USA name strong World Championships squad packed with WorldTour riders

USA Cycling has released the list of 24 riders who will travel to Wollongong next month.

USA Mixed Relay 2021
Lawson Craddock, Brandon McNulty and Neilson Powless compete in the mixed relay in Bruges last year.
(Image credit: Getty Images)

USA Cycling have announced their squad for next month's UCI Road World Championships in Wollongong, Australia, boasting WorldTour talent from across the men's and women's pelotons. 

Magnus Sheffield (Ineos Grenadiers), who soloed to victory at Brabantse Pijl earlier this year, will join the elite men’s team for the first time in his career. The 20-year-old will ride alongside Lawson Craddock (Team BikeExchange-Jayco), Neilson Powless (EF Education-EasyPost), Brandon McNulty (UAE Team Emirates) and Kyle Murphy (Human Powered Health) in the 266.9km road race that will close out the event on 25 September. 

The Ineos Grenadiers rider will also take part in the elite men’s individual time trial with Craddock, who has won the national championships for the past two years. 

Thanks to their top-five place in the women’s world rankings, the UCI have given the USA women’s elite team the full quota of seven riders for the road race. Kristen Faulkner (Team BikeExchange-Jayco), who claimed two stage wins and the mountain classification at the Giro Donne, is expected to lead the team. 

Faulkner and Thomas will also take part in the elite women’s individual time trial, which will take place on the same 34.2km circuit as the men's event.

Former junior road world champion Quinn Simmons (Trek-Segafredo) does not appear on the provisional squad list for the event, although one final place remains open on the men's road race team. 

The UCI World Championships open in Wollongong on 17 September with the elite and U23 women’s individual time trials. The final event will be the elite men’s road race on 25 September.

The full USA Cycling squad, including the riders taking part in the junior and U23 races, is published below. 

Elite men road race 

Kristen Faulkner
Leah Thomas 

Junior men ITT 

Alex Gustin
Artem Shmidt 

Junior women road race 

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Tom Davidson
Senior News and Features Writer

Tom joined Cycling Weekly as a news and features writer in the summer of 2022, having previously contributed as a freelancer. He is fluent in French and Spanish, and holds a master's degree in International Journalism. Since 2020, he has been the host of The TT Podcast, offering race analysis and rider interviews.

An enthusiastic cyclist himself, Tom likes it most when the road goes uphill, and actively seeks out double-figure gradients on his rides. His best result is 28th in a hill-climb competition, albeit out of 40 entrants.