News: Danni Shrosbree and Jacob Vaughan 2022 Gravel Champions

The 2022 British Gravel champions were crowned at the King’s Cup in Suffolk on Saturday. Danni Shrosbree and Jacob Vaughan took the honours in two different but equally exciting races around the King’s Forest, near Bury St Edmunds.

News: Danni Shrosbree and Jacob Vaughan 2022 Gravel Champions

Event Press Release:

The 2022 British Gravel champions were crowned at the King’s Cup in Suffolk on Saturday. Danni Shrosbree and Jacob Vaughan (Saint Piran) took the honours in two different but equally exciting races around the King’s Forest, near Bury St Edmunds. As well as the outright national champions, Emma Jeffers and JRC Interflon teammate Dylan Humber-Kelly win the Junior races. The day also saw Masters age group races with hundreds of riders from all over the UK and beyond, with national titles awarded to all categories and genders.

In a quirk of fate, Shrosbree did not win her race though, the CAMS-Basso rider finishing a close second behind South African Tiffany Keep (LDN-Brother UK). Both Shrosbree and Keep were members of a five-woman group with formed on the opening lap and managed to build a commanding lead of well over three minutes as the 76.5km race wore on. The final lap saw a number of attacks, though with just over three kilometres to go Keep made the decisive move, using her mountain bike skills to her advantage, taking Shrosbree with her and holding on for the win.

“It’s still sinking in really, I wasn’t expecting that. This was my first ever gravel race, I decided to do something at the end of the season,” Keep said afterwards. For Shrosbree it was bitter-sweet taking the title but not the race win. “It was a mega race, I knew Tiffany is a very good mountain biker and if you’re a mountain biker you have one up,” she explained. “I was racing her into the corner and she just got in front of me, I knew I had to try and click on but she just gapped me a little bit on the technical sections, but it was such a good race.”

“My intention was to go out hard and keep it that way for as long as possible, and within the first lap we had the same five which stayed for the whole race. We were all working pretty well, but I definitely sat on the front a lot, but that’s my nature, I just love drilling it!”

MENS RACE

Held over the exact same route and distance as the women, the men’s race was dominated by a lone, long-range attack by Mikey Mottram (Spectra-Wiggle) who attacked on the opening lap and held off a group of eight chasers until deep into the fourth 15.3km circuit. Once caught he continued attacking, though he was beaten in the sprint. As for Jacob Vaughan (Saint Piran) he played the perfect race, working hard as one of the chasing group, before positioning himself perfectly in the final 700m. With just 100m remaining he opened his sprint, winning by a clear margin to take the title.

“I’ve had a bit of a tough season, so I couldn’t believe it to be honest, coming across the line, it was nice to get the hands up,” Vaughan said. “There were a couple of real strong guys out there, like Mikey Mottram, I don’t know how he stayed out so long on his own. And then we had some strong guys in our group, to be fair I didn’t do loads of work, but chapeau to them because they were super strong.”

“I got quite lucky on the finish, I managed to come from a sandy section in second wheel, so perfect position, but there was a bit of shoulder barging, everyone getting into position.”