The Traka 360: Tobias Kongstad devours men's field with solo breakaway while Karolina Migon wins with late attack

Tobias Kongstad (PAS Racing) and Karolina Migoń (PAS Racing) blitzed by The Traka 360, claiming the victories  within the males’s and ladies’s fields respectively.

Within the males’s race, Kongstad separated from a small lead group of elite males after 200 kilometres and rode solo for practically 5 hours for the victory at The Traka 360 on Friday. He lined the 358.5km course in 11 hours, 37 minutes, 30 seconds. 

From the closest chase group, Jan Stöckli outsprinted Simen Nordahl Svendsen (PAS Racing) to spherical out the highest three, 5:29 again. Benjamin Perry was capable of make separation from throughout the ultimate part of singletrack from three different riders and took fourth, one other 4 minutes behind Svendsen.

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Final yr’s winner within the males’s division of Queen distance of The Traka, Peter Stetina accomplished the race 11:30 off the successful tempo in seventh, driving behind Ande Koster and Mattia De Marchi.

The victory marks a 3rd journey to The Traka 360 for the Danish winner, who was second in his debut in 2023 and was fifth final yr. This marks the most important racing success of Kongstad’s profession to date, who was third at Unbound Gravel 200 in 2024.

The primary half of the lads’s race noticed Stetina, Stöckli, De Marchi, Perry, Koster, Torbjørn Andre Røed and Arno van den Broeck among the many leaders earlier than Kongstad made his transfer, which he referred to as “a silly assault”. 

“In all probability once I did a silly assault with 160 kilometres to go within the headwind alone. I did not need to pull the mountain guys on the flat and so they should not profit from me. So I believed if I went solo they must catch me,” Kongstad about the important thing second of the race for him, which was about six and a half hours into the endurance contest.

As soon as Kongstad had six minutes to his benefit with just below 50km to go, Perry, De Marchi and Stöckli shaped a trio and so they seemed like they might struggle for the ultimate podium spots. However then Stockli joined forces with a surging Svendsen and so they drove on collectively.

“He went full fuel, on this second we weren’t certain and it was nonetheless a great distance,” Stöckli mentioned on the end on the reside stream.”Yeah, he managed to complete this and it was superb what he did.”

The Traka 360, a distance launched into the combination in 2021. The race with 3,700m of elevation acquire headed north from Girona and towards the climb of Mas Patiras, working its manner again to the south and the Gavarres mountains, and extra climbing together with Els Metges, earlier than returning to Girona.

Elite Girls

Karolina Migon efficiently defended her title within the girls’s Traka 360, attacking out of the ultimate water crossing to go away behind Axelle Dubau-Prévôt (Numéro 31 par Café du Cycliste) and Sarah Sturm (Specialised) to win Europe’s greatest gravel race.

Sturm, who was second at 2023 Traka 360 and third final yr, completed third once more, dropping contact with Dubau-Prévôt, who gained La Bescanonina Gravel in Spain in February within the closing run-in to the end.

The three riders had a fierce battle over the ultimate kilometres, with Migoń launching an assault on the ultimate climb on doubletrack with 10km to go. 

First, Dubau-Prévôt bridged again to the Polish rider, and after the paved descent Sturm clawed her manner again, bringing the race down to a few within the lead heading into the ultimate singletrack.

Migoń gained the entrance earlier than coming into the singletrack, then powered out of the ultimate water crossing and was out of sight of the chasing duo earlier than lengthy. Ultimately, Sturm needed to concede to Dubau-Prévôt.

“We knew that there are some much less sturdy ladies within the group, so we dropped them, after which we simply labored collectively until the tip of the day,” Migoń mentioned. “We tried our greatest on the climbs, however then we had been equally sturdy. So then it was performed out within the final 2k.”

Dubau-Prévôt briefly spoke about one of many dropped males’s riders getting in her manner on the singletrack, whereas Sturm was upset with yet one more third place.

“I felt so good immediately. I imply, not the entire time, nevertheless it was simply disappointing after combating for it, I simply did not have the snap for the dash

“I am making an attempt not to consider the end result once more, however as a result of the day was truly fairly good and I am happy with the race that I had. It was fairly hectic – lots of the lads saved mixing in. And finally it was actually chaotic, lacking turns, and other people received caught up in crashes and yeah, so I am completely happy to have stayed secure the entire day. 

“By the tip, the lads simply sat on our wheels and we simply pulled them, and the 4 of us rotated, and sadly, Gee [Geerike Schreurs] needed to drop out of the help station due to possibly a damaged hand. It type of flew by, as a result of there was a lot occurring – it is not the end result [I wanted] however an excellent day.”

Danni Shrosbree (Argon18) and Heather Jackson (Canyon-Herbalife) chased for the final half the race behind the three leaders.

Race favorite Geerike Schreurs (SD Worx-Protime), who was second at The Traka 360 final yr, withdrew with lower than 80km to race on account of an early crash. 5 hours into the race and with 120km lined, Schreurs crashed onerous on a rocky part when a rider went down in entrance of her.

She chased again to the entrance group of Migoń, Sturm and Dubau-Prevot for one more couple of hours, however she stopped twice for medics to test her hand, the second time after passing the 280km mark withdrawing from the race to be taken to hospital.

Outcomes