Gustav Basson (Group DMS) and Cathryn Colyn (Rocacorba Collective) have taken out the lads’s and ladies’s victories on the first South African spherical of the UCI Gravel World Sequence, the Swartberg 100.
Basson, who raced on the street with Continental staff ProTouch the final three seasons, sprinted over the road forward of Dan Loubser to take the victory within the males’s class with a time of 5:25:40 whereas Basson’s teammate, Kent Predominant, crossed lower than a minute later to take third. Within the girls’s class Colyn, who be lining up for the Life Time Grand Prix sequence this yr, had a transparent margin as she crossed the road with a time of 5:54:15, beating her nearest rival Theresa Rindler Bachl by round 18 minutes. Anneke Lund, a little bit greater than a minute additional again, took third.
“The race bought began on the first actual climb at 24km,” mentioned Colyn in a publish on Instagram after taking her first win of the season and first UCI win. “ I knew I needed to ensure that I bought into one of many entrance teams over this climb, going up right here, I don’t know if it was the chilly or what however boy oh boy it was rattling exhausting. It was the toughest a part of the day for me. From there I used to be capable of set up a spot on the opposite girls.
“Maintaining fuelled, preventing by the low factors and staying within the second focusing by myself efficiency. I had an ideal day on the bike. Nonetheless fairly can’t consider it.”
The race in Prince Albert, within the Western Cape province, included the 1583m excessive Swartberg go to contribute to 2900m of elevation acquire over the 170km course. The South African was a brand new addition to the UCI Gravel World Sequence, which started in 2022 with 10 rounds that culminated within the UCI Gravel World Championships in Italy in October.
The sequence has expanded to 17 occasions in 2023, with Swartberg among the many seven new additions. It’s the second spherical of racing, with Alejandro Valverde (Movistar Group Gravel Squad) and Carolin Schiff (Canyon-CLLCTV) taking victory on the opening La Indomable race in Spain. This weekend Swartberg marked the primary day of racing in a double-header, with the Gravel Fondo Limburg being held within the Netherlands on Sunday.
Outcomes
| Place | Rider | Time |
| 1 | Gustav Basson | 05:25:40 |
| 2 | Dan Loubser | 5:25:41 |
| 3 | Kent Predominant | 5:26:30 |
| 4 | Dusty Day | 5:28:23 |
| 5 | Gert Heyns | 5:29:49 |
| 6 | Jaden Terlouw | 5:31:15 |
| 7 | Erick Heyns | 5:31:15 |
| 8 | Matthew Keyser | 5:35:10 |
| 9 | Alex Pavlov | 5:35:48 |
| 10 | Matthys Beukes | 5:36:24 |
| Place | Rider | Time |
| 1 | Catherine Colyn | 05:54:15 |
| 2 | Theresa Rindler Bachl | 06:12:17 |
| 3 | Anneke Lund | 06:13:23 |
| 4 | Courteney Webb | 06:22:06 |
| 5 | Juanita Mackenzie | 06:34:44 |
| 6 | Layla Schwellnus | 06:46:06 |
| 7 | Bianca Silberbauer | 06:48:42 |
| 8 | Lasquéve Raubenheimer | 06:53:31 |
| 9 | Rebecca Van Huyssteen | 06:54:18 |
| 10 | Kerri Anderson | 06:54:21 |
