Rosa Klöser has claimed the win on the Unbound Gravel 200 professional ladies’s race, sprinting to victory on the gruelling occasion by means of the Flint Hills of Kansas to take probably the most prestigious title within the gravel world.
The 203 mile (327 km) race with 11,850 ft (3,612m) of climbing ended with a lead group of 9 heading into the ultimate mile and, whereas it broke up slightly within the technical run in, the race ended with a dash battle for the rostrum placings.
Klöser bought the hole on the sprint to the end line in Emporia, Kansas, crossing forward of Geerike Schreurs (SD Worx-ProTime) who took out second place and in third it was Paige Onweller (Trek-Drftlss).
Klöser, who has solely been racing bikes for 2 and a half years, discovered herself within the mixture of the ladies’s greatest riders on the world’s greatest stage for gravel racing with 54 miles to go. However after the second checkpoint at Council Grove, she crashed after which misplaced extra time when she couldn’t get her Co2 to work with a flat tyre.
“I advised myself I’m going to die making an attempt to shut this hole again, and I made it. I solely misplaced round two minutes to the lead ladies. I closed the hole and was fairly cooked,” the 27-year-old Dane mentioned on the end.
“In the long run I knew that I had a reasonably OK dash after a protracted day trip, I’m undoubtedly not a pure sprinter,” she laughed. “Within the closing nook, I used to be in fairly an OK place after which I saved going. I may inform nobody was coming shut once I was within the entrance after which I gained!”
It was a debut at Unbound Gravel 200 for each Klöser and runner-up Schreurs, and each are comparatively new to gravel racing.
“Nobody actually is aware of me. Truly I’m nonetheless a full-time PhD [student] and do biking, or skilled racing, half time. It’s been going fairly effectively,” mentioned Klöser, who earlier than Unbound had been a podium common in quite a few UCI Gravel World Collection rounds and likewise got here third on the Traka 200 final month. “And I feel an Unbound victory is wonderful. I nonetheless don’t consider it. It’s slowly starting to sink in.”
The 2024 Unbound was a quick version of the race on the north course, because the roads dried out so there was little to be seen of the dreaded peanut butter mud that riders had been coming throughout in reconnaissance rides, with Klöser ending with a time of 10:26:02.
Final yr’s solo winner Carolin Schiff (Canyon CLLCTV) got here sixth within the dash end whereas 2022 winner and 2023 runner-up Sofia Gomez-Villafañe (Specialised) came visiting the road in fifteenth place, 12:28 again from the winner.
Villafañe mentioned she didn’t get to benefit from the ladies’s race very a lot, which noticed no males among the many foremost contenders, due to two flat tyres and a mechanical, however merely said, ‘that’s bike racing’.
The way it unfolded
The ladies mentioned goodbye to Emporia in entrance of the Granada Theatre at 6:05 a.m. CDT with cool, overcast skies and dry situations. It was the primary time within the 16 years since ladies had competed within the 200-mile occasion (there have been solely 37 males the primary yr) that their area had a big time hole for a devoted begin – quarter-hour after the professional males and 25 minutes forward of the 1,200-plus amateurs.
The entire distance, 202.8 miles, included 11,849 ft of elevation acquire, 2,000 greater than the yr earlier than. There have been no latest downpours to transform the gravel roads into mud pits or creeks into rivers, the tempo was excessive from opening miles.
By means of the opening 40 miles, the vast majority of the 61-rider area nonetheless packed collectively on the entrance, together with Carolin Schiff, Sarah Sturm, Lauren De Crescenzo, Hannah Otto, Paige Onweller, Tiffany Cromwell, Geerike Schreurs and Heather Jackson. Sofia Gomez Villafañe, who had a flat tyre, led a second group of seven riders 40 seconds again, and so they had been all collectively 15 miles later.
The small city of Alma at mile 70 served as the primary of two checkpoints, the place riders had been authorised to obtain help for something from vitamin to mechanical help, and it was additionally the launching level for the brand new climbing sections on Divide Street. Right here, the lead pack had been lower in half, now 31 riders surged forward of any chasers by a full minute. Otto, Jackson, Sturm, Onweller and Minori Minagawa set the tempo on the entrance, final yr’s high two riders Schiff and Villafañe marking one another in eleventh and twelfth locations.
The lead group pounded out a gentle tempo and speeds averaging shut to twenty mph as they crossed the northern-most part of the course, nonetheless a ladies’s-only race at this level. With 80 miles lined, 22 remained out entrance, the tempo pushed by De Crescenzo. Caroline Tory dangled off the again whereas Anna Hicks appeared to battle a bit from a mechanical subject. Isabel King led a chase group of 4 riders with a niche of 1:12.
De Crescenzo opened a small hole on the best way to Little Egypt, the roughest highway of the route, which riders method from a brand new path this yr. The 2022 Unbound 200 winner opened a sizeable hole of 1:44 on that part, with 10 riders left to chase, however Schiff fell off the again of that group.
Remnants of the unique lead group had been scattered throughout the highway after Little Egypt, together with Cromwell, two and half minutes again, and Villafañe, 4:39 again.
The ‘water oasis’ at mile 112 in Alta Vista noticed De Crescenzo using solo with a bonus of simply 46 seconds to 11 riders – Sturm, Rosa Klöser, Otto, Jackson, Schreurs, Schiff, Onweller, Jenna Rinehart, Alexis Skarda, Haley Smith and Sarah Lange. Cromwell was chasing with Danni Shrosbree and Whitney Allison one other 2:55 again and Villafañe was eight minutes again.
De Crescenzo was caught and Rinehart dropped on the crunchy, twisting roads 20 miles later, now there have been 11 riders on the entrance of the race.
As soon as by means of the ultimate checkpoint at Council Grove with 54 miles to go, the temperature warmed beneath sunny skies and the warmth was on for the ten riders nonetheless driving the tempo, this time Klöser misplaced contact going over Kahola Hill, however she quickly rejoined.
On the closing time test on the water oasis with 14 miles to go, De Crescenzo went to the entrance with Otto, Jackson, Schiff, Smith, Sturm, Klöser, Schreurs and Onweller. The race continued to carry a excessive tempo because the gravel pale to the pavement within the closing 10 miles again to Emporia.
Behind, Lange and Skarda chased two minutes in arrears. Shrosbree rode alone seven minutes behind the lead group, Rinehart was eight minutes again and Villafañe was 12 minutes down.
