Tessa Neefjes takes out Gravel World Series Millau race

Race Results
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Jade Treffeisen comes second overall in women's category of 130km race, the first European stop in new series

Wish One Gravel Race / Trek UCI Gravel World Series
Wish One Gravel Race / Trek UCI Gravel World Series (Image credit: Wish One Gravel Race/ Trek UCI Gravel World Series)

Tessa Neefjes took the overall women’s victory at the Millau round of the Trek UCI Gravel World Series, with the Giant Liv Benelux Offroad Team rider coming over the line with a clear margin to Jade Treffeisen (Team Embrace the World) to take out the first European round of the new series.

The pair were untouchable in the 130km race in the Aveyron region of France, stretching out a gap to their rivals as they rode together before Neefjes got away. The Dutch rider came over the line alone completing the loop with 2000m of elevation gain, that started and finished in Millau, in 5 hours, thirty six minutes and fifty three seconds. 

“I really loved the Wish One Gravel Race course. It was a wonderful combination of road cycling, mountain biking, beach racing and a bit of cyclo-cross," said Neefjes. 

"It started with a big climb, there was another gravel climb and at the end there were some more technical parts. I went up the last climb with a German rider [Treffeisen], who I was able to shake off on a kind of slope just before the finish."

The race is the third in the new UCI Gravel World Series, with the first places having taken place in Bongabon, Philippines in April with Melisa Jane Jaroda winning the women’s overall. The second was in Nannup, Australia where Maria Madigan made it three victories in the row at the long-running Seven gravel race.

The next round of the UCI Gravel World Series is later this month, on June 18, in  Świeradów-Zdrój, Poland before the racing moves onto the United States, in Fayetteville on June 25. 

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Results - Top ten women overall
Pos.Rider Name (Country) TeamResult
1Tessa Neefjes (Giant Liv Benelux Offroad Team) 5:36:53
2Jade Treffeisen (Team Embrace The World) 0:01:32
3Emma Porter 0:14:52
4Pauline Sabin (Wish One Racing) 0:17:42
5Marie-Louise Biard (Wish One Racing) 0:19:17
6Virginia Cancelliere (Orbea Factory Team) 0:23:14
7Madeleine Nutt (Team Spectra Wiggle p/b Vitus 0:34:09
8Charlotte Simond 0:42:01
9Solene Flurian 0:42:44
10Marie Lagershausen (Team Embrace the World) 0:59:43
Simone Giuliani
Simone Giuliani
Australia Editor

Simone is a degree-qualified journalist that has accumulated decades of wide-ranging experience while working across a variety of leading media organisations. She joined Cyclingnews as a Production Editor at the start of the 2021 season and has now moved into the role of Australia Editor. Previously she worked as a freelance writer, Australian Editor at Ella CyclingTips and as a correspondent for Reuters and Bloomberg. Cycling was initially purely a leisure pursuit for Simone, who started out as a business journalist, but in 2015 her career focus also shifted to the sport.

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