The countdown to the 2024 UCI Gravel World Championships continues with just six qualifying events remaining. This weekend’s Gravel Grit ‘n Grind in Halmstad, Sweden, kicked off the final stretch. The three-day stage race, featuring a time trial on Friday and two road races over the weekend, saw only Saturday’s grueling event count towards World Championship qualification.
Overall winner after a challenging 136km race was 24-year-old British Tobias Perry (Classified) with a large 2-minute gap to Dutch Tijmen Eising who outsprinted his compatriot Jasper Ockeloen, Danish Gustav Frederik Dahl, Belgian Daan Grosemans, Dutch Adne Koster and Belgian Thomas Joseph. Another group of 11 came in 25 seconds later.
In the women’s race, 27-year-old Femke Markus (SD Worx – Protime) from the Netherlands beat American Heidi Franz and Danish Klara Sofie Skovgard Hansen in a sprint after a tough final with also German Rosa Klöser as part of a group of 4 women battling for the win.
Apart from the men’s time trial on Friday, won by Dutch Joris Nieuwenhuis, Markus and Perry also won the other stages in the Swedish backcountry on stunning gravel roads.
