Italian Matteo Fontana (Swatt Club) won the inaugural, four-day Sahara Gravel stage race in Morocco, going head to head with Petr Vakoč (Canyon CLLCTV) in the opening two stages until moving away on stage 3 with a significant time gap for the GC victory.
Payson McElveen had one stage win and was never off the podium in the other three days which put him third overall, with an 11-minute gap over fourth-placed Mathijs Loman of the Netherlands.
Thomas De Gendt, who retired from a two-decade WorldTour career last year, made his gravel debut at Santa Vall last month, where he said "I need to learn everything again" after finishing in the top 30 in the two-day Spanish stage race. In Morocco, he finished third on stage 3 and despite a crash on stage 4 he was fifth overall.
The 2024 Migration Gravel Race runner-up Luise Valentin (Enough Cycling) won the women's GC, overtaking Queen stage winner Maddy Nutt (Lauf) on stage 3 and holding a solid margin after the overall finish in Morocco. USA's Sara Diekmeyer (Enough Cycling) accumulated four third-place finishes so took third on GC.
Participants bike-packed to the starting village of Ouarzazate and began the 445km journey through the Sahara Desert on February 25. The climbing built up to more than 4500 metres, most of that on the second day. Luggage transfers were provided for competitors each night to a local hotel or nomad camp, with breakfast and dinner at each stop, and each day concluded with podiums on a sand dune.
"The four stages took us through breathtaking landscapes, across everything from champagne gravel and tarmac to deep sand and rocky roads," said winner Valentin in an Instagram post. "Each stage was surprising and impressive in its own way."
Stage 1 was 99km and 950 metres of elevation gain on rugged roads in the Anti-Atlas Mountains, where in the men's category Fontana and Vakoc marked each other for a final desert dual at the finish line, taken by the Italian. Close to six minutes back, another sprint developed for third place, Nathan Haas edging McElveen at the line.
The Queen stage of the event was day two which brought 1,650 metres of elevation gain across 102km. McElveen had a mechanical early on the short course, but used a final descent to close down time on the two leaders, Fontana repeating a sprint win over Vakoc.
"Two stages, two wins," said Fontana on Instagram at the halfway point of the race. "Epic routes, amazing landscapes and hard racing!
"I can’t believe that I’m finally able to prove my worth after all the ups and downs, the crash and the injuries of these past years," he added as he looked ahead with hope that he would be able to hold on to the GC lead through to the end.
Then on stage 3's 95km route Fontana was able to pull out even more time, finishing 3:25 ahead of Vakoc to carve out a significant buffer for the final day of racing. McElveen took the stage win in a sprint against Fontana, and Vakoc remained several minutes back in a three-rider chase group. Thomas De Gendt crossed the line in third with Vakoc edging Fontana's road teammate Mathijs Loman for fourth.
The Czech rider, who was second overall at Santa Vall in February, grabbed the stage 4 win having distanced McElveen by 10 seconds, Loman by 22 seconds and Fontana by 38 seconds.
Fontana has had a low-key two seasons in gravel racing, with top 10s in two appearances at The Traka 360. He was third at Castellon Gravel Race in February, a round of the UCI Gravel World Series which was won by Alejandro Valverde.
In the women's competition, Valentin distanced Nutt by four minutes for the early lead on stage 1, then Nutt turned the tables on Valentin to win the Queen stage by nearly 11 minutes, thanks mainly to her descending skills off climbs.
Valentin took the GC lead back on stage 3 with an 11-minute margin for the stage win, and closed it out with the stage 4 victory as well.
"I tried my best to make the race interesting, as with Luise leading GC she just needed to sit on my wheel to maintain her position," said Nutt in an Instagram post after the final stage. "My attacks into the headwind were predictably unsuccessful and at the end she was the stronger rider through the deep sand and headwind in the final 10km."
