There is no downtime for Lauren Stephens after competing in three events at the recent Road Worlds in Zurich, as she has made the short trip over to Leuven to represent Team USA in the elite women's event at the UCI Gravel World Championships this weekend.
Stephens is one of several riders on the start list who was scheduled to compete in back-to-back World Championships including newly-crowned road race world champion Lotte Kopecky (Belgium) and under-23 road world champion and elite mountain bike world champion Puck Pieterse (Netherlands). But she said she has taken some time to recover between events and joined her teammates in previewing the off-road parcours to prepare for Saturday's race.
"I head straight to Belgium after the road race. I'll spend the week there recovering and doing recon of the Gravel Worlds course," Stephens told Cyclingnews before she competed in the individual time trial, mixed team relay and road race in Zurich.
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The elite women will race along a 133km route between Halle and Leuven on Saturday the day before the elite men's 182km race on Sunday.
Stephens often lines up at mass-start gravel events of equal distance in the US, such as Unbound Gravel 100 where she won this year, but she said that while race distances and event rules are part of a larger discussion when it comes to gravel racing, she expects that the shorter women's race and separate categories for the Worlds will offer great racing in Leuven.
"I'm not racing the men and I don't think it matters to compare to them," Stephens said. "The best distance for women should be set based on having a great women's race, it has nothing to do with what distance is good for the men's race. There are lots of factors that make our races different but that's a larger discussion."
One aspect of the rules at the UCI Gravel World Championships that Stephens supports is the start grid procedure. This was changed last year to a points system whereby positions are allocated based on a cumulation of points collected during the Gravel World Series events and the previous year’s Gravel World Championship, along with “50% of the points in the UCI rankings road, mountain bike cross-country (XCO), mountain bike marathon (XCM) and cyclocross".
"The field is growing and getting more competitive each year," Stephens said. "I would say the best improvement has been the start grid procedure, something I feel many races could learn from."
Stephens is familiar with some aspects of the route, which were part of the European Championships last year. But otherwise, much of the course will be a new undertaking for her, and with limited climbing, she anticipates a faster race that will slowly break apart on route to Leuven.
"Parts of the course were used last year in the European-Belgium Gravel Champs but much of the course I haven't seen yet. There are no major climbs like last year so things will break up slowly all race," Stephens said.
"The race will be very similar to classic races with big battles to be in the front to start each off-road sector. I'm envisioning a 4-hour cyclocross race."
There is a high-calibre field expected to compete in the event with 137 starters and Stephens, who secured her second consecutive national title, will be among the favourites.
Team USA initially announced a line-up that would include ten riders. However, due to a lack of financial and racing support from the federation for this event, several riders including Paige Onweller and Lauren De Crescenzo, have opted not to travel overseas and instead remain stateside to compete in the final Life Time Grand Prix event.
While Stephens chose not to comment on why her compatriots decided not to race in these UCI Gravel Worlds, she confirmed that there was a difference in the level of support from USA Cycling between her trips to Road Worlds and Gravel Worlds.
Stephens won her second consecutive national title at the USA Cycling Gravel Championships in September and also won Rattlesnake Gravel Grind, SBT GRVL and defended the women’s title at Garmin Gravel Worlds in Nebraska.
Although she hasn't competed in a UCI Gravel World Series event this year, she aims to finish on the podium in Leuven. She has raced in the previous two editions of the UCI Gravel World Championships finishing 6th in 2023 and 15th in 2022.
"It's very hard to know how you stand against the other top riders at Worlds. There are a few UCI gravel races during the year that see a few top riders at each. Then people who have never done a (UCI) gravel event that year, like me, show up!" Stephens said when asked how she thinks she will do in her third time racing the Gravel Worlds.
"That was the long way of saying I have no idea, but my goal is to be on the podium, just like every race."
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