Carolin Schiff (Canyon Cllctv) and Paul Voss (Autsaid) won the German Gravel Championships on Sunday, but it wasn't without multiple crashes for both victors and some controversy in the women's race.
It was a second consecutive elite women's gravel national title for Schiff, while Voss took his first national prize on gravel. It was his second national championship in a long career that began as a junior more than 20 years ago, which saw him win as a junior in cyclocross in 2004.
The women's field was whittled down to a final uphill sprint between former Unbound Gravel 200 champions, 2023 winner Schiff edging 2024 winner Rosa Klöser (Rose-MAAP) by three seconds. Janine Schneider (Embrace The World) crossed the finish in Daun in third place, almost 10 minutes behind.
"I'm super happy to be German Gravel Champion for another year. It was a tough race with some ups and downs for me - physically and mentally," said Schiff on her social media accounts, eluding to two falls during the race that put her in chase mode until the final 18 kilometres.
Kloser took to Instagram to recap the race, noting that she grabbed a solo lead for the elite women's division after the opening 39km of the 123km contest, and held a margin of around 2 minutes with under 30km to go. Due to a mass start with the elite men, she said Schiff was able to take a pull from one of the men and close her down for a final sprint, where she "had nothing left".
"Eventually I was closed down after the longest stretch of road of the entire race with 18km to go by the winner being brought back by a strong man. It was a hard pill to swallow after being up front all day but it is not against the rules in a mixed-gender race. In the final uphill sprint, I had nothing left," she wrote on Instagram.
"Hope that BDR-German Cycling Federation will give the women a separate race in the upcoming year creating a more exciting, safe and fair environment for everyone. Happy with my shape and am staying motivated. It was amazing to see many friendly faces out at the nationals and have my family support me all the way!"
Drafting from a rider in another division was within the rules of the race, as noted by Klöser, but women are getting accustomed to new rules to prevent the mixing of categories to make it a true women's only race.
Unlike the growing number of gravel championship races around the globe, the German event holds a mass start with all elite riders, men and women, taking the course together. All athletes compete on the varied terrain across the Eifel Volcanic region in the western part of the country with 2,700 meters of elevation gain. Much of the route was used for marathon mountain bike racing, which Schiff noted had muddy sections and steep climbs to make it a technical outing.
Australia, Canada, Great Britain and the United States are among the countries which provide separate starts for elite women and elite men at gravel nationals, the separation ranging from five minutes to 20 minutes for the same course. The UCI Gravel World Championships will continue to provide separate events for the elites on different days, though the distances are different between the two categories.
When Schiff made her winning move at Unbound Gravel 200 two years ago, she accelerated from a small pack of leading pro women onto the wheels of several pro men and worked in that group with 60 miles to go to stay away for the victory. She was well within the rules as they were mandated that year and other women also crossed the finish line with either pro or amateur men.
Since then, many races in the US, including Unbound Gravel and events in the Life Time Grand Prix, have moved away from mixed-gender mass starts to reduce, or eliminate, issues where drafting becomes a negative dynamic. This year in Emporia, Kansas there was a 25-minute gap between the elite men and the elite women, which allowed the front pack of women to contest for a sprint finish without encroaching circumstances with men's fields.
Schiff is known for a strong engine in long races and overcame two early crashes in Sunday's race to work her way back to the front with Klöser. It was Schiff's sixth gravel victory of the season, three of those coming at UCI Gravel World Series events and one at The Traka 200.
Voss crashed four times at the German Nationals, but won with a 1:48 advantage over Sascha Weber (Trek-Snooze VSD) and 2:51 ahead of defending champion Lukas Baum (Orbea-Leatt-Speed Company).
"I was crashing too many times (like I have lost my ability to handle my bike) and the MTB guys made my life so hard in descents that I was really struggling to hold their wheels. But luckily my legs were good enough to always come back and being able to drop them all at one point to get that jersey," said Voss on his Instagram account.
