Geerike Schreurs (Specialized-Off road) led from start to finish in the women’s overall at the five-stage Oregon Trail Gravel Grinder while Cameron Jones (Scott Sports USA) unseated Ian Boswell (Wahoo Specialized) from the top men’s spot on the final stage for the men’s title.
This was the seventh edition of the US gravel stage race, which is part of the Gravel Earth Series for elite riders, who stacked up 334 miles (537km) and 31,200 feet (9,500m) of climbing across five days in the Cascade mountains. The race features completely different terrain on each stage, including volcanic landscapes in the Pacific north-west of the United States.
Oregon Trail was the second victory of the Gravel Earth Series for Schreurs, who won Gravel Desert and finished third at The Traka 360. She won four of the five days of racing in Oregon, setting the tone on the 82.3-mile opening stage. Karolina Migoń (PAS Racing) then moved into first place overall with the win on the 73-mile stage 2. Schreurs returned to the top on the middle stage, with the best time on the 10-mile timed climb on the 27-mile route.
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Schreurs’ total time of 17:04:24 was 20 minutes, 10 seconds faster than Migoń. Third overall was secured by USA’s Jen Tavé (SpeedBlock-Terun), the only other rider to complete the event in under 18 hours, 45:31 behind Schreurs.
“I’m proud of how I raced, but mostly on my positive mindset and belief throughout the week. Karolina Migoń challenged me from the first day on and she definitely got the best out of me,” Schreurs posted to Instagram in her race recap.
All three riders came in, a race elites call ‘gravel camp’, with recent success – Schreurs going second at Unbound Gravel 200, Migoń winning Grand Tour 3 Cime Lavaredo, part of the UCI Gravel World Series, and Tavé winning Truckee Tahoe Gravel.
Cameron Jones (left) goes back-to-back with GC titles at Oregon Trail Gravel Grinder (Image credit: @GravelEarthSeries | @OregonTrailGravel)
Oceania gravel champion Jones opened the men’s competition with a decisive stage 1 solo victory before a parade of different stage winners kept the GC open until Sunday. Boswell responded on day two with the win, and then Hayden Christian (Trek-MAAP), the recent BWR Quad-Tripel Crown of Gravel series winner, took the victory in the stage 3 time trial.
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Boswell moved into the overall lead by winning the queen stage, 84.5 miles across 10,890 feet of climbing from Oakridge to Gilchrist, but it was only a seven-second advantage to Jones. The New Zealander would take his second consecutive overall title riding in the five-rider front group, Tobias Mørch Kongstad (PAS Racing) winning the stage 5 sprint back to Bend after 66.5 miles.
Jones’ accumulated GC time was 14:56:23. The men’s GC podium had Boswell in second, 6:55 back, and Peter Stetina (Canyon), who won Oregon Trail in 2021, in third, 14:17 back. Piotr Havik (Colnago x Castelli SOG), last year’s runner-up in the Gravel Earth Series, finished 10th overall in Oregon.
August features two events for Gravel Earth Series, with Megre Gravel in Lithuania on the first Saturday of the month and CORE4 in Iowa two weeks later.
Results
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Elite men GC top 10
Place
Full Name (Team)
Diff
1
Cameron Jones (Scott Sports USA)
14:56:23
2
Ian Boswell (Wahoo Specialized)
+0:06:55
3
Peter Stetina (Stories and Glories)
+0:14:17
4
Griffin Easter (OpiCure Gravel p/b Orbea and Castelli SOG)
