Brendan Johnston (Giant) won his third edition in a row of The Devil’s Cardigan on Saturday, while Holly Harris stepped up from fourth last year to this time claim the top step at the Tasmanian UCI Gravel World Series event.
The third and final Australian qualifier for UCI Gravel World Championships in Nannup, Western Australia in October played out in crisp but fine conditions, over a 106km course with 2,300m of vertical ascent, including the ‘un-named climb of hell’.
Johnston, as usual, had put on the pressure to try and take off solo early, but British rider Harry Leask wasn’t going to let him have it all his way, catching the Life Time Grand Prix racer on the plateau.
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“I’ve only been there by myself before so I wanted to kind of keep it like that,” said Johnston in a Devils Cardigan event course side interview posted on Instagram. “But to my surprise Harry quite easily seemed to ride back to me and then I just had to kind of wait till Ruby Flats Road there where it turns in my direction a little more, sort of rougher and a bit more gradient.”
Johnston managed to shake off the former rower, now cyclor – an athlete that uses a stationary bike for adjustments like trimming sails and replaces the grinders who manually operated hand cranks. The Australian crossed the line solo in 3:22:49. Leask, who was taking on just his second gravel race, was second less than a minute back while Harry Bebbington (Maxxis Flanders) took third.
For Johnston, the victory at the race where a bag of local spuds and a wooly jumper serves as the trophy, made it a clean sweep of the Australian UCI Gravel World Series races for the 2026 qualifying season, starting with Gravelista in Seymour back in October, continuing on with SEVEN in May before finally wrapping up at Devil’s Cardigan in Derby, a town rejuvenated after the development of a popular mountain bike trial network.
In the elite women’s race the event, which started out in 2021, continued its tradition of delivering a new winner each year. The battle for victory came down to a duo that lasted right to the line between Harris and New Zealander Michaela Rogan (Specialized NZ).
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“We’ve been together the whole race. Michaela has just been pushing all the climbs and I was like ‘girl if you want to do that I’m coming’,” said Harris in an interview with Devils Cardigan commentator Jethro Gammie-Nagle.
The 2022 Australian gravel champion, who also has a list of mountain bike national titles to her name, took the lead in the sprint and from then wasn’t going to give up that top spot. Harris crossed the line first in 4:15:44 with Rogan, who recently set the fastest known time for the Otago Central Rail Trail, just one second behind.
In third, less than three minutes back, it was Flora Johnson who came second to Tiffany Cromwell (Canyon-SRAM) at the Australian gravel championships race at Ponderosa Pines last month.
The event is one of four qualifiers across three continents this weekend, with Italy hosting the Grand Tour 3 Cime Lavaredo on Saturday as well and on Sunday it is Eislek Gravel Luxembourg plus the OG Classique will be held in Wakefield, Canada.
