Riley Sheehan Called Up to Worlds after Neilson Powless Withdraws

Neilson Powless has withdrawn from the UCI Road World Championships in Montréal about a week before the race, USA Cycling confirmed to Velo on Friday.

As the first reserve selection for the roster, Riley Sheehan will take Powless’ spot. The 26-year-old had been critical of missing the selection two weeks ago when the roster was announced.

At the time, he took to X to say “Let’s not select the guys who’ve been winning races….” He later deleted the post.

Sheehan, who rides for NSN Cycling, has won two races this season: the Circuit de Wallonie and stage 1 of the Czech Tour, giving him more wins than most of the other riders selected to the team. However, USA Cycling’s selection criteria take into account a number of factors, including race level and course length. In order of priority, spots go to riders selected to the worlds time trial, those finishing top five in a European UCI World Tour one day race (1.WWT, 1.UWT), then riders finishing top five in the general classification in a European UCI World Tour stage race (2.WWT, 2.UWT).

Any bad blood Sheehan may have stirred up with his social media post appears to not have impacted his standing with the national team given his call up after Powless’ withdrawal.

Sheehan, who has raced elite worlds once before, in 2024,  joins an eight-strong roster of Matteo Jorgenson, Brandon McNulty, Sean Quinn, Artem Shmidt, Quinn Simmons, Kevin Vermaerke, and Larry Warbasse for the road race on Sunday. Shmidt and McNulty will also race the  time trial. The full Team USA roster can be found here.

The strong roster features a previous winner of the Grand Prix Cycliste de Montréal in Brandon McNulty. That race takes place on the same course, though the worlds will be a longer race overall at 273.7km with 3,803 meters of elevation gain. Quinn Simmons and Matteo Jorgenson are also perennially strong riders in top WorldTour races.

Worlds kicks off this weekend with the elite time trials on Sunday. The Elite women race next Saturday, September 26, and the elite men race Sunday, September 27.