The USA has named the 24 athletes it will be sending to the World Championships in Leogang in October. The squad is made up of 11 XC riders and 13 downhill riders.
The XC squad will be pinning its hopes on 2018 World Champion and 2019 World Cup Overall Champion Kate Courtney alongside US National Champ Keegan Swenson. Christoph Belvins will also be a medal hope in the Under 23 men's event after earning a silver medal in 2018.
In the downhill, Aaron Gwin will be chasing after the Rainbow Stripes that have eluded him throughout his successful career and he will be joined by a super-strong team of elite male riders that all have World Cup podiums in their palmares.
Jim Miller, USA Cycling’s Chief of Sport Performance, said: “We’re bringing a highly focused team and a group of medal capable athletes competing against the best in the world. Some of the athletes have done only a handful of races this year, for others this will be their first of the season. Regardless of the challenges many have faced this year, we believe we are bringing one of the strongest teams we have ever had. For the Cross-Country racers, many have their eyes on the Olympic Games in 2021 with this race being a big factor in the qualification process.”
The Team USA roster is as follows:
Cross-Country
Elite Men
Keegan Swenson (Park City, Utah; Stan's-Pivot Pro Team p/b Maxxis)
Elite Women
Kate Courtney (Kentfield, Calif.; SCOTT/ SRAM Racing)
Hannah Finchamp (Altadena, Calif.; Orange Seal Off-Road Team)
Erin Huck (Boulder, Colo.; Stages Cycling-Scott)
*Lea Davison and Chloe Woodruff have both been nominated to the team, but declined their spots.
U23 Men:
Christopher Blevins (Durango, Colo.; Specialized Factory Racing)
U23 Women:
Haley Batten (Park City, Utah; Specialized Factory Racing)
Junior Men:
Riley Amos (Durango, Colo.; Bear Development Team)
Bjorn Riley (Boulder, Colo.; Bear Development Team)
Junior Women:
Ruth Holcomb (Durango, Colo.; Bear Development Team)
Madigan Munroe (Boulder, Colo.; Trek Factory Racing)
Haley Randel (Mill Valley, Calif.; Bear Development Team)
Downhill
Elite Men:
Aaron Gwin (Murietta, Calif.; Intense Factory Racing)
Charlie Harrison (Trabuco Canyon, Calif.; Trek Factory Racing)
Neko Mulally (Pisgah Forest, N.C.; Intense Factory Racing)
Dakotah Norton (Knoxville, Tenn.; Unior Devinci Factory Racing)
Luca Shaw (Hendersonville, N.C.; Santa Cruz Syndicate)
Elite Women:
Mazie Hayden (Pittsfield, Vt.; Defiant Racing)
Anna Newkirk (Riehen, Switzerland; SRAM Young Guns Racing)
Junior Men:
Austin Dooley (Yucaipa, Calif.; Commencal)
Christopher Grice (Brevard, N.C.; Specialized Factory Racing)
Dante Silva (Chula Vista, Calif.)
Matthew Sterling (San Jose, Calif.; Giant Factory Off-Road Team)
Junior Women:
Ella Erickson (Hayden, Idaho)
Bruni, Iles or Vergier will take it!
Neko and Dak are currently no podium riders at WC imho. Syndicate and Team Specialized are well prepared. Danny Hart is never to be despised.
Pierron will be missed!
Gwin is a wonder bag this year but he really really deserves it!
Going to be interesting for sure.
Thx Google
Who else has the pedigree at Leogang? No one really that I can think of. Has anyone else won it more than once? Minnaar?
Best of luck to him anyway. I really want him to win. Hopefully it doesn’t get cancelled.
So back in March we had a lockdown due to a rapid rise in CoViD-19 cases. If you look at the numbers from back then, we were doing about 5000 tests per day, up until about the mid of June. We saw a peak of positive reults at about 1000 cases per day near the end of March (I know, rookie numbers in this racket), and a decline from thereon. The measures, whatever you may think of them, did have an effect.
From the mid of June onwards we had a more or less linear increase of testing capacity, to the point where we are at about 15000 test per day today. What we are seeing, however, is a stronger than linear increase of positive reults!
info.gesundheitsministerium.at/?l=en shows the epidemiological curve illustrating the actual increase in the number of people who tested positive.
Keep in mind that it's just the positive cases, no weighting against the number of test is applied. Like I said, from the mid of June onwards we had a more or less linear increase in tests, but the trend is increasing steeper than linear. Some say we're seeing the second wave.
What I'd like to say is, stay healthy and remain cautious
ourworldindata.org/grapher/positive-rate-daily-smoothed?tab=chart&time=earliest..latest&country=~AUT®ion=Europe
old matey @Rodeodave never mentioned the age range once
But yeah orange man bad or something, just out of curiosity where are you from?
And what a terrible position to be in for Chloe and Leah. Both such great racers, but I totally understand their decision to sit this one out.
Also at this rate, I expect that the US team (all of them) may not be able to go to the olympics next summer?