Houffa Gravel – Romy Kasper, Sebastian Schönberger take top steps at UCI World Series round in Belgium

Romy Kasper (Human Powered Health) entered the gravel racing fray and went straight to the top step at the Houffa UCI Gravel World Series race while Sebastian Schönberger (Team Felt Felbermayr) added another series victory to his tally.

The experienced road player, Kasper, first worked with the 2022 Australian road champion Nicole Frain (Hess Cycling) to get away, but then took off alone to stretch out the gap beyond five minutes. Frain's second place adds to the runner-up spots she has secured at The Gralloch and also RADL GRVL in January. Tiffany Cromwell (Canyon-SRAM) came third.

For Schönberger, the victory added to his win at the Worthersee round of the series with the Austrian coming over the line just 16 seconds ahead of French rider Alexys Brunel, while Arne Baers (Lotto-Dstny Development) was just over a minute-and-a-half back in third.

Austrian gravel champion Schönberger took the win despite facing mechanical problems, chasing and catching Brunel – who had broken away around halfway through the race – in the closing kilometres of the race.

The race, one of the qualifying rounds for the UCI Gravel World Championships on October 5 and 6, played out over 110km in southern Belgium with 1600m of elevation gain and included the Côte du Saint Roch.