Strickland Rises from Davy Jones’ Locker to Win 2018 Gravel Worlds – Report, Photos

If Colin Strickland (meteor X giordana) wanted to defend his 2017 Gravel Worlds title on Saturday, it was going to take some work.

The annual Gravel Worlds race is hosted by Lincoln, Nebraska’s Pirate Cycling League, and not surprisingly, embraces the pirate theme. With the lead group out to a blazing start on the warm, foggy Saturday morning, Strickland got marooned on a deserted island (the side of the road) with a slow leak in one of his tires. When he finally got his tire fixed, he faced a 10-plus minute gap to the race leaders with 100 miles of racing left to go.

Strickland’s misfortune was to the benefit of the others in the fast field.

Lincoln native John Borstelmann (Harvest Racing) has had a strong season of criterium racing and was hoping to add a Gravel Worlds title to his palmares. Tim Mitchell (CCB Foundation-Sicleri), manager of the CCB Foundation-Sicleri U23 development road team, traveled from Massachusetts to race for his own gravel title. Josh Berry was looking to build on his impressive second at the Dirty Kanza 200.

And finally, Mat Stephens (Panaracer/Stan’s NoTubes p/b Bicycle X-Change) was looking to grab one of the few gravel titles that has eluded him during his impressive run over the past several years.

Even though Strickland was out of the lead group, there were still over 125 miles of gravel roads left to race before the Saturday’s proceedings would be decided.

Fast Sailing

With fast-rolling gravel and a lot of straight roads, Gravel Worlds organizers said they would not be surprised to see road-type tactics at the race. Their premonitions were spot-on, as Brendan Housler (DNA Racing) shook the race up by blasting solo off the front in the first 10 miles of the race.

Mitchell and Michael Sheehan (meteor X giordana) eventually followed his move to form a lead break of three.

It was during this time around mile 15 where Strickland noted a slow leak in one of his tires and stopped to repair it. Even with the strong “spirit of gravel” inspired by the Pirate Cycling League’s short nine-rule rulebook, the gravel peloton did not wait for the defending champion.

“I just had a slow leak,” Strickland said about his mechanical. “It was kind of a mysterious flat, so it took me a while to sort out how to remedy it.”

When riders reached Checkpoint One at Mile 58, the lead trio hit the stop first for their pipe cleaner, followed closely by Soren Nissen, Borstelmann and Patrick Walle. After leaving the checkpoint, the two groups of three merged to form a lead selection of six, and the chase group followed, about three minutes back. Strickland then rolled in 10 minutes behind the leaders.

The Comeback Begins

More or less riding solo, Strickland closed the gap to the chase group within 30 miles after Checkpoint One. The group was starting to break apart as the relentless hills started to take their toll on the riders, but the chasers still faced an 8-minute gap to the 5 leaders with 70 miles to go.

“I really enjoy this terrain, whether it’s racing or riding, and honestly, that’s how I go out and train anyway,” Strickland said about his solo chase back. “Ride alone and go as fast as I can for as long as I can, so it was advantageous that I had the mental strength to stay on the gas for that long.”

With 50 miles to go, the front of the race had a strong group of five—Borstelmann, Mitchell, Nissen, Sheehan and Housler—off the front being chased by Strickland, Berry, Stephens and Adam Ventling. It appeared either one of the lead five would win with a heroic effort, or they would be overtaken by a chase group featuring a lot of firepower and several of the race favorites.

Mat Stephens talked about how the small chase formed after the race. “The group never was super-cohesive to start with, until finally Josh Berry just kept a hard tempo and he’d end up off the front solo, and we’d kind of jump across to him. We ended up with Adam, Colin, Josh and me as a chase group of four, but at that point, we had no idea if we’d catch them. We just kept our heads down and kept riding.”

Before reaching Checkpoint Two at Mile 128, riders tackled the Denton Wall Randy Gibson KOM. Gibson was a long-time member of the Lincoln cycling community who was tragically killed by a drunk driver while riding last year. Because of Gibson’s love of climbing, the Pirate Cycling League dedicated the climb in his honor, and his wife Christy and daughter Sofia presented a climber’s jersey to the first rider to the top.

Local hero Borstelmann captured the KOM climb and used the effort to create some separation from the group along with Mitchell. The two hit the second checkpoint first followed by Nissen and Sheehan one minute later and then the Strickland-Stephens-Berry-Ventling group shortly thereafter. With just over 20 miles to go, the leaders were hanging on to a small advantage over the race favorite group.

Riders at Gravel Worlds are only allowed to receive support at gas stations and support stops designated by the race. There are also two mandatory checkpoints where riders have to check in and take a colored pipe cleaner for their handlebars. As we saw at Dirty Kanza, checkpoint speed and efficiency is important.

At the second checkpoint, Stephens and Strickland got in and out and back on the road. Berry, however, took a bit longer and found himself chasing Strickland and Stephens.

“At the last feed I was getting water and stuff, and then they just disappeared,” Berry said about the second checkpoint. “I thought the three of us would go on together, but gravel racing is scrappy. I should know that.”

An Exciting Last 20 Miles

Strickland and Stephens came roaring out of Checkpoint Two and quickly caught and surpassed Mitchell and Borstelmann. The race finally had its two arguable favorites at the front.

With a little over five miles to go, Stephens and Strickland started trading attacks. Stephens attacked on an uphill, but Strickland was able to mirror his move and counter at an unexpected spot.

“At mile five, in some of the final gravel rollers, Mat put in a big attack, and I was able to close it over the top of a hill. I let him get a little bit of a gap on the descent and then ripped it up to about 36 miles per hour and just flew by him when he wasn’t really expecting it. Because no one attacks on a downhill.”

The gap would be what Strickland needed to win. He rolled into the Fairbrook neighborhood with a comfortable one-minute gap that allowed him time to celebrate his second-straight Gravel Worlds win. He finished in 7:09:54, with an average speed of 20.9 miles per hour.

Stephens rolled across a little over a minute later to take home second to go with his third-place finish from 2017.

The race for third had a little bit of drama and controversy. The Gravel Worlds course finished with a right-hand turn into a roundabout, with the exit to the finishing stretch at the first exit.

Mitchell hit the final turn first ahead of Borstelmann and Berry, but both Mitchell and Borstelmann misssed the turn to the finish, allowing Berry to cruise home to take third. Berry finished three minutes behind Stephens to round out the three-person podium.

“The end was kind of weird,” Berry said. “Two guys took a wrong turn like 50 meters from the finish, so I rolled on past them. I was trying to time it where I could kind of push them all the way to the outside and sprint around the corners. I saw them set up for the last turn and I was like, that’s the wrong way to do it. Thankfully the karma kind of paid off from the guys disappearing previously.”

Strickland joined Alison Tetrick in receiving a sweet sword commemorating his win and designation as 2018 Captain of the Gravel Seas.

Full results from the Men’s race are below. For more, see our race report from the Women’s race.

For more from Nebraska, see our 2018 Gravel Worlds archive.

Men's Results: 2018 Gravel Worlds

Place	Name	Time
1	Colin Strickland	7:09:54
2	Mat Stephens	7:11:11
3	Joshua Berry	7:14:14
4	John Borstelmann	7:14:25
5	Tim Mitchell	7:14:26
6	Adam Ventling	7:24:00
7	Soren Nissen	7:24:57
8	Rob Hall	7:26:14
9	Taylor Lideen	7:26:14
10	Matt Acker	7:26:15
11	Michael Sencecenbaugh	7:26:15
12	michael sheehan	7:29:04
13	Rob Bell	7:33:50
14	Joseph Schmalz	7:33:50
15	Brad Flachsbart	7:33:51
16	Jake Wells	7:33:52
17	Joel Brazil	7:33:53
18	michael smith	7:33:53
19	Daniel Hughes	7:33:57
20	James Walsh	7:34:33
21	Garrick Valverde	7:35:36
22	Craig Roemer	7:39:55
23	Brendan Housler	7:47:49
24	David Haase	7:51:15
25	Scott Williamson	7:51:16
26	Tom Keller	7:56:25
27	Patrick Walle	8:03:32
28	Joe Kleidosty	8:06:50
29	Nathan Wadsworth	8:07:46
30	Dathan Atchison	8:18:25
31	Bob Cummings	8:18:26
32	Steve Parcell	8:18:27
33	Paul Erickson	8:18:27
34	Trey Harrison	8:18:28
35	Harley Hanson	8:18:32
36	Philip Regnier	8:18:54
37	David Neidinger	8:19:38
38	Mike Marchand	8:21:54
39	Rick Lueckert	8:21:55
40	Luke Wilson	8:24:59
41	Kevin Betters	8:25:00
42	Karsten Koehler	8:25:37
43	Andrew Strempke	8:28:31
44	Kevin Patterson	8:35:12
45	Michael Campie	8:36:51
46	Timothy Fegel	8:38:27
47	Josh Shear	8:38:27
48	Steve Goetzelman	8:57:07
49	Patrick Morrissey	9:02:27
50	CHRISTIAAN VANZYL	9:02:44
51	Mark Merritt	9:05:53
52	Kevin Burke	9:06:09
53	Joe Fox	9:10:45
54	Greg Vaught	9:12:47
55	JAD SUTTON	9:12:50
56	David Collins	9:18:57
57	Steve Morin	9:19:33
58	Addison Killeen	9:19:33
59	Tony Black	9:19:33
60	Marty Killeen	9:19:33
61	Eric Wendt	9:19:33
62	Joe Stephens	9:19:56
63	Jim Bethea	9:23:01
64	Derek Moran	9:23:33
65	Travis Loewens	9:24:58
66	Matt Copeland	9:29:34
67	Brandon Steinert	9:31:19
68	Jared Gingerich	9:31:20
69	Todd Geer	9:34:29
70	Josh Hicks	9:35:18
71	Alexander Sanchez	9:40:47
72	jon niemuth	9:40:47
73	Jason Kaminski	9:40:47
74	Dale Pinkelman	9:41:15
75	Sam Tobias	9:41:59
76	Brian Bickell	9:42:52
77	Sean Karre	9:44:29
78	Taylor Cook	9:46:46
79	Collin Little	9:47:01
80	Bobby Thompson	9:47:01
81	Josh Schrock	9:48:26
82	Don Daly	9:48:51
83	Tomasz Tomicki	9:49:01
84	Robert Ellis	9:49:08
85	Travis Van Dyke	9:50:29
86	Brad Stoermer	9:50:30
87	John Mathias	9:50:30
88	Gaylord Otte	9:52:25
89	Joshua Kappelman	9:53:59
90	Don Day	9:55:39
91	Armando Sanchez	10:01:06
92	Bryan Redemske	10:02:28
93	Michael Dixon	10:07:14
94	Brent Petersen	10:08:23
95	Daniel Hughes	10:09:02
96	Rafal Doloto	10:10:43
97	Larry Kaufman	10:12:34
98	Geoff Siepker	10:14:30
99	Ben Woodbury	10:15:15
100	peter welsch	10:18:22
101	Ethan Forsberg	10:25:30
102	Paul Kramper	10:25:31
103	Nick Legan	10:26:43
104	Jason Gaikowski	10:26:44
105	Eric Flach	10:26:45
106	David Burke	10:27:59
107	Brad Oldfield	10:28:24
108	Scott Bigelow	10:31:44
109	Jim Koziol	10:36:54
110	shane peed	10:36:57
111	Jamie Wynne	10:39:51
112	Rob Schultz	10:39:55
113	John Ehrenfried	10:43:34
114	Jerry Bueno	10:50:08
115	Corey Hilliard	10:52:01
116	David Rudiger	10:54:53
117	John Jury	10:55:46
118	Aron Campisano	10:56:54
119	Nick Booth	10:57:17
120	David Romisch	11:03:42
121	JOM GravelCyclist.com	11:04:56
122	Vic Ziliani	11:07:40
123	William Mennen	11:09:42
124	Kirk Hutson	11:10:32
125	Warran Wiebe	11:10:32
126	Scott Sumpter	11:17:03
127	Aaron Tredway	11:18:37
128	David Cleasby	11:25:33
129	Jaime Dodge	11:26:10
130	doug wilson	11:27:43
131	Kim Nickel	11:28:24
132	Anthony Beeson	11:28:24
133	ryan swanson	11:30:09
134	Benjamin Dumas	11:30:52
135	Jay Jimenez	11:35:25
136	Kevin Thompson	11:36:09
137	Tom Markland	11:36:46
138	Jeremy Miles	11:40:00
139	Jason Cyboron	11:42:38
140	Daniel Christiansen	11:42:56
141	Steven Cannon	11:43:22
142	Nicholas Muller	11:43:43
143	Bobby Smith	11:44:39
144	Abhilesh Dhawanjewar	11:44:40
145	James bleakley	11:47:03
146	Joel Prichard	11:47:28
147	Matt Curry	11:47:58
148	David Randleman	11:48:04
149	James Sullivan	11:53:43
150	Chris Culp	11:53:48
151	Mark Stender	11:54:51
152	Tony Kavan	12:00:51
153	Jeff Caldwell	12:02:58
154	Jason Zakaras	12:04:42
155	Mel Beikmann	12:07:20
156	Michael Comet	12:11:12
157	Tyler Neal	12:11:32
158	Edward Balderson	12:12:37
159	Robert Benton	12:12:45
160	Michael Welk	12:12:58
161	Steven Perkins	12:23:31
162	Jon Karas	12:23:32
163	Roy Rivera	12:26:34
164	John McLaughlin	12:26:37
165	Darren Carter	12:27:59
166	Bruce Currin	12:32:40
167	Tony McGrane	12:38:40
168	Clark Sintek	12:38:48
169	Jeff Ambrose	12:41:51
170	Robert Trombley	12:42:46
171	Jim Phillips	12:49:18
172	Stu Garwick	12:49:28
173	Troy Edler	12:49:28
174	Bill Leibman	12:49:29
175	Rob Van Pelt	12:51:59
176	Joe Billesbach	12:53:43
177	Gudberg Bjornsson	12:53:58
178	Dan Faas	12:55:43
179	Jamie Tallman	12:57:16
180	David Quade	13:00:08
181	Dat Duong	13:00:30
182	Craig Bush	13:00:36
183	Larry Lohmeier	13:05:21
184	Justin Heckman	13:09:54
185	James Blake	13:13:21
186	Steve Fuller	13:17:28
187	Michael Nebel	13:19:16
188	shawn mckinney	13:20:54
189	Raffet Velarde	13:29:10
190	Kris Kasprzyk	13:30:03
191	Bill Giffin	13:34:01
192	Russell Dockery	13:34:09
193	Al Wade	13:34:09
194	Pell Duvall	13:37:15
195	Neil Taylor	13:39:28
196	Aaron Carnes	13:39:35
197	Matthew Hopken	13:40:05
198	Steven Wright	13:40:59
199	Noe Garcia	13:48:14
200	Brian Dolan	13:49:13
201	Bobby Wachs	13:54:12
202	Steve Mcguire	13:57:28
203	James Compton	14:01:57
204	Luke Meduna	14:01:59
205	Jeff Bloom	14:06:09
206	Doug Schmitt	14:07:47
207	Todd Masters	14:07:48
208	Patrick Lorenze	14:07:48
209	Mark Luebke	14:11:07
210	Steven Sousek	14:25:13
211	Matt Wills	14:28:18
212	D. Averill	14:28:23
213	Noah Clayton	14:29:13
214	Ryan Patrick	14:29:15
215	Russell Parde	14:29:16
216	Michael Blessing	14:43:31
217	Ross Brouwer	14:58:25
218	Clay Matheny	15:27:06
219	Harry Matheny	15:27:08
220	Matthew Conner	15:42:09
221	Owen Cleasby	16:12:48