Coming off a strong performance at California’s Belgian Waffle Ride and winning the Australian MTB National Championships last week, Brendan Johnston (Giant) continued his winning ways at the UCI SEVEN gravel world championship qualifying race on Saturday.

From a field of 1500 riders starting in Nannup, Australia, the 32 year-old off-road specialist won the 125km gravel gran fondo, including seven epic gravel sectors, solo in 4:05:11. Runner-up Mark Chong (4:06:22), Brendon Davids (4:08:32), Oliver Stenning (4:12:29) and Nicolas Roche (4:13:02) rounded out the top five.

Australian National Gravel Champion Justine Barrow, 45, won the women’s race in 4:44:30, followed by Cassio Boglio (4:50:47), Annabel Fisher (4:52:42), Peta Mullens (5:02:29) and Serene Lee (5:14:37).

Afterwards on social media winner Johnston posted what most participants were thinking after crossing the finish line, “SEVEN Gravel was brutal!”

18 year-old Finlay McRobbie won the 85km, 5 sector medio gravel fondo in 2:48:00, twenty minutes ahead of the next rider. Toby Price claimed top honors in the even shorter piccolo gravel fondo (47km with 3 sectors) in 1:41:44.

Riders finishing in the top 25% of their age/gender category automatically qualify for the 2024 UCI Gravel World Championships scheduled in Belgium later this year.

Complete SEVEN results HERE.

Photo Credit: Facebook/Brendan-Johnston; SEVEN

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