From surprise Unbound 200 win in 2024 to a crash, wrong turn and fourth place in 2025 – ‘That’s racing' says Rosa Klöser
'I will, for sure, come back next year and trꦫy to better that result,' de🃏fending champion says about Kansas campaign

Rosa Klöser had cautioned her rivals as she headed into 澳洲幸运5开奖官网在线查询开奖结果:Unbound Gravel 200 that her plan for Saturday’s race was not to easily pass over the defence of the Unbound 200 crown, but ‘make ꦚtheir life as hard as possible’. The race, ♉which rarely respects even the best laid plans, however, had other ideas, making her attempt to defend as hard as possible.
Racing with Canyon-SRAM-MAAP on the gravel, 澳洲幸运5开奖官网在线查询开奖结果:Klöser was clearly heading into the event with solid form, having taken second at 澳洲幸运5开奖官网在线查询开奖结果:The Traka 200 earlier this month in Spain. But the chips weren’꧑t falling in her f💮avour from early on in the 200-mile race in Kansas.
"I think the race today was characterised, unfortunately, from the start, by a lot of crashes," Klöser said.
"There was a lot of nervousness in the group, and then once we hit the road divide, there were a lot of small mud sections and ruts and at this point, I🍎 would say the race kind🤪 of split open, or was decided.
"Unfortunately, me and Geerike Schreurs, we went face down into the mud because a rider crashed in front of us sideways. Then, as we were back on the bike and back with the group of main favourites, we only figured out that there were three riders up the road when they already had th🎉ree or five minutes."
That group was a strong one, including PAS Racing teammates Karolina Migoń and Cecily Decker along with Lauren Stephens, last year’s Unbound 100 winner.
"The race was kind of almost over at that point, because there was no good collaboration in the group at all," said Klöser. "It was a big g💮roup, so no one really wanted to work."
Staying true to her pledge not to make i꧟t easy on her rivals, the rider from Germany wasn’t going to leaꦜve it at that.
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"I got really frustrated and really tried to put in a loꦿt of൩ attacks," she said. "In the end, fortunately, it worked and then four riders got away."
The three remaining with Klöser included two other former winners, Sofia Gomez Villafañe (Specialized) and Lauren De Crescenzo (Factor), along with Cecile Lejeune (CCB p/b Levine Law). The quartet collaborated to try and pull in the riders out front, but they only managed to pull back Stephens, so given Migoń and Decker had already swept up the top spots, the four approac♏hed the line together to sp꧒rint for third place.
"I was actually quite confident that I had the sprint," said Klöser, wo secured the victory in a nine-way💟 dash to the line last year. "So I didn't mind going to the finish line with the girls, because I usually have a good sprint after such a long day."
However, then the defending champion spotted an excited spectator waving and cheering and t꧙hought she needed 🧜to turn one way, when the route actually went another.
"Unfortunately, I just😼 took a wrong turn before the finish line so I had to unclip, t𓆉urn around and get back," said Klöser.
"The other three girls were already ahead of me, so I kind of already had to do a sprint to catch up with them on the line and then, unfortunately, I had꧟ to settle for fourth today."
Villafañe would grab the final spot for the podium ahead of Klöser. It was the second time thi⛄s mo▨nth that the leader of the Life Time Grand Prix would go one position better than the German, as Villafañe won The Traka 200, though on that occasion the difference was 44 seconds.
"But yeah, thatℱ's racing. I will, for 🤪sure, come back next year and try to better that result."
Subscribe to Cyclingnews for unlimited access to our coverage of Unbound 2025. Don't miss any of the breaking news, reports, analysis and more from the biggest gravel race of the season, reported by our journalists on the ground in Kansas. 澳洲幸运5开奖官网在线查询开奖结果:Find out more.

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 pursuitꦓ for Simone, who started out as a business journalist, but in 2015 her career focus also shifted to the sport.
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