Alejandro Valverde and Carolin Schiff Triumph with Solo Victories at Castellón Gravel Race

Alejandro Valverde (Movistar) repeated for the elite males’s victory at Castellón Gravel Race on Saturday, whilst German gravel champion Carolin Schiff (Canyon CLLCTV) rode solo for the elite girls’s name on the 97km match.

Since Valverde’s preliminary foray into gravel in 2023 after 12 years at the WorldTour, he has received a trio of UCI Trek Gravel International Sequence races, all in Spain. Schiff, who additionally moved from an extended profession at the street to gravel, has notched 9 UCI Gravel International Sequence podiums in two seasons, in addition to a signature win at Unbound Gravel 200 and The Traka 200. 

Valverde opened his 2025 marketing campaign two weeks in the past on the opening spherical of the Spanish Gravel Cup, completing smartly out of doors the highest 20 at Tres Cantos Gravel. The following two rounds of the Spanish collection also are a part of the UCI Gravel International Sequence, 114 Gravel Race in overdue March and L. a. Indomable in overdue April. 

Castellón Gravel Race moved two months previous at the calendar than the inaugural version in 2024 and served because the Ecu lead-off match within the UCI Gravel International Sequence, promoting out with 800 individuals. The hilly circuit within the mountainous area of Castellón integrated 72% gravel roads and a couple of,500 metres of elevation acquire, a constant quantity of mountaineering that ended in a last 6km descent in Llucena and a stiff uphill end into Llucena. 

Valverde rode with Tiago Ferreira of Portugal and Sascha Weber of Belgium via the mid-point of the race, retaining a slender 10-second margin over some other trio that integrated Italian Matteo Fontana, Spanish rider Raul Rodriguez Jimenez (GR-100 MTB DC) and Frenchman Mathus Loman.  

As soon as at the ultimate mountaineering phase, Valverde and Ferreira persisted with Fontana now within the lead trio. Valverde then used a last acceleration at the uphill end to distance Ferreira and journey solo around the end with 12 seconds in hand, whilst Fontana resulted in 3rd, 1:18 again. Weber used to be subsequent in fourth at 3:01 down.

Schiff carried a four-minute margin over the Spanish duo of Meritxell Figueras Garangou (Sant Simply-Agrupacio Ciclista) and Marta Romeu Solaz (Movistar) as she sped away on the second one part of the route to win her 2025 season debut.

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Protecting champion Sofía Rodríguez used the general mountaineering phase to bridge to her Spanish compatriots and surge forward of Solaz at the ultimate uphill to take moment, 1:27 in the back of Schiff, whilst Solaz used to be some other 8 seconds again in 3rd. Garangou and Jade Treffeisen of Germany rounded out the highest 5.

Different notable riders within the males’s box have been Jan Bakelants, completing twenty second and Freddy Ovett and Nicholas Roche, the 2 using in combination around the line in 87th and 88th, respectively. At the girls’s facet, Elena DuÅ¡ková of Lavita used to be 6th and Maddie Nutt of United Kingdom, who received Safari Gravel Race ultimate 12 months, used to be 7th. 

The 2025 Trek UCI Gravel International Sequence, now in a fourth season, is a selection of 33 races which function qualifiers for the UCI Gravel International Championships, October 17-18 in Great, France. With a cross-over calendar from ultimate fall, the primary two rounds have been held in October in Seymour, Victoria, Australia and on the 2024 UEC Ecu Gravel Championships in Asiago, Italy. 

3 March occasions are subsequent at the calendar for the UCI Gravel International Sequence, with Gravel Brazil on March 9 serving as the primary International Sequence forestall in South The united states. This is adopted via Turnhout Gravel in Belgium on March 23 and 114 Gravel Race on March 29, which is a 123km point-to-point race from Elvas, Portugal to Badajoz, Spain.