The third edition of the German UCI Gravel race in Aachen this weekend had beautiful new courses with a fast but sometimes challenging 58km track in the woods and fields south of the city of Aachen.
In the women elite, starting as first, world champion Marianne Vos (Visma – Lease a bike) accelerated to win with a 2m25 gap towards a group of 3 with her compatriot Larissa Hartog (ZZPR.nl) taking second in the sprint before German Romy Kasper (Human Powered Health) and Swiss Irina Lutzelschwab (team Buls Schweiz). It was the first appearance of Vos in her rainbow jersey.
The men elite had a hard battle with a large group staying together for most of the race, entering the final climb with 7 riders from which Belgian Niels Vandeputte (Alpecin – Deceuninck) managed to make a small gap to win 4 seconds ahead of German Jonas Koch (Red Bull – Bora Hansgrohe) and Swiss Felix Stihl (Team Vorarlberg). The rest of the lead groups were Frits Biesterbos (NED), Kevin Panhuyzen (BEL), Max Kroonen (NED) and Anton Ferdinande (BEL).
