2021 Gravel Power Rankings : Wrap-up

Skip the prologue and go straight to the results

Listen to the 2021 wrap-up podcast

2021 was another dumpster fire. The first Power Ranking event happened in June

The power rankings tracked every event in America with over 500 riders, 30% dirt and 50% drop bars. Read about how the rankings are calculated in excruciating detail. We count the overall size of the event for inclusion into the rankings, but we weight the events based on the size of the competitive field.  

Below is our pre-year guess at how the year would play out. As you can see, many of the events were cancelled and we did not have CO2UT on our radar.

The Events

There were 15 events in 2021 that met our criteria for inclusion in the power rankings. BWR California should have an asterisk here. We are fairly certain it was the largest gravel event of the year, BUT… Because the timing system was nuked by a freak thunderstorm hours before the event, the results were tabulated by hand from a video feed of the finish line. Obviously not all number plates were able to be read and tabulated. For our purposes, we can’t guestimate how many riders were actually at the event, we just have to use the numbers we have and accept that the BWR is being undercounted as a penalty for its screw-up. 

The event are given a weight score based on the size of the competitive field. In most cases, this is different than the total event size. For example, in BWR events we count the full Waffle ride, but we do not count Wafer and Wanna riders who ride a different course and distance. Below are the relative weights of the ranked events. 

As you can see, BWR California carries the most weight, even though the total number of riders across all distances was less than some of the other events. CO2UT is an outlier here with only about 150 of their 850 riders choosing to compete in the long course. Vermont Overland is another notable event since it only has one distance, their weight is the same as their total event size.

The Results

Women

1. Lauren De Crescenzo
2. Moriah Wilson
3. Sofia Gomez Villafane

Men

1. Ian Boswell
2. Peter Stetina
3. Adam Roberge

Full results