{"id":225192,"date":"2025-06-29T23:32:16","date_gmt":"2025-06-29T23:32:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/225192\/"},"modified":"2025-06-29T23:32:16","modified_gmt":"2025-06-29T23:32:16","slug":"sbt-grvl-amateur-race-sees-photo-finish-in-junior-division","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/225192\/","title":{"rendered":"SBT GRVL amateur race sees photo finish in junior division"},"content":{"rendered":"

If you blinked, you would have missed it. Only one second separated the top four junior riders in Sunday\u2019s SBT GRVL<\/a> amateur race.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The 79.3 mile race on the Black Course began from Dry Creek Park in Hayden, taking racers around Routt County\u2019s rural roads and back where they started.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The top junior gravel riders across the country traveled in for this weekend\u2019s events, with Carter Lembke taking home the ultimate prize.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Lembke said he fell behind the leading pack on the final ascent, catching back up to the group on a small downhill section. It all came down to the final turn.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI managed to sneak around everyone else before the last corner,\u201d Lembke said. \u201cThe finish straight is so short that once you get into the last corner, the race is kind of done from there.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Lembke pedaled hard through the finish line, edging out the three riders on his tail by a wheel\u2019s length. He crossed the finish line in 3 hours, 35 minutes, 45 seconds. Spencer Coy, second place, was just milliseconds behind.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Lembke, a 17 year old from Columbia, Missouri, said gravel riding is entirely different where he\u2019s from. Sunday\u2019s race took things to a whole new level for him.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve never ridden a gravel bike in the mountains,\u201d he explained. \u201cIt was pretty scary honestly. The first descent we went down, I looked down and we were going 45 (miles per hour) around a gravel turn. We don\u2019t have that where I\u2019m from. It was really fun, you just hold on for dear life.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"SBT GRVL racers rode through the mountains on Sunday, part of the Black Course race near Hayden. Tom Skulski\/Steamboat Pilot & Today<\/p>\n

It didn\u2019t take long for Lembke to get the hang of things, however. He pushed hard on uphills, knowing he would have time to rest his legs on the downhill sections. The amateur race saw a total elevation gain of 5,568 feet \u2014 something foreign to Lembke and many of the other junior riders.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThe descents are super long so you can recover on those,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s completely different racing than what I\u2019m used to, so it was pretty fun. The last descent went all the way to the finish and you were going 50 (miles per hour) the whole way down.\u201d<\/p>\n

This year, USA Cycling created a junior championship series with five races across the country \u2014\u00a0Texas; California; Kansas; Colorado and the national championships in Minnesota. SBT GRVL organizers had a concentrated effort to boost junior participation this year, making it the perfect place to act as one of those junior races.\u00a0<\/p>\n

According to Lembke, the winner of the junior series gets an invite to the Road National Camp in Colorado Springs which is the next step up the ladder toward the professional racing scene.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Lembke won the Texas race earlier this year but was unable to make it to California and Kansas, so he needed to race at SBT GRVL to stay toward the top of the junior leaderboard. He\u2019s currently tied with Ethan Shirey, Sunday\u2019s fifth-place finisher, for the lead.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The series will come down to the national championship race in September. Lembke said he is excited to test his skills at nationals, and ride harder than ever.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThe whole goal is to come out here and suffer as much as you can,\u201d he said. \u201cThere\u2019s only so much prep you can do.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Sunday\u2019s action did not end with the amateur race as 70 of the world\u2019s best professional gravel riders competed on the same course, except they had to take on three laps amassing 116.9 miles.\u00a0<\/p>\n

This year\u2019s pro champion was Brennan Wertz of Mill Valley, California, crossing the finish in 4:56:19. Wertz dethrones Utah\u2019s Keegan Swenson who had won each of the previous three SBT GRVL pro races<\/a>. Swenson finished in second, just seven seconds off the lead.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Melisa Rollins of Alpine, Utah, took the top spot for the pro women, crossing the finish line in 5:36:55.\u00a0<\/p>\n

For the full results from Saturday\u2019s recreational rides or Sunday\u2019s races, visit Athlinks.com\/event\/300676\/results\/Event\/1114906\/Results<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"\"A rider sprints through the finish line of the SBT GRVL amateur race on Sunday in Hayden. Tom Skulski\/Steamboat Pilot & Today<\/p>\n

\"\"A pack of riders dashes through a flat section of the Sunday\u2019s SBT GRVL race ahead of a steep ascent to the second aid station. Tom Skulski\/Steamboat Pilot & Today<\/p>\n

\"\"A rider takes a gel while recovering on a downhill portion of the SBT GRVL Black Course on Sunday. Tom Skulski\/Steamboat Pilot & Today<\/p>\n

\"\"Roughly 2,500 gravel riders came to Routt County this weekend to participate in SBT GRVL.Tom Skulski\/Steamboat Pilot & Today<\/p>\n

\"\"There were 307 entires in the SBT GRVL amateur race on Sunday near Hayden. Tom Skulski\/Steamboat Pilot & Today<\/p>\n

\"\"A gravel rider navigates a challenging downhill turn on the SBT GRVL Black Course on Sunday. Tom Skulski\/Steamboat Pilot & Today<\/p>\n

\"\"A SBT GRVL amateur rider comes down the final descent of the first of two laps on Sunday. Tom Skulski\/Steamboat Pilot & Today<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"If you blinked, you would have missed it. Only one second separated the top four junior riders in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":225193,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4104],"tags":[4230,79,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-225192","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-cycling","8":"tag-cycling","9":"tag-sports","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114769267972235090","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/225192","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=225192"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/225192\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/225193"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=225192"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=225192"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=225192"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}