Loic Ruffaut and Samantha Arnaudo are the winners of the 36th edition of Italy’s famous Maratona dles Dolomites gran fondo, with both soloing across the finish line in Corvara with arms raised in jubilation.

After winning La Marmotte last weekend, the 30 year-old Frenchman Loic Ruffaut was the first to reach the finish line of the 138km gran fondo, stopping the clock in 4:29:11. He had a narrow 30 seconds advantage over pursuers Italian Tommaso Elettrico, Austrian Patrick Hagenaars, Belgian Frederic Glorieux, Italian Paolo Castelnovo and Belgian Tim Alleman.

“It’s amazing to have won today, I don’t realize it yet. On the Giau I realized I had good legs and after the Mür dl Giat I tried and I detached them all. It went well for me, crazy,” Ruffaut told Radio Corsa Web afterwards. 

The women’s race was dominated by 2022 GFNY World Champion Samantha Arnaudo of Italy. She won decisively in 5:05:44, with an overwhelming nineteen minute lead over last year’s champion and UCI Gran Fondo World Champion Martha Maltha of The Netherlands and the Italian Martina Trevisiol.

In the shorter 106km medio fondo, Mattia Gaffuri defeated UCI Gran Fondo World Champion Stefan Kirchmair to win the men’s race, with Olga Cappiello earning victory in the women’s race.

The international event attracted 8000 amateur cyclists from 75 countries to race on mountainous routes high the South Tyrolean Alps, with the longest 138km gran fondo including over 4300 meters of climbing.

Photo Credit: Facebook/Maratona dles Dolomites

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