{"id":440917,"date":"2026-02-23T08:17:11","date_gmt":"2026-02-23T08:17:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/440917\/"},"modified":"2026-02-23T08:17:11","modified_gmt":"2026-02-23T08:17:11","slug":"uci-gravel-world-series-romain-bardet-and-sofia-gomez-villafane-win-castellon-gravel-race","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/440917\/","title":{"rendered":"UCI Gravel World Series \u2013 Romain Bardet and Sof\u00eda G\u00f3mez Villafane win Castell\u00f3n Gravel Race"},"content":{"rendered":"

Romain Bardet (Factor Racing) and Sof\u00eda G\u00f3mez Villafane (Specialized Off-road) claimed victory at the Castell\u00f3n Gravel Race on Sunday, with both taking solo wins in the UCI Gravel World Series<\/a> race that starts and finishes in the Spanish village of Llucena.<\/p>\n

Last week’s Santa Vall winner<\/a> Mads W\u00fcrtz Schmidt (Specialized Off-road) claimed second in the men’s race, with the European Champion finishing more than two minutes back from Bardet, while Mathijs Loman (Canyon x DT Swiss ATR) took third.<\/p>\n

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In the women’s event it was Morgan Aguirre (PAS Racing) who took the runner-up position while new gravel racer Elena Hartmann \u2013 who won the Swiss national time trial title on the road from 2022-24 \u2013 came third.<\/p>\n

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Villafane,<\/a> who started the season by winning at Santa Vall, had taken off after the first ten miles, working through the men’s fields out on the road. Aguirre, though, had certainly not let off in the pursuit behind, finishing just 17 seconds back.<\/p>\n

“In the closing moments of the race I did get a good reminder at the end of the race that you don\u2019t ease up specially when you aren\u2019t aware of time gaps because I got quite the surprise when Morgan Aguirre was right behind me with just one kicker left before the finish line,” said Villafane in a social media post<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The race took place in the mountains near the east coast of Spain, with the 97km event 80% off-road and including more than 2500m of elevation gain.<\/p>\n

The Castell\u00f3n Gravel Race is the second event in the UCI Gravel World Series so far this year, with the racing in the qualifying series for the UCI Gravel World Championship having kicked off in 2026 with The Ceder in South Africa, which was won by Hayley Preen (Honeycomb 226ers) and Filippo Colombo (Scott-SRAM MTB).<\/p>\n

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Swipe to scroll horizontallyMen’s top 5<\/p>\n

Position<\/p>\n

Rider<\/p>\n

Time<\/p>\n

1<\/p>\n

Romain Bardet <\/p>\n

3:16:39<\/p>\n

2<\/p>\n

Mads W\u00fcrtz Schmidt<\/p>\n

+2:04<\/p>\n

3<\/p>\n

Mathijs Loman<\/p>\n

+4:27<\/p>\n

4<\/p>\n

Anton Stensby<\/p>\n

+5:10<\/p>\n

5<\/p>\n

Paul Voss<\/p>\n

+6:03<\/p>\n

Swipe to scroll horizontallyWomen’s top 5<\/p>\n

Position<\/p>\n

Rider<\/p>\n

Time<\/p>\n

1<\/p>\n

Sof\u00eda G\u00f3mez Villafane<\/p>\n

3:54:57<\/p>\n

2<\/p>\n

Morgan Aguirre<\/p>\n

+17<\/p>\n

3<\/p>\n

Elena Hartmann<\/p>\n

+43<\/p>\n

4<\/p>\n

Karolina Migon<\/p>\n

+1:06<\/p>\n

5<\/p>\n

Sophie Wright<\/p>\n

+2:00<\/p>\n