Women's podium with Tessa Neefjes first, Stefania Dohrn second and Jade Treffeisen thirdat the Houffa Gravel race in Belgium, part of the 2022 UCI Gravel World Series
(Image credit: Yuzzu Houffa Gravel)
Waiting for the Houffa Gravel race in Belgium to begin
(Image credit: Yuzzu Houffa Gravel)
Start of the race with Tess Neefjes in black at right of picture
(Image credit: Yuzzu Houffa Gravel)
Svenja Betz in pursuit at the Houffa Gravel race in Belgium, part of the 2022 UCI Gravel World Series
(Image credit: Yuzzu Houffa Gravel)
Tessa Neefjes (Giant Liv Benelux Offroad Team) took out her second Gravel World Series round at Houffa Gravel in Belgium, sprinting to victory at the end of the 110km race which radiated out from the mountain bike city of Houffalize.
The Dutch rider, who also won in Millau, France, came over the line just ahead of Canyon Northwave MTB team rider Stefanie Dohrn, while 2019 marathon MTB German champion Janine Schneider came third.
The Gravel World Series Race started with the road climb of the Rue du Saint Roch – 1km at 10.8% average gradient with a maximum of 16% – immediately stretching out the largest field of the series so far, with 1,200 entered across the men's and women's categories from 19 nations.
Dohrn had pulled away early, at one time stretching the gap to Neefjes, Schneider and Jade Treffeisen to four minutes. However, the trio worked their way back to Dohrn, leaving it down to a sprint for victory.
"The pace was a bit too high for me in the beginning, also because I had had a somewhat tough training week in the Ardennes, said Neefjes in a team release. "After that I rode my own pace and then I was able to pick up the brakes in front of me one by one. One rider was still ahead and I thought I was actually riding for second place with two others. But I rode the sprint of my life."
The race is a qualifier for the first UCI Gravel World Championships in Veneto Italy on October 8-9 and sits as the seventh round of the Gravel World Series. There are still races in Italy and Australia on September 3 and 4 and the final rounds in the Netherlands and Spain are on September 17 and 18.
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Top ten results - Women's overall 110km
Pos.
Rider Name (Country) Team
Result
1
Tessa Neefjes
4:23:03
2
Stefanie Dohrn
0:00:02
3
Janine Schneider
0:00:13
4
Jade Treffeisen
5
Eva Lechner
0:01:10
6
Fabienne Schaus
0:04:50
7
Svenja Betz
0:11:41
8
Darcie Richards
0:13:09
9
Maaike Coljé
0:15:23
10
Jannitta van den Brink
0:15:42
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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.
