Lukas Pöstlberger took a dramatic win in the men's Traka 200 today, finishing a just handful of seconds ahead of a chasing group containing US national gravel champion, Bradyn Lange.
The former WorldTour pro and Giro d'Italia stage winner blitzed the 202km course in just over six hours, aboard his Rose Backroad FF.
In contrast to the classic round tubes of Sofía Gómez Villafañe's Specialized S-Works Crux (which the Argentine rode to victory in the women's Traka 200), the Rose Backroad FF features a full complement of aerodynamically optimised tubes, as well as an integrated aero cockpit.
Pöstlberger also had a set of what appear to be unreleased Newmen aero gravel wheels, with super deep and wide carbon rims.
These were mounted with a set of 45mm-wide Schwalbe tyres, which is on the narrower side amongst the pro riders we saw at this year's Traka.
"Today everything went perfectly"
Speaking immediately after crossing the finish line, Pöstlberger said "really special" as it's "the biggest gravel race in Europe".
"You dream, you train, you work hard, you make a plan, and today everything went perfectly", Pöstlberger said.
In the end, it seems Pöstlberger's bike setup was ideal for the dry, dusty conditions the riders faced on the day.
Although we don't have any specific stats from Newmen to go on, there are a few things we can glean from the photos.
First of all, the rim depth is likely to be 62mm, given the rim stickers indicate the wheelset is called the Streem G.62 (where the 'G' presumably stands for 'gravel').
Text on the rim also indicates they have a 27mm internal width with 'tubeless crochet' (or 'hooked') rims.
While some pro racers were aboard 2.1in or even 2.25in cross country mountain bike tyres at this year's Traka, Pöstlberger opted for 45mm Schwalbe G-One RX Pro gravel tyres – one of our favourite gravel tyres for racing.
The Backroad FF officially has clearance for up to 50mm tyres, so it's possible Pöstlberger could have gone wider if desired, even if the remaining clearance looked fairly tight at a glance.
Like most racers at this year's Traka, Pöstlberger opted for a 1x drivetrain and was also one of many using SRAM's Red XPLR AXS gravel groupset.
It seems Pöstlberger used a 44-tooth chainring up front – relatively small by pro standards – paired with the XPLR groupset's standard 10-44t cassette at the rear.
He also used Time Atac XC/gravel pedals.
In place of the Backroad FF's standard integrated cockpit, which features 20mm of rise (for a higher, potentially more comfortable riding position), Pöstlberger opted to use the more aggressive handlebar from Rose's Shave FFX road bike.
While it isn't a perfect aesthetic match with the Backroad FF's head tube, the teams appears to have uses a 3D-printed headset spacer to ensure compatibility.
Like Gómez Villafañe, Pöstlberger also took a minimalist approach to carrying spares and fuel on his bike, with a tiny saddle being his only concession to luggage.
