The fifth The Ceder gravel race, a tough 151km new UCI Gravel World Series qualifier in South Africa, saw some top riders battling it out.
Early on, Swiss rider Felix Stehli and Austrian Felix Ritzinger pulled ahead, gaining a three-minute lead by the halfway point. Later, as they climbed back up Uitkyk Pass, Stehli attacked, creating a two-minute gap to Ritzinger. He eventually won by a close 26 seconds with South African champion Marco Joubert finishing just ten seconds behind in third place. Stehli’s average speed was 33km/h.
The women’s race was a great contest. Catherine Colyn, Zanri Rossouw, and Lize Cornelius stayed together for the first half. Then, Rossouw attacked on the Uitkyk Pass climb and won by a significant 4 minutes and 49 seconds ahead of Colyn. Lize Cornelius finished third, 14 minutes behind Rossouw, who averaged 25.5km/h on the challenging course that included 2500 meters of climbing.
