After winning in 2021 and 2022, 39 year-old Gokhan Uzuntas scored his third-in-a-row overall title at the UCI Gran Fondo World Championship qualifying race in Antalya, Türkiye on Sunday 19 November.

The former pro rider and multiple national champion won a four-up sprint after 98 kilometers of racing to earn victory, defeating Italian Marco Peluso, Brit Monte Guerrini and Marcin Karbowy of Poland. They were all credited with a final time of 2:27:20.

“Three-in-a-row is really difficult to achieve in this competition,” Uzuntas posted on Instagram after pulling on another UCI Gran Fondo World Series championship jersey. “The majority of athletes are foreign, coming out of their country with the dream winning and going to the world championship.”

Belgian Leen Swinnen, 41, won the overall women’s competition, finishing in 2:37:39, followed by Melike Cakir and Gonca Ulku.

Russian Irina Tikhonovich was the women’s 66km medio fondo overall winner, with Ege Erhan Verit doing the same for the men.

Friday’s individual time trial world championship qualifying saw Italian Marco Peluso fly across the 20km course in 24:16 at an average speed of 49.45 kph as the fastest male rider. Marina Letaeva of Russia was the fastest women, completing the route in 26:37.

Over 800 cyclists participated in UCI Gran Fondo Antalya, with those finishing in the top 25% of their age/gender category automatically qualifying to participate in the 2024 UCI Gran Fondo World Championships coming to Aalborg, Denmark next September/October.

The next qualifying opportunity is 3 February 2024 in Jordan at Gran Fondo Jordan Dead Sea.

Photo Credit: Instagram/@gkhnuznts

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