It all came down to a sprint at the Safari Gravel race with Lawrence Lorot (Team Amani) and Claudette Nyirarukundo (Team Amani) claiming the UCI Gravel World Series race set in the Hell's Gate National Park, Kenya.
It was a step up from last year for Nyirarukundo, who in 2025 finished second to Haley Smith at the challenging 111km event with 85% gravel and surfaces that range from red clay to single track and game trails. This year the Rwandan got the better of Canada's Sarah Diekmeyer in a tight battle to the line in the women's elite race. Austria's Theresa Rindler-Bachl (Megamo) was third, more than ten minutes further back.
In the elite men's race Lorot took his first UCI Gravel World Series win in his first gravel race of the year where, after coming straight from a road block in Mauritius, he prevailed despite a difficult start.
"In the first kilometres my saddle went down and I had to chase back," said Lorot in an Instagram post.
It was then Black Mamba Development squad riders who took the next steps of the podium as Stanley Ngugi sprinted to second, finishing a second back from Lorot. Ivan Kipruto was then just 18 seconds back from the winning time of 3:29:04, in third.
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Results
Position |
Rider |
Time |
1 |
Lawrence Lorot |
03:29:04 |
2 |
Stanley Ngugi |
+01 |
3 |
Ivan Kipruto |
+18 |
4 |
Jordan Schleck |
+2:15 |
5 |
Benard Bendard |
+3:38 |
Position |
Rider |
Time |
1 |
Claudette Nyirarukundo |
04:16:52 |
2 |
Sarah Diekmeyer |
+01 |
3 |
Therese Rindler-Bachl |
+10:31 |
4 |
Kendra Masiga |
+12:39 |
5 |
Jelimo Monica |
+25:53 |
