USA Cycling has announced its wildcard athletes for the 2024 UCI Gravel World Championships in Belgium, and while it's no surprise to see national champions Brennan Wirtz and Lauren Stevens on the team, there are some notable absences.
Keegan Swenson, a strong American gravel racer who finished in the top five in last year's rainbow jersey race, was not on the list. No explanation was given in the announcement.
Instead, the list of seven wildcard entrants on the elite men's team includes newly reigning national champion Wirtz, as well as John Borstelman and the experienced Ted King, Andrew Riddick, Justin McQuarrie, Ethan Auberson and Colby Simmons, with the Visma Lease-A-Bike rider being the youngest wildcard member on the U.S. team.
Led by Stevens, who placed sixth in last year's competition, the women's elite team wildcard entries include Lauren de Crescenzo, Whitney Allison, Laura King, Shayna Powless, Safia Sugar, Hannah Shell, Kylie Spearing, Leah van der Linden and Caroline Lessin.
Matt Stevens and Todd Hageman were selected to compete in their age divisions, along with 19 other wild card entries, filling the 20 wild card spots available to the national federation.
There are other ways to qualify for the UCI World Championships, with Gravel World Series races acting as qualifiers, with spots allocated to national gravel champions, meaning the list of elite riders who qualify for the race extends beyond those given wild cards, with riders such as Chad Haga and Heidi Franz among those who have qualified through the Gravel World Series.
Yet, qualifying or selection for the elite team does not translate into financial support to race in Belgium, so there are many examples of riders who had the option to compete at the UCI World Championships but chose not to.
USA Cycling stated in this year's selection documents: “Athletes who receive automatic invitations from the UCI or who are nominated through USA Cycling's athlete discretionary selection process will be responsible for all expenses associated with the event. USA Cycling does not assume financial responsibility to any athletes.”
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The federation had previously announced its intention to open spots to the top five finishers in the Elite Gravel National Championships, but it appears that not everyone has made it in. Among the top five riders were Easter Griffin, Paige Onweller, Alexis Scalda and Cecilie Decker, but they are not on the list of wild card entries or elite riders who qualified through the Gravel World Series.
USA Cycling isn't the only team missing a top gravel athlete, with Cycling Australia also announcing earlier this week that reigning Australian national gravel champion Brendan Johnston would not be automatically qualified to compete.
The UCI Gravel World Championships take place in Belgium on 5-6 October, with the elite women's race taking place on Saturday over 134km of course, more than half of which is on dirt roads, while the elite men's race will be contested over 181km on Sunday.
Enjoy unlimited access to all our coverage of the 2024 UCI Gravel World Championships, including the latest news and analysis from our journalists on-site at the Elite Women's and Elite Men's events. Find out more here.
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