The sixth edition of Giro della Donna brought together over 500 cyclists for a weekend-long festival of road and gravel cycling in the beautiful Yarra Valley town of Warburton, Australia just east of Melbourne.
It was a perfect weekend for 42 year-old Justine Barrow as she won Saturday’s 57km Gravel Giro and Sunday’s 125km Giro della Donna road event. She cruised to victory in both, winning Gravel Giro by a margin of 2:17 and Giro della Donna by 16 seconds.
In the Men’s competition, Jack Aitken almost achieved the same success, but fell short of double victory by finishing second in both races. Mark O’brien won the road event with youngster Fergus Browning taking the win on gravel.
Although Saturday’s gravel race was timed from start to finish, the 125km Giro della Donna consisted of three timed climbing segments including 13km of gravel, giving riders a chance to relax and stretch in-between segments. With a $3000 cash prize list, individual times for each of the respective segments were summed to determine who would walk away at the end of the ride with cash.
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