Power Rankings Update: SBT + Gravel Worlds

We have two races to talk about… SBT GRVL and Gravel Worlds

First, The SBT GRVL Results:

With over 2500 actual riders on course, SBT has become the second largest event on the gravel calendar, surpassed in size only by Unbound. Even so, the “Black” distance only had 681 riders, which is what we use to award points. This puts SBT GRVL in 5th place in terns of weight in the gravel power rankings.

Here are the top 15 men and women at SBT who earned points:

Keegan Swenson crushed everybody. He is so dominant right now that some people are surprised he is not on top of the Gravel Power Rankings. There his an excellent reason he is not at the top of the rankings. He only rode two qualifying events this year (Unbound and SBT GRVL). 

The Pure Gravel Power Rankings are not the Life Time Grand Prix rankings. They are not the MTB rankings. They are not the invite-only pro event rankings. They are a populist ranking and answer a specific question… “Who were the fastest racers at the largest gravel events?”

With that out of the way, we see Keegan Swenson, Freddy Ovett, and Payson McElvenn did climb up the rankings considerably, but not enough to dislodge Adam Roberge who has been a fixture on the gravel scene this year, making gravel his top priority, and it shows. 

Here is what the top 20 looked like after SBT GRVL:

Now The Gravel Worlds Results:

Despite selling 2500 registrations the results only show 1646 riders on course. This is a larger than expected drop off. Barring bad weather or an unusual circumstance, we expect a 15-20% no-show rate and we are seeing 31% at Gravel worlds. This could be a sign we have some bad data. We will update the rankings if this turns out to be the case. Moving forward with the data we have; we see 464 competitors in the 150-mile field.

Here are the top-15 who earned points at Gravel Worlds.

LDC Seems unstoppable. We are waiting for another showdown with Sofia Gomez Villafañe. Whitney Allison and Sarah Max have both proven themselves to be consistent performers, showing up and getting results, and that is reflected in the rankings.  

On the men’s side Adam Roberge is our new Gravel Worlds champion, unseating two-time champion Jon Borstleman in a thrilling finish that had them time trialing 20-seconds apart for the final 10 miles, neither one willing to give up an inch. 

Let’s talk about Adam for a second. He had a rough start in gravel, taking all sorts of flak for attacking at an aid station, but he has really put in the work to focus on winning gravel races and win them cleanly as he did at Gravel Worlds. Adam is now:

• Reigning Tripel Crown of Gravel Champion
• Pure Gravel Power Ranking Leader
• Gravel World(s) Champion
• 12th in the Lifetime Grand Prix 

Quite a year, and it isn't even over. Chapeau Adam.

SEE THE FULL WOMEN'S POWER RANKINGS

SEE THE FULL MEN’S POWER RANKINGS