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 group Cynisca and profitable the celebrities and stripes jersey in gravel racing.
Stephens’ long-time highway group met its finish after Silicon Valley Financial institution failed, TIBCO ended its sponsorship and EF Training moved to the brand new girls’s group owned by the identical mum or dad firm as the boys’s WorldTour group. 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 group in August. It was poor timing for a rider with ambitions of creating the USA’s group 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 journey 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 associate 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 all the things.”
The assist takes care of a variety of logistical complications, liberating riders as much as concentrate on the race. “With the gravel, I do not know which tires I’ll run if I’ll want extra sealant or one thing else in case one thing goes fallacious – it is a variety of stuff to pack. Understanding that you’ve a group of assist there may be very nice. And so they’ve really opened up the assist to all of the riders on the group, and that is nice.”
The money got here at a welcome time as Stephens fields calls making an attempt to ink a contract for the 2024 highway season. Ladies hardly ever get a five-figure prize and it is even rarer at a nationwide championship.
“We do not even have prize cash at highway nationwide championships! Pre-COVID we had like a small quantity of prize cash for nationals, however we have not had any since. So I’m wondering 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 obtained 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 positively extra probabilities of it getting hillier. Even final yr, you possibly can 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 a variety of teamwork. Having a group in these flats is vital. After which yeah, as soon as we begin entering into the funkier stuff, it will get be like a basic model race, I might suppose.”
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 would been sick and my physique simply wasn’t prepared. In order that was fairly disappointing. I’ve by no means been in a breakaway state of affairs the place I could not pull by means of. 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 group after being “a bit misplaced” following the information that her present squad would finish after a decade of racing with them.
“I can not consider I have been on the identical group just about my entire profession as an expert rider. I positively went by means of 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 making an attempt to determine what’s the best choice for me – if I keep on with the highway and nonetheless do gravel with highway being the precedence or if I’m going full gravel, privateer. These are the 2 foremost 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 cause I am wanting to stay with the highway – after ending second within the TT at Nationals this yr. I assume that confirmed me I’ve the chance to go to the Olympics and a highway group 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 might get to do the highway race if I used to be chosen for the TT.”