'I can still win this day' – Alison Jackson recovers from mechanical to win middle stage at seven-day Gravel Burn

Alison Jackson (St Michel-Preference Home-Auber93) ignited the fourth day of racing at Nedbank Gravel Burn as the elite women contested their first bunch sprint, and the Canadian scored the unexpected victory after recovering from a mechanical.

Jackson returned for her second appearance at the weeklong 750km South African gravel stage race, where she finished 11th overall last year, and was looking for her first stage win.

“I approached this year differently; last year I had a surf camp ahead of the event but this year I kept riding, so I had no excuses. The first few days didn’t go to plan with crashes and mechanicals, but you never give up,” Jackson told organisers.

Jackson began the opening day of racing from Graaff-Reinet in the lead pack, which was split with 49km to go on the climb of Conical Peak, where Nele Laing (Canyon DT Swiss ATR) accelerated away. Jackson suffered a crash and then struggled in the chase on the hilly 90km route, finishing 7:30 off the pace to begin the week in seventh overall.

The next two stages combined for 242km and nearly 2,000 metres of elevation gain as the race moved south into the Great Karoo, a vast desert-like landscape that translates to ‘land of thirst’. The GC standings settled into place with Laing in the lead, South African gravel champion Hayley Preen (ChemChamp Honeycomb) in second place and Clara Koppenburg (Tudor Pro) in third, with Jackson into eighth.

During the loop route Wednesday through valley roads and then a climb back to Merino, Jackson dropped out of the lead group to deal with a battery mechanical on the rear derailleur. As the race camera caught her working on the bike at an aid station, she said, “I can still win this day”, and this proved to be a true statement.

She worked her way back on the loose gravel and dry dirt to catch the lead pack, and then surged from the 12-rider group in the closing 500 metres to win the stage.

"I know I can sprint – a sprinter can always sprint at the end; it doesn’t matter how tired you are,” the former Paris-Roubaix champion confirmed after the win. She's had a number of top 10s on the road this year, including stage 4 of the Giro d'Italia plus the time trial and road race at Canadian Nationals. At the UCI Gravel World Series event, The Gralloch, earlier this year, she finished sixth.

Laing comes to the race for the first time fresh off fourth place at UCI Gravel World Championships. She finished safely in the bunch behind Canyon DT Swiss ATR teammates, third place going to Larissa Hartog, who was also third at UCI Gravel Worlds for the Netherlands, and Carolin Schiff in sixth, and Jade Treffeisen going 10th. The German took the first orange leader's jersey with the opening stage win and now has 56 seconds on Preen and 4:14 on Koppenburg.

The men's division saw their second sprint finish of the week so far, stage 4 with 13 riders going to the line in a cloud of dust, with South Africans Travis Stedman (Toyota Specialized Imbuko) and Ryan Gibbons (RoadCover SunGod) going one-two and USA's Cole Davis (SpeedStudio) in third.

GC leader Matthew Beers (Toyota Specialized) let the breakaway go and finished 2:41 back, marking his rivals, with second-placed Filippo Colombo (Scott-SRAM) 32 seconds back and third-placed Tristan Nortje (Toyota Specialized Imbuko) at 51 seconds.

The final three stages take the riders to Gwanishi and the southernmost point at the Shamwari Private Game Reserve in the south. Beers seeks a second consecutive GC title, while defending women's champion Axelle Dubau-Prevot (EF Education-Oatly) has work to do to move from 13th position and 8:23 from Laing.