Gravelista pedaling Beechwoth on global stage

BEECHWORTH’S Gravelista further cemented its status on the Gravel World Series, almost doubling its participants from its inaugural event across a bumper weekend of cycling. The Trek UCI Gravel World Series returned to Victoria’s High Country for the event’s sophomore year with 556 of some of the world’s best gravel riders descending to Beechworth. The series includes both new and existing events from around the world, predominantly in Europe, for competitors to qualify to attend the World Championships in Italy per age group and gender. Tracks included 120km and 80 km world series and recreational events, a 45km recreational event and a community ‘mini gravelista’ 10km recreational ride. The “brutal” feature 120km race took riders from atop Beechworth at Mayday Hills up to Chiltern-Mount Pilot National Park, before circling back via Eldarado and Stanley topping at a maximum of 837m elevation. This year’s men's gravel national champion, Connor Sens, held off Tasmanian Torben Partridge-Madsen in the elite mens while Courtney Sherwell was the winner in the female category ahead of Matilda Raynolds and Cassia Boglio. Blessed with clear skies for the weekend, event director Michael Hands said the event went very well with participation numbers almost doubled from last year’s inaugural Beechworth Gravelista. “We’ve had great feedback from riders and the likes and it was a really good step up in development and growth,” he said. “There’s a lot of reach around the world because it is a part of the world series with the UCI promotion of the gravel series so I think we helped put Beechworth on the map further to a global audience rather than just an Australian audience. “It was certainly a testing course and created the selection you want at that type of level of event. “We launched the event last year and year one is about establishing the event and you want to see growth from there and we have so we’re pleased about that.” Outside of the action, local community groups including the Beechworth Chain Gang were among the event’s village in town helping promote the world-class cycling. Hands said the community rallied around the event, especially the mini gravelista around Mayday Hills on Friday night which brought out families and the next generation of ager gravel riders. “A lot of local families and kids came out, hung around the village and set up around the jigsaw jumps area and it was great to see kids going up and down all of those over the weekend,” he said. “The local community was great there and the whole town was covered in bikes and lycra over the weekend which is great for business.” Outside of the elite categories, riders participated from as young as 16 years of age to 70 to take on the challenging high country climbs. Hands said those who came through and made it to the finish line in itself showed a tremendous strength of character. “You had people from 16 to 70 riding to compete in a tough course, so the person who came last should be as much applauded as the person who came first,” he said.

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