Closing out September in Colorado, Cole Davis (Undertaking Echelon Racing) earned two firsts – a gravel victory on his second-ever begin and a roster spot on Workforce USA for the 2025 UCI Gravel World Championships.
After a full street season with US-based Continental group Undertaking Echelon Racing, ending robust with second on the one-day Bucks County Basic in Pennsylvania, Davis was about to take pleasure in some low season time with household in Leadville, Colorado.
As an alternative, his low season turned an off-road alternative that led him to Minnesota, then southern Colorado and western North Carolina, culminating in a journey this week to the Netherlands.
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On the USA Biking Gravel Nationwide Championships in La Crescent, Minnesota, the 26-year-old earned a silver medal and deposited $1,500 in prize cash. His portion of the prize purse gave him the sources to race The Rad Grime Fest, and a win there became a ticket to the Netherlands, and the surprising tag as a ‘gravel bike owner’.
“Yeah, I by no means thought I might be known as that in my life,” Davis informed Cyclingnews about current success on gravel giving him a brand new label. “The street scene in America is fairly robust in the mean time, and I am grateful to have a group the place they supply a number of alternatives. I depend Gravel Nationals as my first gravel race. So I bought a wildcard spot [to Worlds], so I made a decision I’d as effectively proceed my season.
“It is fairly fascinating to consider, if I get fourth, I do not qualify [for Worlds]. I in all probability do not get any consideration. Most significantly, I haven’t got any prize cash to proceed funding the remainder of my season.
“So I began planning out the remainder of my season, and I used to be unsure if I used to be going to go to Worlds. I just about used up all of the prize cash from Gravel Nationals to arrange the remainder of the calendar, after which after the RAD, I used to be in a position to cowl the remainder of my journey to Worlds, in order that was fairly cool.”
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It has been a whirlwind three weeks, throughout which he earned the silver medal at US Gravel Nationals, received the Rad Grime Fest after which went second at Belgian Waffle Trip North Carolina. Not one of the gravel races had been on his radar till a month in the past, when he travelled to Minnesota to hitch Undertaking Echelon teammate Sam Boardman at Gravel Nats.
“Sam was within the breakaway, which was excellent. He is an incredible breakaway rider, and he was on a superb day, which allowed me to change into the world’s most-hated gravel racer for about 4 hours. I simply sat on the strikes, adopted the favourites, by no means touched the wind,” Davis recalled.
“Then lastly, I leaped throughout to a bunch of favourites that had gone. As quickly as I bought to them, we turned off the principle street, and I noticed Sam had clearly simply crashed and brought a number of individuals out, and his race was over. I used to be like, Wow, if there was ever a good time for me to assault throughout to a couple guys, that was it. That was three or 4 hours into the race, so with out Sam up there, I believe the result may be very totally different.”
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He grew up in northern California racing mountain bikes within the Nationwide Interscholastic Biking Affiliation (NICA) leagues, then transitioned to street racing when he was 17 and received the US males’s junior street race nationwide title. He competed the subsequent 4 seasons with the Hagens Berman Axeon growth group, competing throughout one-day and stage races in North America, South America and Europe.
After two extra years on small squads and compiling victories at Redlands Bicycle Basic and various criteriums, he landed at Undertaking Echelon Racing for 2025. His season began slowly because of damage, then he was the best-placed Continental rider, twenty first, at Maryland Biking Basic, after which completed second at Bucks County Basic.
US Gravel Nationals 2025 elite males’s podium (L to R): Michael Garrison second, winner Bradyn Lange and Cole Davis third (Picture credit score: SnowyMountain Images)
The US elite males’s group headed to UCI Gravel Worlds doesn’t have a roster of confirmed gravel stars or WorldTour riders like squads from the Netherlands, Belgium or France. Davis is the one athlete from both the lads’s or girls’s podiums at US Gravel Nationals to simply accept the invitation to race this weekend. He can have some firm, one other wildcard rider, Justin McQuerry, who was ninth at Highlands Gravel qualifier. A number of different riders who auto-qualified at UCI Gravel World Sequence races embody Andrew Lydic, who was fifth at Gravel Journey in Poland, and Ethan Overson, who was third at The Rad Grime Fest.
However Davis just isn’t star-struck about going up towards present and former WorldTour riders like Tim Wellens, Romain Bardet, Gianni Vermeersch, Petr Vakoč, Tim Merlier and Greg Van Avermaet, who will race Sunday.
“I do not assume there’s something to be intimidated by the blokes you race towards was WorldTour. They’re simply regular individuals. Whereas the WorldTour standing is simple to see, like that rider is sweet, there are such a lot of different hidden gems of competitors on the market,” he mentioned.
His debut on gravel could also be a ‘farewell tour’ as effectively, admitting he’s on the lookout for a brand new group, but in addition a full-time job if his athletic profession hits an abrupt finish.
“So I am attempting to determine issues out proper now. I principally have to search out some extra monetary stability if I need to proceed racing. And yeah, I am at the moment within the job utility course of to change into an everyday, functioning grownup in a month or two time if I am not capable of finding one thing,” he informed Cyclingnews.
“I additionally assume that I am in all probability probably the most versatile riders within the nation. If it is racing crits, I am blissful to do this. If it is gravel, if it is street, I am going to do this. I find it irresistible all. Simply any alternative to proceed driving bikes full-time. I am up for something. I imply, I need to keep racing my bike.”
Get limitless entry to all of our protection of the 2025 UCI Gravel World Championships and the ultimate rounds of the Life Time Grand Prix – together with breaking information, interviews and evaluation reported by our journalists on the bottom in Limburg and Arkansas because the motion unfolds. Discover out extra.
