UCI Gravel World Series: Rosa Klöser takes commanding victory at Hegau Gravel Festival

Rosa Klöser (Canyon-SRAM zondacrypto) and Mathijs Loman (ASD SWATT Club) scored impressive victories at the Hegau Gravel Festival in Germany on Sunday. In a second edition of the German UCI Gravel World Series event, solid fields completed two laps on a course almost the same as last year, for a total of 108km and 1,900 metres of elevation gain.

It was the second UCI Gravel World Championships qualifier win for Klöser in two weeks, coming off a top finish at Eislek Gravel in Luxembourg. She rode at the front of the race from the start and opened a gap after 20km to Mariëlle Trouwborst (KMC Mountainbike team) and Nicole Frain (Ridley Racing Team), who went into chase mode.

Once on the second lap, Klöser had a five-minute gap and then extended her lead, finishing in a time of 3 hours, 33 minutes, 18 seconds. Sophie Wright (Ribble Outliers), who won last week's Gravel Suisse, made a strong move from the field on the second lap and finished second, 7:25 down. Trouwborst, fourth at Gravel Suisse, rode another 5:19 back for third.

Trouwborst would roll across the line in 10th, under a minute behind one of the pre-race favourites and local rider Jade Treffeisen (Canyon Factory Racing), who was ninth.

"Happy to take the win today at the UCI Gravel Series in Singen. I set a hard pace pretty much from the start to thin out the group, and after 10km in the race, together with Nicole Frain and Mariëlle Trouwborst, we managed to get a selection of three riders after a climb. After 20km on a grass climb, I managed to get away and pushed hard all the way till the finish," the former Unbound Gravel 200 champion said on a social post about the victory Sunday. At Unbound this year, she was fourth.

In the elite men's race, the first lap saw 16 riders massed together and marking any moves. Three riders escaped on the second half of the race, Loman accelerating with last year's winner Jonas Koch (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe) and Felix Stehli (TeamVorarlberg).

Loman saved enough in his legs to out-sprint Koch at the finish, winning in 3 hours, 10 minutes, 45 seconds. Stehli secured third, 29 seconds back. In the extended podium, Stehli's teammate Geismayr pushed across the line ahead of 2024 runner-up Vakoč for fourth place.

"Had a blast racing at Gravel World Series Singen. Couldn’t repeat my win from last year, but happy with my second second place in this year's gravel campaign, especially after a crash early in the race," Koch said on his Instagram page.

For Loman, the victory Sunday was the Dutchman's sixth top 5 in a Gravel World Series event this season. Two weeks ago, he joined Klöser as a winner at Eislek Gravel.

The next round of the UCI Gravel World Series will be held in Roden, Netherlands for Gravel One Fifty on July 12.

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