Lauren Stephens has had blended fortunes this yr however they made a flip for the higher in current weeks, with the American signing a brand new contract with the US-based Continental workforce Cynisca and profitable the celebrities and stripes jersey in gravel racing.
Stephens’ long-time street workforce met its finish after Silicon Valley Financial institution failed, TIBCO ended its sponsorship and EF Training moved to the brand new girls’s workforce owned by the identical mother or father firm as the boys’s WorldTour workforce. Stephens wasn’t among the many riders snatched up regardless of her nonetheless being on the prime of her recreation on the age of 36, leaving her looking for a workforce in August. It was poor timing for a rider with ambitions of constructing the USA’s workforce for the 2024 Paris Olympics.
The silver lining till now has been her foray into gravel racing. She gained the ‘Gravel Worlds’ (unofficial) and the inaugural USA Biking Gravel Nationwide Championships in fast succession and, because of her victory within the latter, pocketed a cool $12,000 and a full trip to the UCI Gravel World Championships, which happen on Saturday in Veneto, Italy.
“That was an enormous motivation after they introduced that,” Stephens tells Cyclingnews of the federation’s assist for Worlds. Final yr, she paid her personal approach and he or she and her accomplice supplied mechanical assist for one another. This yr, she’ll have soigneurs, mechanics, and journey prices coated.
“I had my husband there with me final yr, however then he was racing the following day. So he was having to sacrifice – he was there serving to Emily Newsom and me, caring for us, then in a single day we needed to change locations. We’ll nonetheless each be there and be there serving to one another, however we’ll have extra individuals round so I am not totally having to consider every little thing.”
The assist takes care of lots of logistical complications, liberating riders as much as give attention to the race. “With the gravel, I do not know which tires I will run if I will want extra sealant or one thing else in case one thing goes fallacious – it is lots of stuff to pack. Figuring out that you’ve a workforce of assist there may be very nice. They usually’ve really opened up the assist to all of the riders on the workforce, and that is nice.”
The money got here at a welcome time as Stephens fields calls attempting to ink a contract for the 2024 street season. Girls hardly ever get a five-figure prize and it is even rarer at a nationwide championship.
“We do not even have prize cash at street nationwide championships! Pre-COVID we had like a small quantity of prize cash for nationals, however we’ve not had any since. So I ponder if they will unfold this out among the many different disciplines.”
The Gravel World Championship course was modified on the final minute with the UCI changing the unique organisers who shifted the route additional north so as to add extra climbing after final yr’s road-friendly course gained by Pauline Ferrand Prévot and Gianni Vermeersch.
“I received actually excited after they modified the course and I noticed that it was going extra North. Even earlier than they launched the GPX, I’ve raced in that space on the Giro so I knew in the event that they have been going north there’s undoubtedly extra possibilities of it getting hillier. Even final yr, you would see the hills within the distance from the place we have been. Having the hills extra in direction of the top, I believe it might come all the way down to lots of teamwork. Having a workforce in these flats is vital. After which yeah, as soon as we begin entering into the funkier stuff, it will get be like a traditional fashion race, I’d assume.”
Stephens simply hopes to have a greater time this yr than when she got here into the 2022 inaugural version after being sick within the lead-up.
“I ended up in the primary breakaway, however at 30k to go I ended up in a full physique cramp. The race wasn’t loopy lengthy – there wasn’t actually any reply to why that will have occurred to me besides that I might been sick and my physique simply wasn’t prepared. In order that was fairly disappointing. I’ve by no means been in a breakaway scenario the place I could not pull via. They have been all yelling at me and I am like, ‘I am not faking I promise’. Lastly, we went round a steep switchback part I cramped. I ended up simply nursing myself in and I believe I completed in a prime 20.”
When Cyclingnews spoke with Stephens, she had been working nonstop to discover a new workforce after being “a bit misplaced” following the information that her present squad would finish after a decade of racing with them.
“I am unable to consider I have been on the identical workforce just about my entire profession as an expert rider. I undoubtedly went via feeling a bit misplaced as a result of it has been my house for the final 10 years.
“There are some choices on the market however I am attempting to determine what’s the best choice for me – if I keep on with the street and nonetheless do gravel with street being the precedence or if I’m going full gravel, privateer. These are the 2 major choices.”
Choice one it’s with the contract at Cynisca, and her hope for the Olympics comes after some stable outcomes this season. They embody the silver medal on the USA Biking Nationwide Championships simply 9 seconds behind Chloé Dygert within the 23.2km time trial, and fourth within the Chrono de Gatineau simply 5 days after the 130-mile Gravel Worlds.
“That is the primary motive I am wanting to stay with the street – after ending second within the TT at Nationals this yr. I suppose that confirmed me I’ve the chance to go to the Olympics and a street workforce goes to have the ability to present that assist in getting ready for the time trial. And the time trial could be my approach into the Olympics, after which I’d get to do the street race if I used to be chosen for the TT.”
