Petr Vakoc and Nele Johanna Laing won the Elite titles at the UCI Hegau Gravel Festival on Sunday 05 July, the third German round of the UCI Gravel World Series, held over a 104-kilometre course through the demanding hills above Singen on Lake Constance.
Vakoc (Factor Racing) clocked 03:09:29 to take the win, edging Simon Pellaud (Li Ning Star) by 2 seconds after the pair broke clear on a route featuring more than 2,100 metres of climbing. Jordy Bouts (The Grip) completed the podium, 1 minute 55 seconds behind.
It was a fitting result for Vakoc, the Czech former Quick-Step Classics rider whose road career included victory at Brabantse Pijl and a stage win at the Tour de Pologne before a near-fatal training collision with a truck in South Africa sidelined him throughout 2018. He retired from the road in 2021, turned to gravel and mountain biking, and finished runner-up at Unbound Gravel in 2023 before committing to the discipline full-time. Sunday’s victory completed a steady progression after he finished third at Hegau’s inaugural edition in 2024 behind Jonas Koch and Daan Soete.
In the women’s race, Laing (Canyon x DT Swiss All-Terrain Racing) soloed to victory in 03:37:01, with teammate Larissa Hartog finishing 4 seconds later to complete a Canyon one-two. Malou Eisen (VolkerWessels Women’s Pro Cycling Team) took third, 3 minutes 35 seconds back.
A former handball player who progressed through the Zwift Academy with Canyon-SRAM before switching from virtual racing to in-real-life endurance racing, Laing has said the longer a race lasts, the more her confidence grows—a trait borne out on Sunday’s punishing climbs in the second half of the course.
Riders finishing in the top 25 percent of their age category qualified for October’s UCI Gravel World Championships in Nannup, Australia.
Photo Credit: Maximilian Huber
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