The New US Gravel National Champs Are 2 Sides of the Gravel Racing Coin

The 2026 US Gravel Nationals was a tale of two deserving, albeit very different winners. On the men’s side, it was Cobe Freeburn punctuating a breakthrough season with his first national title. For the women, Paige Onweller took the win after a long season of near misses to net her first Stars and Stripes jersey.

In the two wins, there were some parallels—namely the bike they both rode—but perhaps the bigger story is how different the journey was for both riders to get to the top step of a nationals podium.

The men’s race came down to an elite group of five entering the final together. Freeburn was able to use his technical ability to force a gap ahead of the final climb, before powering solo to the finish. Cole Davis and Griffin Easter rounded out the podium.

On the women’s side, it was a one-on-one battle between Onweller and Sarah Lange. Lange tried to attack on the same hill where Freeburn got away, however, Onweller was able to match the move and then came out on top in the sprint. Emma Langley finished third, leading the chase group in more than five minutes behind.

Cobe Freeburn builds his resume as one of gravel’s top new talents

Freeburn, the young gravel specialist, has now firmly joined the ranks of Bradyn Lange, Cam Jones, and Matt Wilson as riders in their early to mid-twenties who have established themselves as gravel pros, first and foremost. His ascendancy began in earnest with a win at Mid South ahead of Cam Jones, and has been building ever since.

Heading into next weekend’s Life Time Grand Prix stop at Chequamegon, Freeburn now has multiple high-level wins, a national title, and sits sixth in the LTGP overall standings.

“I’ve never really been that close before,” Freeburn said. “I think I got a podium in collegiate mountain biking once when it snowed a bunch, but yeah, I’ve never really been close to winning, and it’s super special.”

With Freeburn growing up racing in a generation of mountain bikers that includes current World Cup professionals like Bjorn Riley and Riley Amos, national championships are hard to come by. For him, the end result was a combination of grinding his way through the many lessons of professional gravel racing and facing off at nationals against a group full of other up-and-coming gravel specialists.

The likes of Keegan Swenson, Alexey Vermeulen, and other former WorldTour or World Cup professionals have so often taken the headlines of big gravel races. A national with predominantly young, less proven gravel pros fighting for the win finally offered riders like Freeburn, who have found their strength in the unique efforts and long distance of gravel racing, a key chance to elevate their standing.

“It was really nice to get to race a variety of other people. I feel like a lot of these other races have been sort of the same faces at the front, whether that’s Keegan, Alexey, or Bradyn.

“It just changed the dynamic quite a bit and made for a pretty chaotic race. There was always a small group up the road and I think the course itself leads to really good racing. It made it a really tough job to keep it all under control.”

Freeburn will be right back to facing off against the rest of the proverbial big dogs this weekend when the Life Time Grand Prix begins its final stretch run. While Freeburn has considered racing UCI Gravel Worlds in Australia, it will conflict with the final stops on the Life Time Grand Prix, so Freeburn will finish his season in Arkansas. Expect to see him debut the stars and stripes jersey at Big Sugar.

Paige Onweller wins an 80-mile one-on-one battle with Sarah Lange

While 2026 has been Freeburn’s breakthrough, Paige Onweller has been a stalwart on the US gravel scene since she won the 2022 Big Sugar Classic. At 37, Onweller is one of the veterans in the Grand Prix field and has been a consistent performer at many of the biggest gravel races in the United States.

This year has been one of her best career seasons, with consistency throughout the biggest events of the year. That consistency has resulted in several fourth-place results, including Unbound, SBT GRVL, and Midsouth. What was missing, however, was another high-profile win.

Those close calls mean even more to Onweller this year as her current contract with Trek is coming to an end. Her win at Nationals not only gives her the win she has been so close to so many times this year, but it also gives her a huge negotiating chip as she heads into contract negotiations.

Nevertheless, in Minnesota Onweller wasn’t alone in trying to buck the trend of a consistent season filled with near-misses. The day proved to be a knock-down, drag-out battle with Sarah Lange, who is a veteran gravel rider who has also been on a run of close misses. To add to the tension, the two racers attacked early in the race, setting up a dramatic showdown in the punchy final miles to the line.

“I knew Sarah [Lange] would want to attack on the last climb at around mile 99,” Onweller said of the finale of the race. “There’s a pretty steep road climb, and I just stayed on her wheel when she put in a really hard dig.”

Lange and Onweller kept trading blows over the rolling last seven miles, with Lange trying to force the issues on the climbs and Onweller responding on the technical sections. In the end, it all came down to the final kick before the final sprint to the line.

“There was just one more tiny little kicker on the road right before the turn into the finish, and she went around me to attack one more time, but that was perfect because I came from behind in the sprint and I got her at the line. But, yeah, it was a crazy battle.”

For Lange, it is another close loss. The 36-year-old Life Time Grand Prix stalwart has had a remarkable year in 2026, especially in the summer races. One of the best climbers in the women’s peloton, she has been so close to a big crown. First, she nearly won SBT GRVL, finishing second after Sofia Gomez Villafañe overhauled her nearly race-long solo attack in the final few miles.

At Leadville, it was more of the same, taking an aggressive approach again, attacking early and just missing out on the podium in the finale.

“I can’t speak for how she was feeling, but I knew she really wanted to win because she was second here last year and this was a big target for her,” Onweller said of the battle with Lange. “She put up an absolute dogfight, and even though she didn’t get the win, I came away with so much respect for her because of her tenacity.

“It brought so much out of me, and that’s such a fun way to race. Whenever you can find out something about yourself because your competitors are pushing you that hard—that’s a good battle.”

Like with Freeburn, Onweller will wrap up her season with Chequamegon and Big Sugar in Arkansas, where she will debut her new national champion kit.