Lauren Stephens (EF Education-Tibco-SVB) has quickly adapted from road mode and found her gravel legs, claiming the elite women’s stars-and-stripes jersey at the first-ever USA Cycling Gravel Championships.
Stephens covered the 131.4-mile race, held in Gering, Nebraska on Saturday, with a winning time of 6:45:53. She took the victory by 2:41 ahead of runner-up Alexis Skarda (Santa Cruz Bicycles) and 7:29 ahead of third-placed Crystal Anthony (Liv Racing Collective).
“I had no idea what would happen. I haven’t been racing much gravel so I don’t know many of the girls but it was an awesome race,” said Stephens.
The rider had used her winning effort at the long-standing grass roots Gravel Worlds in Nebraska last month to successfully tune her form for Gering after finishing a road block, which concluded with an 18th place at the Road World Championships elite women’s race in Glasgow.
The host location, Gering, is a small town in the far western part of Nebraska just across the border from Colorado near the base of the Scotts Bluff National Monument. The elite men’s and women’s national championships race was held along a 131.4-mile course that included 5,600 feet of elevation gain, and 90% of the route was on gravel roads.
“I’d never ridden one of these long races so Gravel Worlds over in Lincoln, Nebraska is 150 miles so I thought that’d be a good, you know, checkpoint to make sure I could survive 130. Luckily this was about two and a half hours less.”
Stephens went out early with the lead group of three, then when the attacks began put down some counters of her own, dropping her rivals one by one to continue on solo and claim the title, along with the generous prize purse that comes with it.
The race was also a qualifying event for the UCI Gravel World Championships that are set to take place in Veneto, Italy, on October 7, and the top three of the elite women’s race at nationals automatically qualifies for the second UCI sanctioned Gravel World Championships.
More to come …
| Pos. | Rider Name (Country) Team | Result |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Lauren Stephens (EF EDUCATION-TIBCO-SVB) | 6:45:33 |
| 2 | Alexis Skarda (Santa Cruz Bicycles) | +2:41 |
| 3 | Crystal Anthony (Liv Racing Collective) | +7:29 |
| 4 | Lauren De Crescenzo (CINCH Racing | +8:22 |
| 5 | Jenna Rinehart (Nicollet Bike) | +8:56 |
| 6 | Cecily Decker (Scuderia Pinarello) | +15:13 |
| 7 | Paige Onweller (Trek/WTB/ABUS/HED/SRAM) | +15:16 |
| 8 | Emily Newsom (Roxo Racing) | Row 7 – Cell 2 |
| 9 | Aria Mundy | +15:18 |
| 10 | Whitney Allison (Bike Sports) | +32:52 |
| 11 | Anna… |
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