‘I’m envisioning a 4-hour cyclocross race’ – Lauren Stephens says UCI Gravel Worlds field is stronger than ever

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.