Rosa Klöser Wins Gravel Worlds After Epic Breakaway with Geerike Schreurs

Photos: Kevin Mackinnon

A week ago Rosa Klöser (GER) and Geerike Schreurs (NED) found themselves in what turned out to be a “recon” for this year’s Gravel Worlds. The two broke clear of the field at the muddy CORE4 event in Iowa City, then settled things with a sprint to the line, which was won by the German.

Heading into this season today’s race in Lincoln, Nebraska had alway been one of Klöser’s main goals, no-doubt thanks to the $100,000 prize purse, with $17,500 of that going to the winner. (“Next to, of course, defending my title at Unbound,” Klöser said after the race – her Unbound experience this year got derailed by a wrong turn and a crash, so she had to “settle” with fourth.)

As with the men’s race, which was decided by the MMR (minimum maintenance road) sections of the course, it was the early mudfest that quickly split up the women’s race.

“After a mud section we were initially in a break of six riders,” Klöser said. “Already, in that break, I could clearly tell that G (Geerike) and I were really trying to push the pace. At CORE4 last week we had to walk a lot of the mud sections, so I think we had a bit of an edge on the other riders with picking lines through the mud.”

Through the third MMR section on the course Klöser had pulled clear, but when she looked back Schreurs was not far behind, with a huge break to the rest of the group.

“So I decided to wait for G, and she was a great competitor – she gave me one of her bottles because I lost both of my bottles,” Klöser continued. “I honestly don’t know if I would have finished this strong without her bottle, so that was really true sportsmanship by her. We had a quick chat and we decided we would commit together because we knew with our power on the flats and on those rolling hills wee could drive it home.”

The two would work well together, stopping to fuel up at both aid stations, all while pulling well clear of the rest of the women in the field. A chase group of six finally managed to regroup after the MMR section had shattered the race, but the group would continue to lose time to the two Europeans.

“I should have tried to make a move, I know, but I was actually really tired, and it was hard to stay on her wheel at times,” Schreurs said. Which left the Dutchwoman in the unenviable position of trying to outsprint her German rival again after a number of failed attempts where she had to settle for second, including last weekend in Iowa and last year at Unbound.

Schreurs would have to settle for another second-place finish to Klöser, but was still smiling at the line.

This year’s Unbound champion, Karolina Migon, would extricate herself from the chase group with about 20 miles to go – the move was enough to ensure a clear third, but was never even close to a challenge for the two leaders, who would cross the line over 12 minutes up.

Migon would round out the podium.

Lauf Gravel Worlds Women’s 150-Mile Elite

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