Past Giro d\u2019Italia stage winner Lukas P\u00f6stlberger and recent Life Time Sea Otter Classic winner Sof\u00eca G\u00f3mez Villafa\u00f1e were triumphant in the Traka 200 in Girona on Saturday, winning the men\u2019s and women\u2019s events.<\/p>\n
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Former WorldTour pro P\u00f6stlberger (Rose Cycling Circle) landed the biggest result of his gravel career when he beat Bryden Lange (Canyon x DT Swiss All-Terrain Racing) and Martin Sto\u0161ek (Buff BH) by 20 seconds.<\/p>\n
\u201cI would have liked to have had a bigger advantage, the last kilometers were really tough,\u201d he said afterwards, speaking about a tense finale. \u201cBut I made my day harder on my own, I went away on the last climb in the beginning and then Hans [Hans Becking of the Buff BH team], came on the flat part. We pushed and he paced it perfectly over the climb.\u201d<\/p>\n
They joined up with Jeremy Presbury and went into the final 60km over a minute clear of six chasers.<\/p>\n
Presbury had a flat and lost his place out front, with P\u00f6stlberger then pushing on alone with 20km left.<\/p>\n
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\u201cUnfortunately he [Becking] couldn\u2019t follow then any more, but he helped me a lot to get to the point to win,\u201d he said. \u201cI want to say thank you to Hans for guiding me also through the race.\u201d<\/p>\n
P\u00f6stlberger dangled out ahead of the chase group and looked to be under pressure due to their greater off-road experience.<\/p>\n
However while Lange, Sto\u0161ek and his Buff BH teammate Wout Alleman were ten seconds back, they never made the junction and this enabled him to scoop the win.<\/p>\n
\u2018I was completely on the limit\u2019<\/h2>\nLukas P\u00f6stlberger celebrates winning the men\u2019s Traka 200 (Photo: Oriol Gonzalvo)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
P\u00f6stlberger\u2019s unexpected victory was perhaps reflected in the fact that two of his support crew dashed to embrace him at the finish line. Their joy was clear, but the move put the chasers in danger as they were standing right in the center and in front of a hectic three-man sprint to the line.<\/p>\n
However they all remained upright, and the celebrations continued.<\/p>\n
P\u00f6stlberger said afterwards the key to holding on out front was reaching the single track ahead.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was completely on the limit, so it was really sketchy,\u201d he explained.<\/p>\n
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\u201cI was really afraid. I said to myself you need to be first in the single track, maybe you can have a small chance in the sprint. But actually I went quite good, maybe not as fast as the mountainbikers but I could push after because my time trial abilities are really good.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou dream, you train, you work hard to get this one, you make a plan and today everything worked perfectly.\u201d<\/p>\n
Superior technique creates key split<\/h2>\nSof\u00eda G\u00f3mez Villafa\u00f1e wins the women\u2019s Graka 200 (Photo: Oriol Gonzalvo)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
There was less surprise about Villefa\u00f1e\u2019s triumph, partly due to her experience of off road racing and also her recent form. She has taken several victories this season, including the UCI Gravel World Series event in Castellon, plus the Mid South and Life Time Sea Otter Classic races.<\/p>\n
She and Larissa Hartog (Canyon x DT Swiss All Terrain Racing) got away early on and established what was a small but decisive gap. Hovering ahead of a number of chasers, Villafa\u00f1e distanced Hartog on the Els Metges climb but they came back together and from there built a more decisive lead.<\/p>\n
Villefa\u00f1e then went solo just over 10km from the finish line, racing in 1:09 ahead of Hartog and a huge 7:51 in front of Laing.<\/p>\n
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\u201cI think my high of the day was that downhill where Larisa and I got away,\u201d the two-time champ said. \u201cI think all day as we were getting closer and closer to the finish line I was just thinking of how cool it was that today\u2019s race-winning move came from two girls knowing how to ride their bikes really, really well.<\/p>\n
\u201cOkay, I attacked on the climb and that was the winning move in the end, but I think it sends a good message to a lot of girls to go spend time on your mountain bike, go spend some time in the skills park, learn how to ride your bike really well. Because some races are sometimes won on your ability to handle your bike. I hope that inspires a lot of young girls to prioritize working on skills. It is not just going uphill.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Traka program of events concludes on Sunday with the 100km races. The festival is considered Europe\u2019s answer to Unbound, and is a key stop in the Gravel Earth series.<\/p>\n
Traka 200:<\/h2>\n
Summary results: Men<\/strong><\/p>\n
1 Lukas Postlberger (Rose Cycling Circle) 200km in 6:04:42 \n2 Bryden Lange (Canyon x DT Swiss All-Terrain Racing) at 20 seconds \n3 Martin Sto\u0161ek (Buff BH)<\/p>\n
Summary results: Women<\/strong><\/p>\n
1 Sofia G\u00f3mez Villafa\u00f1e (Specialized Off-road) 200km in 6:54:42 \n2 Larissa Hartog (Canyon x DT Swiss All-Terrain Racing) at 1:09 \n3 Nele Laing (Canyon x DT Swiss All-Terrain Racing) at 7:51<\/p>\n
[analyse_image type=”featured” src=”https:\/\/velo-cdn.outsideonline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Villefane-Postlberger-Graka-200-podium.jpg”] Shane Stokes Updated May 2, 2026 02:12PM Past Giro d\u2019Italia stage winner Lukas P\u00f6stlberger and recent Life Time Sea Otter Classic winner Sof\u00eca G\u00f3mez Villafa\u00f1e were triumphant in the Traka 200 in Girona on Saturday, winning the men\u2019s and women\u2019s events. Former WorldTour pro P\u00f6stlberger (Rose Cycling Circle) landed the biggest result […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[226,71],"class_list":["post-1914706","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics","tag-crawlmanager","tag-velo-outsideonline-com"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1914706","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1914706"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1914706\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1914706"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1914706"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1914706"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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