USA Cycling has made three new additions to its elite selections set to compete at the UCI Road World Championships held from September 18-25 in Wollongong, Australia. The national federation confirmed to Cyclingnews that Keegan Swenson and Scott McGill would join the elite men’s team, and Heidi Franz has been named to the elite women’s team.
USA Cycling announced an initial roster of 24 riders representing the United States at the Wollongong Worlds last month. However, according to a representative from the federation, there have been changes to the original selection due to securing last-minute travel visas, a spike in travel costs, the points chase in the ongoing WorldTour relegation battle, and riders citing fatigue after a busy racing season.
“On Monday, the roster gets posted to the UCI. Once that is posted, no one else can be added, but it still isn’t a guarantee that all those people make it to the starting line,” USA Cycling told Cyclingnews, noting that they are doing their best to send the strongest team to compete at Wollongong Worlds.
The initial selection for the elite women’s team included Krista Doebel-Hickok, Emma Langley and Veronica Ewers (both EF Education-TIBCO-SVB), Kristen Faulkner (Team BikeExchange-Jayco), Leah Thomas (Trek-Segafredo), Skylar Schneider (L39ion of Los Angeles), and Coryn Labecki (Team Jumbo-Visma).
Notably absent from the initial roster was Megan Jastrab (Team DSM), who would have been a contender for the new under-23 women’s title available as part of a combined under-23/elite women’s road race.
“As far as the U23 Women’s race, the race is within the Elite Women’s race, therefore, the U23 rider(s) has to be selected and qualify based on the Elite Women’s Selection Criteria. Megan Jastrab was our best rider to take on the U23 role, but she ultimately decided that the course would not suit her,” USA Cycling told Cyclingnews.
Labecki announced that she had been forced out of the Wollongong Worlds after she sustained a broken collarbone and rib following a crash at Simac Ladies Tour. USA Cycling told Cyclingnews that Labecki’s replacement on the elite women’s Worlds team would be announced along with the sixth member of the elite men’s team.
“Coryn has been a leader in American bike racing and the professional peloton for years. It has been a tough season for Coryn. Ending it with a broken collarbone and missing out on her eighth World Championships is extremely unfortunate,” a representative of USA Cycling told…
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