A Stars and Stripes jersey and cold hard cash: the 2024 Gravel National Championships to offer a $40,000 prize purse for elite races

When the second annual USA Cycling Gravel National Championships return to Nebraska this September, the elite racers will be vying not just for the coveted title and Stars and Stripes jersey but for some cold, hard cash to boot.

Today, the National Federation announced that the elite races will have a $40,000 prize purse. While this is quite a bit less than last year's $60,000 prize purse, it is also substantially more than many of the top gravel events, like Unbound Gravel and Big Sugar, which offer no cash prize at all, or SBT GRVL with its $22,000 combined prize purse. 

“We are pleased to offer a $40,000 prize purse for the Elite races, with an equal pay out for men and women. As an organization, we are committed to supporting the sport of gravel racing, and this prize purse is testament to that,” said Kyle Knott, USA Cycling’s Director of National Events.

The top three finishers in the men's and women's elite categories will also automatically qualify to compete against the world's best at the UCI Gravel World Championships in Belgium in October, with full support from USA Cycling.

The 2024 USA Cycling Gravel National Championships will be held on Sunday, September 8, in Gering, Nebraska. In addition to the elite categories, there will be various age groups, para fields, a non-binary race, and a single-speed category. Podium finishers in these amateur categories will also punch their tickets to the world championships, albeit with the support of USA Cycling.

This year's courses are identical to last year's and are held on a vast network of dirt miles in Nebraska’s Landmark Country. All courses feature at least 90 percent gravel and range from 131.1 miles down to 24.8 miles for the youth categories. 

The long course will be contested by the elite, non-binary and singlespeed categories as well as agree groups 19 through 49. The men's and women's elite races will have their own start times but race on the same course. The route features a bumpy profile with 5,715 feet of elevation gain and a downhill, paved run-in to the finish. The official course maps can be found here.

The inaugural event drew highly competitive fields for elites and amateurs alike, with gravel pros like Keegan Swenson, Alexey Vermeulen, Pete Stetina, Payson McElveen, Lauren De Crescenzo, and Lauren Stephens vying for first-time honours and a slice of the substantial prize purse. 

The first-ever national titles were won by Keegan Swenson (Santa Cruz Bicycles/SRAM), and former U.S. national road champion Lauren Stephens (then of EF-Education Tibco-SVB,now Cynisca Cycling). Both represented the USA at the 2023 UCI Gravel World Championships, where they finished fifth and sixth, respectively. 

Registration for the USA Cycling Gravel National Championships is now open and can be found here.