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It was a course that pressured splits early but it nonetheless got here all the way down to a good battle to the road in each the lads’s and ladies’s races on the very first RADL GVL gravel race in South Australia.
Brodie Chapman (Lidl-Trek) gained a 3 approach battle within the ladies’s race whereas Tasman Nankervis (BMC Shimano) took victory from the main trio within the males’s race.
Nankervis pressured long-time rival Brendan ‘Trekky’ Johnston (Big) to steer out the dash because the duo headed towards the McLaren Flat end line, nestled among the many grapevines of a vineyard, and he bought to throw his fingers up within the air in celebration this time.
“I simply had a day that you simply simply hope for each race, it simply felt like I had no chain on in the present day. Excellent emotions and it was superior to get the win,” Nankervis mentioned.
Adam Blazevic, winner of two UCI Gravel World Collection rounds, tailed off to take third, having needed to spend a bit an excessive amount of vitality chasing again to the entrance two so not having sufficient left within the legs to take them on within the dash.
Chapman is the 2023 Australian highway race champion and he or she gained the ladies’s race by darting throughout the road forward of 2022 nationwide title holder, Nicole Frain (HESS Biking) whereas Heidi Franz (Lifeplus Wahoo) got here third.
All three of the rostrum placers had simply wrapped up racing on the three-day Ladies’s Tour Down Beneath on Sunday, and Chapman and Franz additionally raced the Down Beneath criterium Thursday night.
“We are able to all really feel it in our legs however it was a very good occasion and fairly stoked to take the win,” mentioned Chapman.
The RADL GVL race was held alongside the WorldTour racing on the Tour Down Beneath, additional enhancing the ten days of racing in South Australia.
The 108 km route included 2048m of elevation acquire and barely a sniff of paved roads.
The riders rolled out in crisp situations early on Friday morning. Heat puffer jackets had been the characteristic pre-start somewhat than the ice vests which were prevalent on the males’s and ladies’s WorldTour highway races however it wasn’t lengthy earlier than the solar broke via, heating up the spectators whereas temperature additionally shortly rose throughout the race.
Chapman, a Ladies’s WorldTour racer with an off highway background, went out solo early within the race however then “heard there was a gaggle coming behind with a bunch of the strongest ladies.”
That group of six additionally included Tiffany Cromwell (Canyon-SRAM) – one of many race companions together with Valtteri Bottas, and Amy Charity.
That group then break up in a sandy part, leaving the trio to resolve the rostrum positions between them on the run into the road, with Chapman claiming the highest prize.
The primary climb of the day, simply three kilometres into the race additionally blew aside the lads’s race, with a gaggle of six riders getting clear.
“There have been quite a lot of steep climbs early on and coming from a mountain bike background that’s one thing that fits me rather well,” mentioned Nankervis.
“I form of stored thinning it out in these steep climbs then we bought via a gaggle of 4 of us on the second and most important climb half approach via and we simply cooperated rather well.”
That group then dropped to a few, and Nankervis performed it to perfection.
Nankervis raced in america and as a part of the Life Time Grand Prix sequence final 12 months. He has been chosen for the sequence in 2024 however hasn’t but been capable of finding the extra sponsors he must cowl the monetary bills of one other season abroad.
“The previous few months I’ve been coping with looking for sponsors and principally nothing has come up so perhaps I had a bit little bit of frustration constructed up and will launch it in the present day,” Nankervis advised Cyclingnews.
No less than on Friday there was greater than the pure satisfaction of a win to have fun. The RADL GVL race delivers a hefty prize purse, with AUD$3000 for every of the race winners and a complete to be shared out of AUD$10,000.
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