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Brennan Wertz did not have a lot of confidence going into Sunday’s USA Cycling Gravel National Championships race.
The 27-year-old had a rough August; after getting sick with Covid earlier in the month, he had to sit out two of his target races — SBT GRVL and Gravel Worlds in Nebraska. Then, his coach put him on an extended recovery plan, which meant that Wertz had no idea how he’d feel coming into gravel nationals, the target race of his August racing block.
While the conservative take on his recovery meant that Wertz came to Gering, Nebraska for the 131-mile championship race with low confidence, it also gave him a secret superpower.
“I really had nothing to lose,” he said.
For over half the race, Wertz considered throwing in the towel numerous times when he saw his friend and photographer Jim Merithew out on course. He lacked snap, “suffering way more than I usually would,” he said. But he wasn’t alone in his misery.
By the 90-mile mark, Wertz could see that everyone around him was struggling, as riders made quick hand-offs with their support crews at the feed zone. Not only were course conditions challenging — sandy, rutted, loose — but it was shaping up to be a fairly negative race, a big group staying together well into the 131 miles with the apparent collective goal of marking defending champ Keegan Swenson.
Despite feeling ‘meh’ for the first two-thirds of the race, Wertz started to come around after the feed zone. His experience at last year’s inaugural event taught him there were three “semi-selective” sections of the race left — two big climbs with a rough doubletrack section in between them.
When neither the first climb nor the doubletrack section created any separation, it seemed the final climb — where last year’s race exploded — was the last chance for someone to make a decisive move.
“It was very similar to last year,” Wertz said, “with a bigger group this year. But it was very cagey, everyone was looking at each other, almost soft pedaling into the base of the climb.”
As John Borstelmann and Innokenty Zavyalov attacked at the base of the climb, Wertz hung back. He was surprised to see that everyone else let the duo go, too. Then, Swenson got on the front and smashed up the climb, closing the gap and taking about five or six riders with. Wertz stayed with Borstelmann and Zavyalov, “guys who are built the same as me, with the same power profile,” knowing that the three could use their power to come back.
They succeeded, and suddenly, the lead group was 10. With that number and with the way everyone had been racing, Wertz knew he couldn’t try the same move as last year — a long-range attack on a four-percent grade sandy descent. He watched from the back of the group as youngster Colby Simmons went for it, “attacking probably 10 times in the last 10 miles,” Wertz said.
As the finish line neared without anyone’s attacks sticking, it became clear that no one wanted to be the first to launch the sprint. “Everyone was practically sitting up,” Wertz said. He took that as a cue.
As the last attack from Cobe Freeburn was getting absorbed just a few kilometers from the finish line, Wertz launched forward from behind.
“I was far enough back that by the time I went by I had so much speed, no one could get on my wheel,” he said.
Wertz’s powerful attack, coupled with what he called his ‘aggressive set-up optimized for this sprint’ (44mm slick tires, a 54t chain ring with road gearing), rocketed him six seconds ahead of the chasing group.
Wertz, a former world champion rower, was now the gravel national champion.
“Sometimes you have to risk it a bit, and this year I had nothing to lose,” Wertz said. “I’m usually pretty conservative, so it was like, ‘why not risk it all?’
Big love for the ‘Big Dawg’
After someone wins a bike race, there are cursory congratulatory Instagram comments and there are genuine ones. After nationals, Brennan Wertz’s feed was overwhelmed with the latter. One of the first to comment was 2023 Tour de France champion Demi Vollering — someone who Wertz has known since 2019.
“Noo way!!!!! awesome congrats,” Vollering wrote.
A dozen of Wertz’s competitors also offered major props. From last year’s champ Keegan Swenson: “Congrats big dog! That was a heater of a move. You’ll wear that jersey well.”
“Big dawg finally had his day!” From Swenson’s teammate, Tobin Ortenblad who drove the pace for much of Sunday’s race.
The flood of supportive comments included hearts, fire emojis, and an abundance of references to Wertz’s size. At 6’5″ and 200 pounds, Wertz stands out in the gravel scene. He knows that his size is an anomaly, but he’s also learned it’s a strength — in more ways than one.
“I get a lot of nice messages from people who might be taller than average, or heavier, or just bigger, basically not your “average” cyclists,” he said. “I think they see a bit of themselves in me. They tell me how inspirational and cool it is.”
Since Wertz started racing gravel full-time in 2022, he’s learned that gravel is not a one-size-fits-all sport — literally or figuratively. Unlike the WorldTour, where you might only have to be a ‘grand tour guy’ or a ‘classics guy,’ gravel expects more of every rider.
The advent of the Life Time Grand Prix series in 2022 rose the bar even higher — to win the series, a rider must post good results at both gravel and mountain bike races, some at altitude with a serious amount of climbing.
In his three years racing full-time, Wertz — perhaps more than other riders — has learned that he has to be strategic about his race choices. He was part of the Grand Prix in 2023 but realized that the series simply didn’t suit him. At man of the races he was just spinning his wheels, so to speak.
This year, with the confidence of experience, he opted out of it to focus on races that suited him better.
“I definitely felt the challenge with races in the Grand Prix last year,” he said. “Some just didn’t suit me, and getting COVID before Unbound which was a target race didn’t help.
“I’ve learned to pick and choose the races that fit me better and that I enjoy more. At events like Crusher [in the Tushar], I could handle the initial effort, but repeating that kind of challenge was tough. It’s all about knowing which races play to my strengths.”
At gravel nationals on Sunday, despite Wertz’s less-than-ideal lead-up, he was able to play to his strengths — “because I carry so much momentum, I was riding at an effort that felt moderate for me most of the day,” he said. His ‘nothing to lose’ attitude helped, along with the fact that he had raced nationals last year and knew where to make moves.
While Wertz may stand out among the crowd physically, he’s also doing other things his own way. In fact, his victory in Nebraska might prove that being different is his greatest strength.
