Kasia Niewiadoma shows off her fresh rainbow jersey in a stunning solo victory at Big Sugar Gravel

Freshly crowned gravel world champion, Kasia Niewiadoma, rode her rainbow kit to a solo victory at her second-ever gravel race on Saturday, 21 October, at Big Sugar Gravel in Bentonville, Arkansas, USA.

"I feel like hearing about gravel beforehand I was like 'oh, sweet we’ll just ride for long and then relax and have fun' but it’s insanely hard, and I feel like every single roadie should know that because I know at some points we were like oh, gravel is for people who don’t want want to really race but it might be the opposite," Niewiadoma admits she overlooked gravel at first.

"To be honest, the last five kilometers I was like 'never again.' It’s super hard but I feel like yeah, always after winning and after a big suffer fest it feels so satisfying that you want more."

While Niewiadoma won the ladies race, it was Torbjørn Andre Røed's turn in the men's race. The Norwegian won in a sprint of five. Overall victory of the Life Time Grand Prix series go to U.S. national gravel champion Keegan Swenson (4th in Arkansas) and the formidable Sofia Gomez Villafañe, who each took home $25,000.