It was, quite simply, a dream day on the bike for European champion Mads Würtz Schmidt at The Traka 360 where, after clinching the 200 last year, he decided to see what he could do in the 360 and vaulted right to the top step there as well.
There was no doubting just what the win meant for the Danish rider, who celebrated with a swig from The Traka labelled sparkling bottle but, after the initial jubilation, then also looked very ready to sit back in the podium placer deckchair as he waited for his rivals to come through and processed what he'd just done.
"That was surely a day to remember. Yet it all seems like a big blur. I’m tired. Very very tired!," was his assessment on Instagram.
He had, however, made it look easy out on the course, with the intense and focussed training he'd been putting in since January reaping one of the biggest rewards in gravel.
It took just nine hours, 57 minutes and 38 seconds for Würtz Schmidt to claim victory at The Traka 360, which, after course changes this year, was actually 325km long, and he carved out a gap of more than 11 minutes to second-placed Hugo Drechou (Gravel Nation) while Specialized Off-Road teammate Matthew Beers was just a little further back in third.
It wasn't that nothing went wrong for Würtz Schmidt – that's rarely the scenario in such a long race – but even when a wheel change quickly followed by a wrong-turn left him having to chase back to the front of the race, he never skipped a beat.
"I felt amazing," Würtz Schmidt told Cyclingnews while in the crowd after the event. "I said to Matt early on, that today I don't feel my legs. I had an incredible day and I was able to do what I wanted, because I really had the legs."
He was in the front group with his teammate Beers but then launched with Drechou.
"We wanted to put pressure on the climbs in the north, so it was all about being patient and waiting until that moment," Würtz Schmidt added.
Having an ally out front was useful initially but at around 95km to go, according to the live stream figures, the European gravel champion decided it was time to go it alone.
"I could see and feel that he was starting to struggle, so I was waiting for a long time and then just went my own pace from there," he said. "I've never felt like this before and I could just keep pushing the whole day."
As impressive as the effort and the victory was, it's not one he plans to replicate at The Traka again in 2027.
"I'm back on the 200 next year. I'm happy I won this, because now I don't have to do it again," he said.
Though, while he may not be looking ahead to a long haul on the bike at The Traka next year, there is another on the horizon with the Unbound 200 in just four weeks.
Würtz Schmidt is bound to be hoping the legs he had on Friday reappear then because "the thing about these races is that they are so long, so it really comes down to the legs, and if you still have turbo in the legs the last two hours, a lot can happen."
