Wout van Aert and Pauliena Rooijakkers win Houffa Gravel

Wout van Aert (Jumbo-Visma) and Pauliena Rooijakkers (Canyon-SRAM) won the 15th event on the 2023 UCI Gravel World Series in Belgium at Houffa Gravel on Saturday.

Van Aert dominated the men’s field on the winding 110km long course, finishing in 3:20:47, nine minutes faster than his closest competitors across the line in Houffalize. Daan Soete outsprinted Paul Voss as the pair took second and third, respectively, and completed the men’s podium.

"I really enjoyed this race and I'm happy to have been able to take the victory. It gives me confidence for championships,” Van Aert said at the finish of his first UCI Gravel event and said he plans to do the UCI Gravel World Championships later this season in Italy.

In the first half of the race at a time check with 45.8km covered, Soete and Voss rode together and were 28 seconds behind Van Aert. The duo carried more than a minute on chasers, Jasper Ockeloen, last year’s winner, and Sascha Weber. Petr Vakoc was another two minutes back in sixth place. Kevin Panhuyzen matched the pace with Vakoc early on but would fade to seventh, riding across the line with Briton’s Ben Thomas. Thijs de  Lange was ninth and Jan Bakelants rounded out the top 10.

Rooijakkers, who won Gravel One Fifty in July on home soil in the Netherlands, finished in a time of 4:04:36. Taking second in the women’s division was Sabrina Stultiens (Liv Racing TeqFind), 1:41 back of her compatriot. Stefanie Dohrn outsprinted Judith Krahl for third place, a little more than six minutes back. Last year's women's winner Tessa Neefjes finished fifth.

The steepest climb of the route approached directly after the start at the Rue du Saint Roch, one of the steep road climbs during Liège-Bastogne-Liège. Riders then hit the first section of gravel 1.6km later and saw only 20% tarmac on the full route as the course used mainly wide-open gravel roads. The 5km sector 27km into the race was one of the more challenging sections, with more technical sectors just after the first-half checkpoint and then with 37km to go.

Houffa Gravel served as the second-to-last qualifier event for the UCI Gravel World Championships. The championships are on the calendar for October 7 and 8 in the Veneto region of Italy, but recent news about a new organiser taking over operations leaves questions as to the venue of the event.