Marianne Vos (Visma-Lease a Bike) gave her Gravel World Championships jersey its first race outing last weekend at 3RIDES Aachen, taking it right to the top step of the women's podium at the German round of the UCI Gravel World Series.
Vos won the 122km race, which ran on a 61km loop featuring 65% gravel and 790m of elevation gain on each circuit, crossing the line after three hours, 37 minutes and 10 seconds with a gap of 2:25 to a chasing group of three.
The rider, who won the rainbow jersey in October, had already taken off from her rivals by the second half of the first lap. Behind Larissa Hartog (ZZPR.nl Orange Babies) sprinted to second ahead of Romy Kasper (Human Powered Health) while Irina Lützelschwab (Team Bulls Schweiz) was fourth.
In the men’s race, a leading group of seven charged toward the finish, with Niels Vandeputte (Alpecin-Deceuninck) taking the victory after having just stepped into the discipline for the first time at the Marly Gravel Race weeks earlier. The 24-year-old sprinted to the line ahead of Jonas Koch (Red Bull-Bora Hansgrohe) and Felix Stehli (Team Vorarlberg).
The racing on Saturday started with a shower, but the weather then cleared as the field of around 1,600 riders raced through the Eifel region. However, conditions took a turn for the worse on Sunday, resulting in the cancellation of the following 3RIDES Gran Fondo for safety reasons.
The UCI Gravel World Series event in Germany was the final round of the six UCI Gravel World Championships qualifying rounds, which took place throughout May. The calendar is packed with another six events again through June.
| Position | Rider | Time |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Marianne Vos | 3:37:10 |
| 2 | Larissa Hartog | +2:25 |
| 3 | Romy Kasper | +2:25 |
| 4 | Irina Lützelschwab | +2:26 |
| 5 | Leonie Bentveld | +4:58 |
| Position | Rider | Time |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Niels Vandeputte | 3:11:14 |
| 2 | Jonas Koch | +04 |
| 3 | Felix Stehl | +04 |
| 4 | Frits Biesterbos | +08 |
| 5 | Kevin Panhuyzen | +11 |
