The USA gravel championship puts $60,000 in prizes at stake, while in Europe gravel events don’t usually have prizes.
Gravel is going through a great moment in the USA
Competition on gravel is on another level in the USA. As it happened in his day in MTB, the USA has been a pioneer in creating races for this modality, in establishing the format of its resistance, regulations and… in giving the sport an important based on the economics of prizes. We’re not just talking about championships like the LifeTime Grand Prix. In the USA, gravel competitions seem to involve a competition to provide appropriate financial prizes. The most recent example is the first edition of the USA Gravel Championship.
$60,000 in prizes equally distributed between the men’s and women’s categories
Last week the first USA gravel championship was held. A way to make official a modality where there are very few official national championships. Surprisingly, a few days later one in Germany was also held. Although both are national championships, there is a big difference between them: the prize money.
In the USA Gravel Championships, $60,000 is at stake, while in Germany there is no prize money. In the USA, $30,000 is allocated to prizes in the men’s category and the same amount in the women’s category.
Lauren Stephens and Keegan Swenson, USA winners, took home $12,000 each. Carolin Schiff and Lukas Baum, winners of Germany, got nothing (the glory and the champion’s jersey were taken away).
Keegan Swenson
Although Europe copied a good part of the characteristics of the USA gravel competition…they “forgot” to copy the prize money.
Although European organizations are in a hurry to copy many characteristics of the gravel competition developed in the USA, they all seem to have forgotten about the prize money, which is very bright in the USA today and allows the creation of the entire ecosystem of runners focused on these tests from the road or MTB.
None of the European gravel races outside the UCI offer relevant financial prizes and in the UCI Gravel World Series events there are no cash prizes.
Today, in addition, there are some countries that have a national championship on gravel. For example, Spain does not have it.
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With a route of 210 km
As for the first USA clay championship, it was a success on all levels. It has many routes and places 41 different categories of play. The main events are held on a real gravel course, in pure endurance, with a length of 210 km.
Keegan Swenson, in incredible form in 2023 and dominating the entire USA season with an iron fist, was the best, reaching the finish line alone after 6 hours of racing.
Lauren Stephens also dominated the women’s event, with a time of 6 hours and 45 minutes, to take the women’s title.
Lauren Stephens
