U.S. to send Tour de France-tested team to road cycling world championships

The U.S. will send a strong contingent of Tour de France-tested riders to the road cycling world championships next month.

The seven-man squad announced Monday includes Neilson Powless, who currently wears the Tour’s polka dot jersey as the king of the mountains, and Matteo Jorgenson, who a day earlier nearly won the stage to the summit finish at Puy de Dome.

The Tour had a rest day Monday before resuming Tuesday with a hilly stage from Vulcania to Issoire.

Powless and Jorgenson will be joined by fellow Tour riders Lawson Craddock and U.S. road race champion Quinn Simmons, who recently withdrew from the race after a crash on Stage 5 left him with lingering injuries. The other riders on the American team are Magnus Sheffield, Sean Quinn and Brandon McNulty, the reigning U.S. time trial champion.

Sheffield will contest the road race and time trial and McNulty only the time trial, while the rest will compete in the road race.

The road world championships have been combined with the championships from the other Olympic cycling disciplines, and all will take place over a 10-day stretch beginning Aug. 3 in Scotland. The men’s race is scheduled for Aug. 6, beginning in Edinburgh and ending in Glasgow, while the women’s road race is Aug. 13 with a start in Balloch and the finish in Glasgow.

The women’s time trial is Aug. 10, with the men’s time trial the following day.

The U.S. women are headlined by Chloe Dygert, who won the U.S. road and time trial titles before twice finishing on the podium in the nine-stage Giro Donne in Italy. The 26-year-old from Indiana won the 2019 time trial world title before a horrendous crash the following year left her with career-threatening injuries and a long comeback to competitive cycling.

Dygert will be joined in the time trial by Kristen Faulkner and Amber Neben. Dygert will be joined in the road race by Veronica Ewers, Heidi Franz, Megan Jastrab, Coryn Labecki, Skylar Schneider and Lauren Stephens.