The Traka 200: Sofia Gómez Villafañe beats Rosa Klöser to women’s title as Mads Würtz Schmidt wins men’s race

Mads Würtz Schmidt (PAS Racing) and Sofia Gómez Villafañe (Specialized) claimed the victories at The Traka 200, both winning solo with late attacks on the 202km course in the surrounds of Girona.

Gómez Villafañe swept up the women’s victory in a time of 7:13:01, 44 seconds ahead of Unbound 200 winner Rosa Klöser after the pair had been together for much of the race. Annika Langvad (Specialized), who spent a long time trying to catch back on to the leaders, ended up finishing third, some six minutes down. 

In the men’s category, Matthew Beers (Specialized) came across the line to take second, 1:24 behind Würtz Schmidt who claimed the title with a time of 6:12:21 after attacking in the final 20km. 

In third it was Filippo Conca (Swatt Club) who had been in a leading pair with Würtz Schmidt, but was beaten in a sprint by Beers, who came back from at one point more than two minutes down on the Danish winner.

The Traka 200 started out from the Parc de les Ribes del Ter, following on from The Traka 360 on Friday and the 560km Traka Adventure which started on Thursday and the racing concludes with The Traka 100 on Sunday. The 202km with 2,500m of elevation gain included a packed field of riders that in the men’s race included defending champion Petr Vakoč, to Matthew Beers and last year’s first across the line Frederik Raßmann and also a group of former road professionals from Alejandro Valverde to Daniel Oss, Thomas De Gendt and Greg Van Avermaet.

In the women’s race defending champion Carolin Schiff was lining up against the likes of Annika Langvad, Morgan Aguirre, Sofia Gómez Villafañe, Klara Sofie Skovgaard Hansen, Cecily Decker and Rosa Klöser. Schiff took sixth at the end of the day. 

More to follow…

Results