Logistics, cash and profession sustainability – Why some US riders are saying 'no' to UCI Gravel World Championships

As soon as once more, I’ve stated ‘no’ to an invite to characterize Workforce USA on the UCI Gravel World Championships. As a substitute, I’m specializing in the ultimate two occasions of the Life Time Grand Prix (LTGP).

For a lot of US gravel execs, the selection between the UCI Gravel World Championships and the LTGP isn’t nearly status. It’s a query of logistics, cash, and profession sustainability.

I weighed in with fellow riders on this topic, as all three girls on the US Gravel Nationwide Championships podium opted to not settle for roster spots for this 12 months’s World Championships – three-time US champion Lauren Stephens, silver medalist Sarah Lange, and I, the bronze medalist. Additionally passing on a spot was Alexis Skarda, who was seventh on the UCI Marathon MTB Worlds.

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Skarda, Lange, and I are preventing to remain within the prime 10 of this 12 months’s LTGP as nicely, which takes place throughout the following two weekends. Different riders will put on the red-white-and-blue colors for Workforce USA for elite and age group classes from October 11-12 within the Netherlands, and the ultimate begin lists shall be confirmed on October 8.

The calendar

First issues first. The timing of UCI Worlds is extremely inconvenient for LTGP riders. This 12 months’s UCI Gravel World Championships had been initially deliberate for Good, France, on October 18-19, which conflicted with Huge Sugar Gravel, the LTGP collection finale and necessary tiebreaker for total prize cash eligibility. Good pulled out within the spring and was changed by Zuid-Limburg area of the Netherlands, October 11 and 12. The revised dates, only a week earlier, nonetheless battle with LTGP, now in discord with Little Sugar MTB, which shares the identical weekend as UCI Worlds.

It isn’t only a schedule battle for a lot of elite riders, however a battle for incomes alternatives. A major variety of professional riders plan to take part within the Little and Huge Sugar races, providing $30,000, cut up evenly amongst women and men, per race. The highest 10 within the LTGP males’s and girls’s competitors will share a $200,000 prize purse after Huge Sugar.

I gained’t be racing Little Sugar MTB this 12 months, however I questioned if it will be smart to fly abroad for the UCI World Champs, then scramble again to Bentonville, Arkansas, and attempt to put together for a brand-new Huge Sugar Gravel course? That’s not a recipe for achievement.

Huge Sugar is excessive stakes. The course is totally completely different from years previous, and I need to journey each inch of the 100 miles forward of time, and maintain, or go higher, than my present eighth-place place within the collection. I’ll be arriving six days early in Arkansas, touring from Colorado, not from the Netherlands.

There’s lots on the road financially, and in contrast to Worlds, the LTGP is designed to assist riders who persistently carry out. It’s a way more sustainable mannequin, contributing to the expansion, if not the long-term viability, of the game.

The Worlds course

The UCI Gravel World Championships course doesn’t swimsuit me, or actually any of the US gravel racers. The distances are shorter than the LTGP gravel races, and the elevation is minimal:

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Elite Ladies: 131 km (81.4 mi), 1,190 m (3,904 ft)Elite Males: 181 km (112.5 mi), 1,650 m (5,413 ft)

Within the US, gravel is outlined by lengthy, uncovered and mentally grueling programs. At Unbound Gravel 200, the true racing often doesn’t kick off till a minimum of mile 80 (this 12 months being an exception). By comparability, UCI Worlds feels extra like a criterium on bike paths.

After I raced the primary version of Worlds in Veneto, Italy, in 2022, that’s precisely the way it felt. Fixed twists and paved connectors, I known as it “the Bike Path World Champs”. Thrilling? Sure. However something resembling gravel as we all know it within the US? Probably not. That’s unlucky, provided that the US is the birthplace of the self-discipline.

The cash (or lack thereof)

The caveat is that UCI Gravel Worlds value athletes cash – flights, floor transportation, meals, nationwide package ($400 per US athlete), and in some circumstances, lodging as nicely. All of it provides up quick. Sporting crimson, white and blue is undoubtedly an honor, however it’s an costly privilege.

In the meantime, the LTGP gives monetary and profession incentives. The collection supplies a storyline for followers to comply with from April to October, and we even get our personal buying and selling playing cards. Sponsors are occupied with having riders within the collection. We’re competing for a $200,000 collection prize purse, cut up evenly between the highest 10 for women and men. That is one other factor I really like about gravel and the LTGP’s dedication to gender fairness, each financially and by way of visibility.

Mockingly, we had a $20,000 prize purse on the 2025 US Gravel Nationwide Championships ($40,000 in 2024), cut up equally among the many prime 5 women and men (prime 7 in 2024). But, we had zero funding for American riders to attend the World Championships. Even with the payouts, the funds don’t totally cowl flights, lodging, mechanics, or every other bills related to representing Workforce USA.

Distinction that with Worlds: a assured monetary loss. If you happen to’re not on the rostrum? Your outcome barely registers.

Riders weigh in

Fellow US execs Stephens, Lange, and Skarda shared lots of the similar realities when deciding whether or not to make the journey to the Netherlands this fall. They weighed the status of sporting the nationwide jersey in opposition to the monetary and logistical pressure that comes with racing abroad.

Stephens, a seven-time Highway Worlds veteran, advised me she’s lengthy understood what to anticipate from the federation.

“USA Biking has at all times been clear about what bills fall on the riders,” she stated. “They do their finest, however full assist often goes to Olympic disciplines.”

When USA Biking supplied funding for the 2023 Gravel World Championships, Stephens stated she valued the crew expertise. However this 12 months, the occasion is transferring from Good to the Netherlands, so she opted out.

“The change in location, from Good to the Netherlands, was a giant issue,” she stated. “I’ve raced there (Netherlands) dozens of instances already.”

MTB professional and fellow LTGP competitor Skarda described the same equation when she lined up for the UCI Marathon MTB World Championships earlier this season.

“It value about $2,500 for the aircraft ticket and $400 for the USA package,” Skarda stated. “None of it was lined. If I hadn’t already been in Switzerland for one more race, the journey wouldn’t have been possible.”

Like many privateers, she additionally identified that racing in a nationwide package gives little return for private sponsors.

“My clothes sponsors spend money on me, however after I put on a nationwide package, they get no return,” she defined. “That makes it arduous for manufacturers to justify supporting Worlds.”

Lange balances an off-road professional biking profession with a full-time job as a dietician with a non-public apply in New Hampshire. She advised Cyclingnews that the chance to characterize Workforce USA, earned on September 21, got here too late as she had already set her affected person schedule for October.

“The gravel nationwide race was the top of September, after which Worlds lower than a month away. So journey logistics for me can be fairly tough. My affected person schedule was already set a month prematurely. My work, the fee [to travel] and I did not assume the course within the Netherlands was going to be a great one for me. It was a bit of of all [of these factors].”

These riders framed the choice as one between expertise and sustainability. “For expertise, Worlds. For my sponsors and my livelihood, the U.S. races,” Skarda stated.

Stephens advised that Gravel may have to discover new funding fashions.

“In cyclocross, there’s a privately funded venture known as the Filth Fund that helps riders get to Worlds,” she stated. “Perhaps it’s time to contemplate one thing related for gravel.”

Now, these riders are racing the place the expertise and affect really feel most significant. Stephens continues to make her personal calendar and fund her journey, this time heading to Gravel Burn in South Africa (Oct 25-31).

“I was so centered on racing that I didn’t prioritize the expertise itself,” Stephens added. “Now I’m searching for new experiences, and this journey will verify off my sixth continent of racing.”

The underside line

Whereas US riders typically self-fund their worldwide races, athletes from nations like Italy, Belgium, and the Netherlands obtain extra substantial backing. The rainbow jersey carries immense cultural weight, and World Champions are celebrated as nationwide heroes.

Nevertheless, not each federation is flush with sources. Canadian bike owner Magdeleine Vallières, regardless of her latest world championship title on the UCI Highway Championship, financed her personal journey to Kigali, Rwanda. Biking Canada known as the scenario “sophisticated”, promising reforms.

The present UCI World Championship setup requires US elite athletes to sacrifice financially and professionally for little or no in return. For a lot of, competing within the World Championships means spending $4,000–$6,000 out of pocket simply to be there, whereas sporting a nationwide package that gives minimal sponsor visibility and no prize purse. Some athletes settle for this as a singular alternative, and that’s effective.

In contrast, the Life Time Grand Prix has change into North America’s cultural equal of Worlds. The collection gives a prize purse, with extra purses in any respect six occasions, together with Unbound and Huge Sugar. Riders race in their very own kits, maximize sponsor publicity, and, for home riders, journey at a fraction of the fee. Extra importantly, the LTGP has change into a season-long storyline for followers, media, and types.

Whereas the rainbow jersey carries unmatched historic status, the monetary actuality for US riders tells a unique story. So this October, I gained’t be lining up within the Netherlands. I’ll be in Bentonville. It is a important choice to organize for Huge Sugar, which aligns with my skilled profession targets.

Get limitless entry to all of our protection of the 2025 UCI Gravel World Championships and the ultimate rounds of the Life Time Grand Prix – together with breaking information, interviews and evaluation reported by our journalists on the bottom in Limburg because the motion unfolds. Discover out extra.