'That gave me so much confidence' - Gravel win over Nino Schurter and stacked field at The Hills fuels Bradyn Lange for success at Sea Otter Classic

Two wins in his last two spring outings confirm Bradyn Lange (Canyon x DT Swiss All-Terrain Racing) is ready for prime time on gravel. With a sprint victory ahead of Keegan Swenson (Specialized Off-road) on Thursday at the Sea Otter Classic gravel race, he takes a spot at the top of the Life Time Grand Prix leaderboard.

It's been an authoritative start to the year for the 26-year-old mountain bike specialist, who wears the stars-and-stripes jersey as elite men's US gravel champion. He's one of the few veterans in the Grand Prix series, having been selected all five years and only finishing in the top 10 last year, tied for seventh. And it's been five years between wins in the series, his last as a 22-year-old at Chequamegon MTB. His progression took a steep educational step last year with the national title.

"Last year was a big year of growth for me. Winning Gravel Nationals, that was my first big leap of confidence, I would say. And ever since then, I've just been building and building, just gaining confidence. I think that's my biggest thing right now," he told Life Time organisers after his win Thursday, having a renewed focus on the series.

This season, he started with 18th overall at Santa Vall in February, then took a solo win at The Hills gravel race in Spain, part of the Gravel Earth Series. It wasn't just how he raced across the course with 2,300 metres (7,545 feet) packed into 120km (74.5-mile), rather it was who he beat, namely Nino Schurter (Scott-SRAM MTB), a 10-time MTB World Champion and Olympic Champion who retired from competitive mountain bike racing last season.

"That was the biggest win of my career, for sure. That gave me so much confidence, going away solo too. I didn't think that would have been possible at The Hills. So that was good for my confidence," Lange said, when asked about beating his childhood hero Schurter.

Lange won The Hills 12 seconds ahead of Petr Vakoč, a former winner at The Traka 200, and was 1:49 better than Schurter, who finished fifth.

He said his mountain bike skills paid off Thursday at Sea Otter, especially adapting to the race scenario on the fly with an unexpected two-up tactical sprint against another icon who came from mountain biking, Swenson. With 8km (5 miles) to go in the Monterey, California race, Lange and Swenson distanced themselves from a small lead group and went together into the Laguna Seca Racetrack final stretch of twisting sand and tarmac to settle accounts.

"I thought, no way it's going to come to a sprint. It was so windy out there. I figured it would blow up on the final climb. I didn't even look at the plan in my head for a sprint," Lange said, attacking on the final corner in the final 200 metres for the win.

“To finish with a sprint against Keegan was probably one of the best ways to win. Going to the line with the guy who’s won the most Grand Prix races was super special and a huge confidence boost; I couldn’t be happier.”

Endurance is not an obstacle for the off-road rider who spent years on the World Cup mountain bike circuit racing compact short track and fiery XCO events. He has a pair of top 10s from Leadville Trail 100 MTB, and has competed at Marathon MTB World Championships.

While Swenson won the rainbow jersey at UCI Marathon Mountain Bike Worlds last year, Lange finished 17th in an event he called "the sickest race I've done", due to the 17,000 feet of elevation gain packed into 76 miles. It is on his radar again this year.

"I wouldn't say I'm putting everything into gravel. I still have a lot of mountain bike ambitions and goals, like the second half of the season, Marathon World Championships and some of the Hero series, [US] marathon nationals, and the mountain bike Grand Prix races. So I'm enjoying doing both, mixing it up, doing both."

Lange will line up at The Growler at Levi's GranFondo on April 25, where he finished fifth last year. He'll square off again with pros from the Sea Otter Classic top five, including Swenson, Alexey Vermeulen, who was third, and Matt Beers, who finished fifth. Also racing will be Peter Stetina, Simon Pellaud, Michael Woods, Brendan Johnston and Brennan Wertz.

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