Rivers to ford, patches of snow, lava fields, desolate moorlands and a landscape defined in every centimeter by the force of nature and its elements: this is the surreal and enchanting setting in which this weekend the seventh edition of The Rift Gravel Race took place, a young race (its debut on the international calendar was in 2019) but with a strong identity already established and, above all, with highly recognizable landscape characteristics.

It is precisely the scenario, that of south Iceland, which identifies and makes unique the race organized by the Lauf Cycles team who, by excellently exploiting the context around them over the years, have managed to create one of the most appreciated and representative events in the entire global gravel landscape, capable of maintaining its appeal unchanged even after exiting this year from the Gravel Earth Series circuit.

Last Saturday, Rick Ottema, who finished eighth in the elite race, demonstrated in great detail the reasons for such exceptionality through a video compiled by joining clips recorded during the event, managing in just a few seconds to perfectly explain through images what the beauty and peculiarities of The Rift Gravel Race consist of.

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THE WINNERS

Busy collecting frames to document his Icelandic experience and testify why the race starting and finishing in Hvolsvöllur is as magical as it is fun and demanding, the thirty-four-year-old from Groningen also completed the event with an excellent ninth place finish in the 200 km elite men's race, ending two positions behind Mattia de Marchi (The Grip), the best Italian at the finish line in seventh place, and just ahead of fat bike legend Nino Schurter (SCOTT-Sram MTB-Racing Team).

The victory, achieving what is so far his best career result in the discipline, went to the reigning continental vice-champion Anton Stensby (FARA) who, having focused entirely on gravel this season after spending the last three years on the road with Team Coop-Repsol, crossed the finish line in 6 hours, 16 minutes and 51 seconds, ahead by 20" of former Uno-X rider Rasmus Bøgh Wallin (PAS Racing) and by 39" of Dutchman Adne Koster (Seka Gravel Team).

In the women's category, Canadian Haley Smith (Factor Racing) prevailed in a much more decisive manner compared to what happened among her male counterparts, winning in 7 hours, 25 minutes and 50 seconds, distancing American thirty-two-year-old Morgan Aguirre (PAS Racing) by 4'43", third place like last year, and our Erica Magnaldi (UAE Team ADQ) by 1'01", author of an excellent performance culminating in second place overall.

Photo credit: The Rift Gravel Race