Dutch riders Paulina Rooijakkers (Canyon-SRAM) and Sam Gademan (Allinq Continental Cycling) won Gravel One Fifty on home soil Saturday. The race across northern Netherlands is one of the original events on the UCI Gravel World Series, which began last year.
Rooijakkers, fresh off a 12th-place finish on GC at Giro d’Italia Donne, took an early solo lead over defending champion Carolin Schiff and continued to gain time at each checkpoint to finish the 150km route in 4:32:33. Schiff finished six minutes and 14 seconds back in second place.
Marianne Vos went head-to-head in a finish sprint against Dutch compatriot Moniek Tenniglo, with Tenniglo grabbing the final podium spot for women.
In the men’s category, Gademan outsprinted Jonas Lindberg, who was one second back. The duo matched each other at all four checkpoints in the race, with the Dutch 22-year-old surging at the line to finish in 4:12:05, one second ahead of the Dane.
Retired pro road cyclist Piotr Havik, who was third in the race last year, worked his way back from a two-minute deficit in the early segments and crossed the line shortly after the leading duo for a repeat of third. The trio swept both the overall podium and the male 19-34 age category top three.
This year’s 150km flat route began in Roden, a new location at the border of the three northern provinces of The Netherlands (Groningen, Friesland and Drenthe). It featured just 267m of elevation, with a track meandering through several small villages across a mix of dirt roads, gravel roads and grass sections.
A total of 1,316 riders from 25 different countries registered for the two ride options at the event, including a shorter 80km race, and it delivered a third sold-out stop for the UCI Gravel World Series this season.
Among the notable Dutch riders in the men’s field included Ryan Kamp in sixth, Thomas Mein in 12th, Joris Nieuwenhuis 13th, Michael Vanthourenhout 14th, Eli Iserbyt 16th. In the field for women from the Netherlands were Tessa Neefjes in seventh and Manon Bakker in 17th.
Four events in the 2023 UCI Gravel World Series remain before the UCI Gravel World Championships on October 7-8 in Veneto, Italy. The next event takes place July 22 in Poland, Gravel Adventure.
See full Gravel One Fifty results here.
