'Gnarly conditions', a long breakaway and searing sprints – Rosa Klöser and Matt Beers victorious at Lauf Gravel Worlds in Nebraska

The battle for victory at Lauf Gravel Worlds came down to a hard-fought two-way duel between Matt Beers (Specialized Off-Road) and Keegan Swenson (Santa Cruz htSQD) in the pro men's race and Rosa Klöser (Canyon-SRAM zondacrypto) and Geerike Schreurs (SD Worx-Protime) in the women's pro competition, with searing sprints between the pairs deciding the gruelling 151.8-mile (244km) race.

"What a day - what a ride," said Klöser in an Instagram post. "Extremely proud and grateful to finish one of the races with one of the most competitive women's fields with a win this year!"

Klöser was crowned after gapping her SD Worx rival on the final corner and then putting down the power to make the most of the advantage. Beers, on the other hand, looked to be on the back foot coming through the final corners given Swenson had determinedly kept him in the front position through the approach. However, even though the South African had been forced into the front spot early he was not going to give it up when it counted most, kicking up the pace a gear as Swenson slipped out of the draft and celebrated on the line in Lincoln, Nebraska.

"That’s a good feeling," said Beers in an Instagram post after clinching the $17,500 winner's prize. "Proper race out there today! Gnarly conditions which made it even more challenging than it already was going to be. But I’m super happy to put this one together - It’s not often I win a sprint so that was nice."

The course of Gravel Worlds, not to be confused with the more recently introduced UCI Gravel World Championships, delivered a packed field of the global top names in off-road racing and had only three miles of pavement in the Nebraska contest. The event was added to the Gravel Earth Series as a +20% scoring event.

It also threw more than 10,000 feet (3048 metres) of climbing into the mix and included eight miles of minimum maintenance roads (MMR) spread through the course. These MMR's were described as dirt in the route reconnaissance video but by race day were more accurately characterised as sticky mud, given the rain that preceded the race.

"A brutal day out there," said Beers in a post race interview. "Obviously the running and the mud made it really hard and really decisive but we played our cards and we attacked in the right spots."

The first mud section of the race, which is also part of the Gravel Earth Series, left Beers on the chase but he made it back and was part of the group fighting for the win, which was initially around 20 strong though ahead of the final muddy section had been whittled down to eight.

A crash in that section took down some more, including Brendan Johnston (Giant) who was left trying to fix his bike before he could get going again, and it was down to just Beers, Swenson, Unbound winner Cameron Jones (Scott-Shimano) and Adam Roberge. Still the Cape Epic partners and firm friends off the bike then left Jones and Roberge behind, with Jones playing a canny hand in the sprint to clinch third place.

The decisive split in the women's pro race happened far earlier, with a group of six after the first mud section at about 20 miles into the racing in Nebraska then in the next Klöser found a smooth line through the grass and established a gap to the rest of the field.

"I turned around and the only person I could see behind was Gee," said Klöser. "So with 200k still to go, having a strong ally, we committed to each other. I waited, Gee returned it 10x by giving me a bottle when I lost mine and stopping and waiting together at feed stops. I loved the punchy rolling roads in Nebraska and I won a sword."

2025 Unbound winner Karolina Migon (PAS Racing) broke away from the group of chasers to take third, crossing the line more than ten minutes after the leading duo.

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