The Traka 360: Tobias Kongstad devours men's field with solo breakaway while Karolina Migoń wins with late attack

Tobias Kongstad (PAS Racing) and Karolina Migoń (PAS Racing) blitzed through The Traka 360, claiming the victories in the men's and women's fields, respectively.

In the men's race, Kongstad separated from a small lead group of elite men after 200 kilometres and rode solo for nearly five hours for the victory at The Traka 360 on Friday. He covered the 358.5km course in 11 hours, 37 minutes, 30 seconds. 

From the closest chase group, Jan Stöckli outsprinted Simen Nordahl Svendsen (PAS Racing) to round out the top three, 5:29 back. Benjamin Perry was able to make separation from across the final section of singletrack from three other riders and took fourth, another four minutes behind Svendsen.

Last year's winner in the men's division of Queen distance of The Traka, Peter Stetina completed the race 11:30 off the winning pace in seventh, riding behind Ande Koster and Mattia De Marchi.

The victory marks a third trip to The Traka 360 for the Danish winner, who was second in his debut in 2023 and was fifth last year. This marks the biggest racing success of Kongstad's career so far, who was third at Unbound Gravel 200 in 2024.

The first half of the men's race saw Stetina, Stöckli, De Marchi, Perry, Koster, Torbjørn Andre Røed and Arno van den Broeck among the leaders before Kongstad made his move, which he called "a stupid attack". 

"Probably when I did a stupid attack with 160 kilometres to go in the headwind alone. I didn't want to pull the mountain guys on the flat and they shouldn't benefit from me. So I thought if I went solo they would have to catch me," Kongstad about the key moment of the race for him, which was about six and a half hours into the endurance contest.

Once Kongstad had six minutes to his advantage with just under 50km to go, Perry, De Marchi and Stöckli formed a trio and they looked like they would fight for the final podium spots. But then Stockli joined forces with a surging Svendsen and they drove on together.

"He went full gas, in this moment we weren't sure and it was still a long way," Stöckli said at the finish on the live stream."Yeah, he managed to finish this and it was amazing what he did."

The Traka 360, a distance introduced into the mix in 2021. The race with 3,700m of elevation gain headed north from Girona and toward the climb of Mas Patiras, working its way back to the south and the Gavarres mountains, and more climbing including Els Metges, before returning to Girona.

Elite Women

Migoń successfully defended her title in the women's Traka 360, attacking out of the final water crossing to leave behind Axelle Dubau-Prévôt (Numéro 31 par Café du Cycliste) and Sarah Sturm (Specialized) to win Europe's biggest gravel race.

Sturm, who was second at 2023 Traka 360 and third last year, finished third again, losing touch with Dubau-Prévôt, who won La Bescanonina Gravel in Spain in February in the final run-in to the finish.

The three riders had a fierce battle over the final kilometres, with Migoń launching an attack on the final climb on doubletrack with 10km to go. 

First, Dubau-Prévôt bridged back to the Polish rider, and after the paved descent Sturm clawed her way back, bringing the race down to three in the lead heading into the final singletrack.

Migoń gained the front before entering the singletrack, then powered out of the final water crossing and was out of sight of the chasing duo before long. In the end, Sturm had to concede to Dubau-Prévôt.

"We knew that there are some less strong girls in the group, so we dropped them, and then we just worked together till the end of the day," Migoń said. "We tried our best on the climbs, but then we were equally strong. So then it was played out in the last 2k."

Dubau-Prévôt briefly spoke about one of the dropped men's riders getting in her way on the singletrack, while Sturm was disappointed with yet another third place.

"I felt so good today. I mean, not the whole time, but it was just disappointing after fighting for it, I just didn't have the snap for the sprint.

"I'm trying not to think about the result again, but because the day was actually quite good and I'm proud of the race that I had. It was pretty hectic - a lot of the men kept mixing in. And eventually it was really chaotic, missing turns, and people got caught up in crashes and yeah, so I'm happy to have stayed safe the whole day. 

"By the end, the men just sat on our wheels and we just pulled them, and the four of us rotated, and unfortunately, Gee [Geerike Schreurs] had to drop out of the aid station because of maybe a broken hand. It kind of flew by, because there was so much going on - it's not the result [I wanted] but a good day."

Danni Shrosbree (Argon18) and Heather Jackson (Canyon-Herbalife) chased for the last half the race behind the three leaders, rounding out the top five.

Race favourite Geerike Schreurs (SD Worx-Protime), who was second at The Traka 360 last year, withdrew with less than 80km to race as a result of an early crash. Five hours into the race and with 120km covered, Schreurs crashed hard on a rocky section when a rider went down in front of her.

She chased back to the front group of Migoń, Sturm and Dubau-Prevot for another couple of hours, but she stopped twice for medics to check her hand, the second time after passing the 280km mark withdrawing from the race to be taken to hospital.

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