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Hugo Drechou on his way to winning Wish One Millau Grands Causses(Image credit: @virgovignon / Wish One Millau Grands Causses)

Hugo Drechou (Gravel Nation) and Sophie Wright (Ribble Outliers) powered through the dry and sunny conditions to claim victory at Wish One Millau Grands Causses, the opening French round of the UCI Gravel World Series.

The French champion claimed the men’s title at the long running series event in a tight battle to the line with Jente Michels (Alpecin-Premier Tech), who took second place four seconds back. 2023 winner Toby Perry (Reverb) was third, finishing 16 seconds after Drechou, who completed the 130km course with over 2,000m of elevation gain in four hours and nine seconds.

British rider, Wright, on the other hand, was all in for a long solo. She escaped before the half way mark of the race and built the gap across the long climbs and technical gravel sections to cross the line with a substantial gap after 4 hours, 35 minutes and 25 seconds. Sofia Schugar MAAP Pro.Fwd) was second at just over 23 minutes later while in third, more than seven minutes further back in the broken up women’s field, it was Leonie Laubig.

Women’s elite top 5
Position	Rider	Time Gap
1	Sophie Wright	4:35:25
2	Sofia Schugar	+23:01
3	Leonie Laubig	+31:32
4	Sandra Roger	+43:33
5	Minke Bakker	+1:07:53

Elite men’s top 5
Position	Rider	Time Gap
1	Hugo Drechou	4:00:09
2	Jente Michels	+04
3	Toby Perry	+12
4	Robin Bourdier	+1:05
5	Tom Martin	+1:10

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Simone is a degree-qualified journalist that has accumulated decades of wide-ranging experience while working across a variety of leading media organisations. She joined Cyclingnews as a Production Editor at the start of the 2021 season and has now moved into the role of Australia Editor. Previously she worked as a freelance writer, Australian Editor at Ella CyclingTips and as a correspondent for Reuters and Bloomberg. Cycling was initially purely a leisure pursuit for Simone, who started out as a business journalist, but in 2015 her career focus also shifted to the sport.

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Women’s elite top 5
Position	Rider	Time Gap
1	Sophie Wright	4:35:25
2	Sofia Schugar	+23:01
3	Leonie Laubig	+31:32
4	Sandra Roger	+43:33
5	Minke Bakker	+1:07:53

Elite men’s top 5
Position	Rider	Time Gap
1	Hugo Drechou	4:00:09
2	Jente Michels	+04
3	Toby Perry	+12
4	Robin Bourdier	+1:05
5	Tom Martin	+1:10

UCI Gravel World Series: Hugo Drechou and Sophie Wright surge to victory in opening French round at Wish One

UCI Gravel World Series: Hugo Drechou and Sophie Wright surge to victory in opening French round at Wish One

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