Lauren De Crescenzo (Cinch Elite) has already won a title at the Gravel Worlds in Nebraska and now aims for the UCI Gravel World Championships title as one of five elite women added to the national roster by USA Cycling.
De Crescenzo joins Cinch teammate Holly Mathews, EF Education-TIBCO-SVB teammates Lauren Stephens and Emily Newsom and Sarah Sturm (Specialized/ Rapha/ Wahoo) on the US team. Alex Howes (EF Education-EasyPost) leads the men’s elite roster, joined by Mat Stephens, Jacob Peterson and David Van Orsdel. A fifth male added to the team is 20-year-old Andy Lydic.
These 10 athletes will join 49 other US riders who will compete at the inaugural gravel competition, October 6-7 in Veneto, Italy, after they earned qualification at UCI-sanctioned gravel events or through a petition process for amateur age categories.
The elite women, women’s age groups, and men’s 50+ categories will race on Saturday, October 8 on a 140km course that features 69% gravel. The elite men and under-49 age groups will race Sunday on the same route but the elite men will face an additional 25km final circuit completed twice for 190km. In the elite men’s contest, gravel represents 73% of the course.
The US has a stacked women’s team in the elite categories, led by Sturm and De Crescenzo. Sturm is currently second overall on the women’s leaderboard of the Life Time Grand Prix series. Having completed the first five events, with one to go in the series. Sturm was second overall at Crusher in the Tushar, had two fourth-place finishes at Leadville 100 MTB and Chequamegon MTB Festival, and was fifth at Unbound Gravel 200.
Cinch Cycling’s Holly Mathews supported Lauren De Crescenzo in her GC win at Tour of the Gila and a silver medal at the US pro road race championship. De Crescenzo then went off the road and took a second women’s title on the black course at SBT GRVL this year, after finishing second at Unbound Gravel 200, then took the title at Gravel Worlds. Mathews, who won The Rift Gravel in 2021, finished 16th at Unbound 200 and 10th at SBT GRVL.
EF Education-TIBCO-SVB teammates Emily Newsom and Lauren Stephens also had success across multiple disciplines.
Newsom, who finished 12th at US Pro in the road race and sixth in the ITT, was third overall at this year’s Unbound Gravel 200 and seventh at Crusher in the Tushar, then adding third at Gravel Locos in Pueblo, Colorado in early October. She is seventh overall in the Life Time series.
Stephens, who was strong at US Pro Road Nationals with the bronze medal in the road race and fourth in the time trial, was one of the protected riders for Team USA at the Worlds road race in Wollongong. But she was not feeling her best after a 56-hour trip to make it to Australia and did not finish. She has had a few crashes and untimely mechanicals (Unbound) this season and a bout with COVID so has not had a chance to add results on gravel to a pair of Unbound 100 wins. She did travel to Denmark after Road Worlds to compete at the UCI MTB Marathon World Championships, finishing in the top 30.
The men’s elite team is led by Alex Howes, the 2021 SBT GRVL men’s winner. He is part of the Life Time series and is 11th among the men’s contingency after a fifth place in the Chequamegon MTB Festival.
Peterson made a “legit last minute change” to his domestic programme and competed at the Highlands Gravel Classic in Fayetteville, Arkansas, where he finished sixth in the men's 19-34 age category and 11th overall. He was eighth at Ned Gravel in Colorado.
Mat Stephens specialises in ultra-endurance events and placed third last year at Unbound Gravel XL, 350 miles. This year he was second in the 300-mile event at Gravel Worlds in Nebraska.
The 38-year-old David van Orsdel hails from Minnesota but has lived in Italy since retiring from the pro road peloton 10 years ago.
“At this UCI World Gravel Championships, I’m caught between the two worlds. I’m American through and through, but everything I’ve ever learned about cycling comes from the super traditional Italian cycling landscape. What a rush to take on the most American of cycling’s disciplines in a European-dominated world on their (and kind of my) home turf,” said Van Orsdel on Instagram about his first career ride for a US national team.
Lydic, who won Crooked Gravel in Colorado and was in the top 25 at SBT GRVL, qualified for the World Championships at Ranxo in Spain.
The UCI Gravel World Series offered 11 races this year, beginning in the Philippines in April and concluding September 17-18 with races in the Netherlands and Spain.
As part of the UCI’s Cycling for All initiative, the top 25% of each category at each event in the UCI Gravel World Series automatically earned a spot on the World Championship team. Each national federation then had the opportunity to enter more athletes, up to 20, across all categories via quota spots, with athletes required to petition to be part of the quota selection process.
A total of 44 Americans qualified at the Highlands Gravel Classic (USA), Wish One Gravel Race (France), La Monsterrato (Italy), and Houffa Gravel (Belgium). The additional five additional riders selected via the petition process included Rachel Losada (19-34 Women), Michael Garrison (19-23 Men), Betsy Welch (40-44 Women), Chad Underwood (45-49 Men) and Richard Mull (70-74 Men).
