Melisa Rollins (Liv Racing Collective) and Brennan Wertz (Scott Sport) emerged from small lead teams to say their first victories at SBT GRVL offered by Wahoo in Hayden, Colorado on Sunday.
Rollins outsprinted two-time SBT winner Lauren De Crescenzo (Issue Racing Wahoo) for the elite ladies’s win, making her transfer within the remaining right-hand flip lower than 200 metres earlier than the road to finish the 116.9-mile Black course in 5 hours, 36 minutes, 55 seconds.
“I received! I have been working so onerous on my dash too, however I knew getting steam first within the final flip was going to be actually, actually essential. I feel the pavement to grime there can have numerous crashes and I wished to not crash,” Rollins instructed Cyclingnews after the technical flip.
“I have been making an attempt to be a little bit extra affected person and never use all my matches without delay. I really took numerous inspiration from Lauren Stevens, as a result of I do know she’s been doing this a very long time, and he or she’s all the time actually sensible, so I attempted to type of watch and mimic what she was doing. I feel it paid off.”
The 2024 Leadville Traill 100 winner was certainly affected person, and never solely outsprinted De Crescenzo, but in addition held off defending ladies’s champion Stephens (Aegis Biking Basis), who took third at 31 seconds again. Sporting the stars-and-stripes because the reigning US gravel nationwide champion, Stephens held off Sarah Lange (Pivot Cycles-Velocio) by 4 seconds. The five-rider podium was accomplished by Paige Onweller (Trek Driftless), who repeated a fifth-place end from a yr in the past.
Within the males’s race, the US gravel nationwide champion emerged from a five-rider group with a solo transfer within the remaining 2 miles. He pushed via a relentless headwind to cross the road solo, in 4 hours, 56 minutes, 19 seconds. Three-time SBT winner Keegan Swenson (Santa Cruz Bicycles) took up the chase and in the long run needed to maintain off a charging 23-year-old Cobe Freeburn (MAAP) to earn second place, the duo ending seven seconds behind Wertz.
“That is my favourite race yearly. It is actually one in every of my favourite locations to trip a gravel bike. This can be a race I’ve wished to win since 2021 after I first got here so it is an enormous honor to take this one. To do it within the stars and stripes makes it all of the extra stunning,” Wertz instructed Cyclingnews on the end earlier than accepting a $5,000 high money prize and the coveted Stetson cowboy hat.
Alexey Vermeulen (ENVE Composites) and Peter Stetina (Canyon) accomplished the five-rider podium, with Vermeulen simply 3 seconds behind the Swenson-Freeburn battle. With fifth place at 47 seconds off the tempo, Stetina now has 4 high 5’s since 2021. Final yr’s runner-up Torbjørn Røed (Trek Bikes-MAAP) was sixth.
A brand new Black Course took centre stage on Sunday with a 37-mile circuit lined 3 times by the professionals for 116.9 miles. Three main climbs on every lap from Hayden, 25 miles west from Steamboat Springs, added as much as 8,245 toes of elevation achieve.
The rolling terrain featured quick descents between the climbs and distant expanses of ranch lands on combined surfaces of packed gravel and tarmac in rural Routt County, the elevation by no means falling under 6,585 toes above sea stage. There have been few locations to flee the brilliant sunshine and windy circumstances on the high-altitude endurance take a look at within the Rocky Mountains, with temperatures tipping at 82°F (28°C).
The Professional Males started at 8:15 am with the Professional Girls taking to the course 5 minutes later, and each fields finishing three laps. Earlier within the morning the newbie divisions and the brand new GRVL® Femmes Staff Problem individuals departed from the identical begin/end for 2 full laps, a complete of 79 miles.
Extra to return…
Melisa Rollins (centre) celebrates on the SBT GRVL podium as the ladies’s elite winner, sharing a bathe of glowing wine alongside Lauren De Crescenzo, Lauren Stephens, Sarah Lange and Paige Onweller (Picture credit score: Future / Jackie Tyson)
