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Connor Swift and Annabel Fisher claim British Gravel Champions jerseys in the glorious Scottish sun

A stellar field took on the men’s and women’s Elite race and thrilling action ensued on the gravel tracks of the Galloway and Southern Ayrshire UNESCO Biosphere

Connor Swift and Annabel Fisher claim British Gravel Champions jerseys in the glorious Scottish sun

The 2024 British Gravel Championships hosted at Raiders Gravel took place today in the heart of the Galloway Forest Park in Dumfries and Galloway, Scotland.

MEN’S RECAP

Racing got underway at 9:00AM BST in chilly early morning conditions but the scorching sun quickly raised the temperature at the same time as racing heated up. 

The field, packed with current and ex-World Tour riders, Olympic Champions and National Champions from Cyclocross and Road, quickly reached the base of the day’s most challenging climb, Fuffock Hill. A recurring feature of The Gralloch, a UCI Gravel World Series race hosted in the same location, this climb has seen early attacks in previous races and typically sees the top end of the field thinning out quickly.

As expected an early star-studded 10-man breakaway formed including the likes of Connor Swift (Ineos Grenadiers), Nathan Haas (Colango Castelli), The Gralloch 2024 race winner Matthew Holmes (One Good Thing Orientation Marketing), Olympic Champion Jonathan Brownlee, Ben Swift (Ineos Grenadiers).

The racers quickly approached the only tarmac section of the 87.6km race route, and following another short sharp climb took a sharp right to tackle a stretch of the former Portpatrick Railway to Stroan Loch before turning onto Raiders Road, a stunning forest gravel track.

It’s here that Connor Swift (Ineos Grenadiers) and Cameron Mason (Cyclocross Reds) launched a decisive attack to break free from the group, quickly racing to a 90-second lead.

The two remained together for the next 20km until the final stages but on the day’s final climb to Loch Grannoch Mason could no longer hold Connor Swift’s pace and dropped off. 

Swift expertly navigated the closing stages including a high-speed descent. He could breathe a sigh of relief as he turned on to the finishing straight with the stunning Big Water of Fleet viaduct coming into view. He claimed his first British Gravel Championships title after falling just short in a sprint finish at the 2023 event in King’s Forest, Suffolk.

Behind Swift it was Toby Perry (Classified Ridley Factory) and Ben Swift who slowly reeled in Cameron Mason. The trio turned onto the finish straight with Perry leading the way and taking second place. Behind him Ben Swift, despite puncturing in the closing kilometre, just edged out Mason for third place, who falls agonisingly short of a medal on home soil.

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WOMEN’S RECAP

The Women’s Elite field set off at 9:20AM BST with the scorching Scottish sun now making for a blistering day.

The climb up Fuffock Hill saw an early leading group break away from the rest of the field. The eight woman strong field included the likes of Olympian and Paris-Roubaix winner Alison Jackson (EF-Oatly-Cannondale) and reigning British Gravel Champion Xan Crees (Spectra Racing). 

The pace remained high and the lead group was soon whittled down to five riders with just Jackson, Katie Scott (Spectra Racing), Annabel Fisher (Classified Ridley Factory), Amelia Mitchell, Morven Yeoman (Das-Hutchison-Brother).

Fisher and Jackson made the decisive move on the climb to Loch Grannoch with Fisher leading the way down the descent into the finish at the Big Water of Fleet viaduct. Jackson used all her experience, sitting on Fisher’s wheel heading into the finishing straight and sprinted away to overall race victory. With Jackson, a Canadian national, ineligible for the British Gravel Champion, Fisher crossing the line in second (+0:05) took home the coveted red, white and blue stripes. 

Mitchell pipped Scott to third overall and second in the British Gravel Championship in a thrilling photo finish.

Full results are available at: www.britishgravelchampionships.com/results

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2024 British Gravel National Championships Photo Gallery

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