The run into The Traka 360 hadn’t exactly been ideal for Rosa Klöser as while she didn’t exactly go badly at the Sea Otter Classic Gravel in mid-April, finishing seventh, it wasn’t the start to Life Time Grand Prix series the series the German rider had been looking for. However, she quickly bounced back at The Traka 360 which means Klöser is bound to once again be lining up as a key favourite at Unbound 200.
“I mean, I think it’s fair to say that my first Life Time outing at Sea Otter wasn’t the greatest,” Klöser told Cyclingnews in Girona after her race winning run at The Traka 360. “I came off a huge block of road racing and I came over right from Roubaix, and it was very last minute because of some cancelled flights.”
Klöser had explained in last week’s How She Won podcast that she was rebooking flights in the team bus on the way to Paris-Roubaix after a last minute-call up then the extra hurdle of airport strikes. She then flew out Monday to arrive tired and jet-lagged in the United States with little time to adapt before Friday’s Sea Otter gravel event.
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“I felt terrible at the race but I think sometimes failure really motivates you and I’m super happy that I could turn it around today,” said Klöser.
That road block with Canyon-SRAM zondacrypto helped her in Girona in other ways too, with those efforts at races including Strade Bianche, Milan-Sanremo, Tour of Flanders and Paris-Roubaix – which included a long early breakaway – yielding dividends on the gravel on on Friday.
“I mean for sure I think it helps me for the strategic element,” said Klöser when asked if the road block was beneficial for her gravel racing. “But it also gives me the upper end power because today I could actually see that even after eight hours I still had some VO2 left, which surprised myself, so I think that’s definitely helpful.”
Klöser’s strength was clearly evident from beginning to end. She had already helped break up the race right at the start, pushing near the top of the first climb and helping carve out what was initially a group of four at the front, including defending champion Karolina Migoń (PAS Racing), Axelle Dubau-Prévot (EF Education-Oatly) and Geerike Schreurs (Specialized Off-Road). Migoń crashed and then had a mechanical which took her out of the running and Schreurs was gapped, but still not giving in as the race progressed.
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