Dutch riders Marianne Vos and Niki Terpstra took out the wins at the latest round of the UCI Gravel World Series round in Sweden, taking victory at the Gravel Grit 'n Grind in Halmstad which delivered the fourteenth round of sixteen across the series.
The 133km race delivered 1210 metres of vertical elevation as it ran through the woods and lakes around Halmstad, starting with the climbs early – in fact less than five kilometres into the race.
In the women's race it came down to retired mountain biker Annika Langvad (Specialized Racing XC) and Vos, who has just finished a heavy road block that has taken her through from the Giro d'Italia Donne at the start of July to the Tour de France Femmes and the Road World Championships.
The gravel, however, is where she got to taste victory with the accomplished multi-discipline rider crossing the line with a four-second advantage to Langvad. It was a shift up the Gravel World Series results sheet for Vos this year, as when she dipped in mid-July she took fourth at the Gravel One Fifty in the Netherlands though that result was delivered right between the prestigious Italian and French stage races, which would not doubt have remained her focus.
