For the fourth consecutive year, the first act of the Gravel Earth Series, one of the main and most important gravel circuits in circulation, took place in Spain. In Girona, during the weekend, Santa Vall by the Traka was held, an event that, like in 2025, was spread over two days with a first stage of 120 kilometers and 1,600 meters of elevation gain and a second, shorter stage of 84.7 km and 1,100 meters of positive elevation.

The winners at the end of the race weekend were two representatives of the Specialized Off-Road Team: the current European gravel champion Mads Würtz Schmidt and Argentine Sofía Gómez Villafañe, both capable of prevailing in the overall standings of the Iberian event by winning solo in the first stage.

In the second stage, while the 31-year-old from Esquel (third at Unbound, second at Sea Otter, and first at The Traka 200) had no particular problems securing her second victory, the Dane (who was crowned continental champion last year in Abruzzo) simply controlled the day's rivals, finishing fifth, just behind German Tim Wollenberg (BIXS Race Team), who won in a sprint.

In this way, covering the 204.7 kilometers of the race in 5 hours, 57 minutes, and 1 second, Würtz Schmidt (a road professional until 2024 with Israel-Premier Tech) won Santa Vall with a 13-second margin over Romain Bardet and 27 seconds over his teammate Matthew Beers, starting his 2026 gravel campaign in the best possible way.

The same applies to Sofía Gómez Villafañe, who, by distancing British rider Sophie Wright by 2'24" (2nd place) and American Morgan Aguirre by 4'49" (3rd place), began her intense off-road season in the best way possible, confirming her excellent connection with Spanish gravel roads.

In the Italian camp, the best performers on the Santa Vall routes were Mattia De Marchi (24th overall in his first outing with the new The Grip jersey) and Sandra Mairhofer (Lee Cougan Basso Factory Racing), who, by finishing 12th and 16th in the two stages, settled for 14th place in the final standings.

Both will potentially have the opportunity to do better in the second stage of the Gravel Earth Series 2026, which will bring some of the discipline's best representatives to tackle the 120 kilometers and 2,300 meters of elevation of The Hills Gravel Race, the circuit's only Italian event scheduled for March 28th at Borgoluce in Susegana.