Marianne Vos becomes the first rider to win the gravel world title twice
Vos attacked over the final climb in Nannup, Australia and soloed to the win after Rosa Klöser crashed chasing her down the descent.
Photograph: the view over Nannup from the Tank 7 lookout, by Calistemon, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia CommonsMarianne Vos won the women's elite race at the UCI Gravel World Championships in Nannup, Western Australia, on Saturday, attacking over the top of the final climb and riding away alone for the rainbow jersey. She covered the 125.6 kilometre course, with 3,179 metres of climbing, in 4 hours 30 minutes and 4 seconds.
Vos spent most of the day working alongside Germany's Rosa Klöser, who had punctured on the first climb and later picked up a mechanical but kept fighting back to the front group. The two rode clear together in the closing kilometres. When Vos attacked again at the top of the final ascent, Klöser lost her front wheel trying to follow and crashed, and Vos rode the rest of the way down to Nannup alone. Klöser remounted to finish second, 27 seconds back. Larissa Hartog beat fellow chaser Nele Laing for third, both given the same time, 2 minutes 15 seconds down.
The win makes Vos the first rider to win the gravel world title twice. She won the event's 2024 edition in Leuven, Belgium, then finished second behind Lorena Wiebes in Limburg last year. It also takes her tally of world titles across cycling disciplines to 15. This year's race was the first Gravel World Championships held outside Europe, run on a course that took rain through the morning before the pea gravel dried and loosened for the finale.
"This victory really means a lot to me," Vos said after the finish. She added that Klöser "was incredibly strong, especially on the climbs."
A rider who already held rainbow jerseys in cyclo-cross, road and track just became the first to win a second one on gravel. That is not luck.
Sources: Cyclingnews; Team Visma | Lease a Bike; Cycling Weekly.
