USA Cycling names 2018 UCI Road World Championships Elite teams

USA Cycling announced today the athletes that will represent the United States in the Elite Men’s and Women’s Time Trial and Road Race at the 2018 UCI Road World Championships which will place in Innsbruck-Tirol, Austria 23-30 September 2018.

Among the competitors in the women’s races are Amber Neben (Lake Forest, Calif.; PX4 Sports) who won the UCI World Championship Time Trial in both 2008 and 2016, 72-time U.S. National Champion Coryn Rivera (Newport Beach, Calif.; Team Sunweb), the 2016 Overall UCI Women’s Tour winner Megan Guarnier (Glen Falls, N.Y.; Boels-Dolmans) who recently announced her plans to retire post-World Championships, the 2018 Amgen Tour of California Champion and 2018 U.S. Pro Road Tour Champion, Katherine Hall (Saratoga, Calif.; UnitedHealthcare Pro Cycling) and Alexis Ryan (Ventura, Calif.; Canyon-SRAM) who won the 2018 Drentse Acht van Westerveld.

Jack Seehafer, Women’s Endurance Program Manager for USA Cycling is optimistic about the riders who were selected to compete, “We are fielding an amazing team of athletes that will be working cohesively for a medal finish. There will be benefit in having had the majority of our athletes on the ground for recon in Innsbruck, they already know first-hand how brutal the course will be and have had plenty of time to discuss areas of opportunity for success and to prepare for that outcome. With the successes of our athletes this year, I look forward to seeing them close that out on a high note.”

In the men’s races, there are several stand-out names including Tejay Van Garderen (Aspen, Colo.; BMC Racing Team), who won the Time Trial at the 2018 Amgen Tour of California, back-to-back Time Trial National Champion Joey Rosskopf (Decatur, Ga.; BMC Racing Team), Sepp Kuss (Durango, Colo.; Team LottoNL – Jumbo) the 2018 Tour of Utah champion who has made waves in his inaugural World Tour season, and Ben King (Richmond Va.; Team Dimension Data) who has recently won two stages of La Vuelta a España.

“This is going to be a unique World Championships with an extremely difficult course. Team USA has some great athletes who match up very well with the challenge and who are carrying some strong momentum late into the season. It will be very exciting to see how these races unfold,” Said Jeff Pierce, Director of Elite Athletics, Road and Track.

The Team USA roster is as follows:

Individual Time Trial

Women:

• Amber Neben* (Lake Forest, Calif.; PX4 Sports)
• Tayler Wiles (Fairfax, Calif.; Trek Drops)
• Leah Thomas (Boulder Creek, Calif.; UnitedHealthcare Pro Cycling)

Men:

• Joey Rosskopf* (Decatur, Ga.; BMC Racing Team)
• Tejay Van Garderen (Aspen, Colo.; BMC Racing Team)

ROAD RACE

Women:

• Coryn Rivera* (Newport Beach, Calif.; Team Sunweb)
• Megan Guarnier* (Glen Falls, N.Y.; Boels-Dolmans)
• Alexis Ryan* (Ventura, Calif.; Canyon-SRAM)
• Katharine Hall (Saratoga, Calif.; UnitedHealthcare Pro Cycling)
• Tayler Wiles (Fairfax, Calif.; Trek Drops)
• Ruth Winder (Lafayette, Calif.; Team Sunweb)
• Leah Thomas (Boulder Creek, Calif.; UnitedHealthcare Pro Cycling)

Men:

• Ben King* (Richmond Va.; Team Dimension Data)
• Sepp Kuss (Durango, Colo.; Team LottoNL – Jumbo)
• Brent Bookwalter (Asheville, N.C.; BMC Racing Team)
• Peter Stetina (Boulder, Colo.; Trek-Segafredo)
• Nate Brown (Nashville, Tenn.; EF Education First-Drapac p/b Cannondale)

Automatic qualifiers are noted with an asterisk (*).

The USA Cycling 2018 Road World Championships selection criteria is available here.

The USA Cycling 2018 Road World Championships Junior and U23 team information is available here.

To cheer for Team USA at the 2018 World Championships, please follow @UCI_Cycling and @USACyclingLIVE on Twitter. For more about the 2018 UCI Road World Championships, please visit the event website at https://www.innsbruck-tirol2018.com/.