gravel Earth Series overall standings to take the women's lead with 1920 points. Svendsen and Drechou moved into first place, tied with 1808 points each, in the men's division.

A total of five Global events at this year's Gravel Earth Series offer maximum points for riders, the next stop in late September at Falling Leaves Lahti in Finland. The final series event will be held October 13 at Gravel Earth Final at Ranxo Gravel in Spain.