UCI Gravel World Series: Nicole Frain best in three-rider women's sprint while Jarno Bellens goes solo to win elite men's race at Turnhout Gravel

Nicole Frain (Issue Racing) punched the air as she received the elite ladies’s rae at Bolero Turnhout Gravel from a 3 rider entrance group. Jarno Bellens (Baloise verzekeringen-Het Poetsbureau Lions) rode solo throughout the road for the elite males’s victory within the Belgian spherical of the UCI Gravel World Collection.

It was a dry day for the second version of Turnhout Gravel, with a 72.1km circuit coated twice for 144.2km, with sections of cobbles and slender canal paths north of Turnhout, Belgium. A protracted part of 15km alongside the canal was a brand new addition for 2026, and proved decisive within the ladies’s race.

Greater than half of the ladies’s 47-rider discipline remained inside a handful of minutes of the entrance group after the primary lap. It was alongside the singletrack dust subsequent to the canal the place separations opened, with Frain, Anne Knijnenburg (VolkerWessels) and Wendy Oosterwoud (PAS Racing) pushing away from the following trio of contenders – former street skilled Romy Kasper, Kirstie Van Haaften and Maaike Coljé.

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Frain accelerated away from her Dutch companions throughout the ultimate 200 metres to win her second gravel race of the yr. Knijnenburg was second and Oosterwoud, who was second final yr, completed third. Because the Oceania gravel champion from her victory at RADL GRVL, Frain carried the white and blue Continental jersey throughout the road within the prime spot for the primary time.

Simply ten seconds after Frain crossed the road, Van Haaften lead the following trio over the road to take fourth whereas it was fifth for Coljé and sixth for Kasper.

Within the elite males’s race, which featured 152 starters, 11 riders fashioned a entrance group on the second circuit. It was not till 6km to go that Bellens accelerated on the entrance, his teammate Robbe Mellaerts serving to to sluggish the response behind. The 25-year-old Bellens established a niche of 29 seconds that might not be closed and received in his debut at a Gravel World Collection occasion.

From the 10-rider chase group, Martinš Pluto (Energus Biking) took second and Lander Loockx (Unibet Rose Rockets) sprinted forward of Piotr Havik (Labeled x Rose) to shut out the rostrum.

Different notable males’s riders within the discipline had been Petr Vakoč, who completed eleventh, Daan Soete in twelfth, Greg Van Avermaet in nineteenth and Harry Tanfield in thirty sixth. Former Unbound Gravel 200 champion Ivar Slik completed 9 minutes again inside the highest 65.

Outcomes