In 2025, Durango’s Cobe Freeburn has shown he can compete with the best in the country in gravel. That trend continued in Minnesota at the gravel national championships on Sept. 20.
Freeburn finished the 100-mile men’s elite race in La Crescent, Minnesota, at the 2025 USA Cycling Gravel National Championships, in seventh in four hours, 25 minutes and 55 seconds.
“The race went pretty well,” Freeburn said. “I made a few little mistakes that cost me a chance of fighting for the win. But overall, I rode aggressively and really put it all out there. It was hard race tactically to read and a hard race physically … It was tricky; it was a good mix; it was good all-around course.”
Freeburn finished over two minutes behind race winner Bradyn Lange, who finished in 4:23:21. Behind Lange was Michael Garrison in second in 4:23:30 and Davis Cole in third in 4:23:30.
With about 15 miles to go, Freeburn made the mistake of not going with the fast-charging Lange. The eventual winner was dropped by Freeburn’s group earlier in the race, before charging back into contention. Freeburn wishes he pushed that section more so that no one else caught him from behind. He was eventually dropped by his group with about 10 miles left. What made it especially tough was that after he was dropped, Freeburn could see the group ahead of him, but wasn’t in a good part of the course to catch up.
The elite course around La Crescent had eight distinguishable climbs that plateaued at the top. Freeburn said the course layout suited him very well as he was one of the stronger climbers and descenders out there.
After a breakaway group separated from the large peloton early on, Freeburn said the peloton took a while to drop people as people didn’t want to work together very well. This made it deceptively tough for him to know what tactics to use and when.
Next up for Freeburn is Little Sugar MTB on Oct. 12.
Payson McElveen was the only other Durango rider inside the top 10 of the elite races, coming home in 10th in 4:28:52.
“It was fun,” McElveen said. “Everyone goes to nationals with the goal of winning. It's one of those races where no one cares a whole lot about second or third place, even … I had an okay day, but definitely nothing special.”
McElveen thought the course was challenging with a fast surface, which led to the race playing out more like a road race. Like Freeburn, McElveen thought he could’ve done better with his tactics at certain key points of the race.
He called the climbs in La Crescent medium-length climbs, taking about six minutes on average. The plateaus on top made the efforts seem a lot longer because there wasn’t that immediate relief of the descents, according to McElveen.
“It was really unique; I don't think I'd ever raced or even ridden a course profile that really looked like that,” McElveen said. “So that was super cool. The first two climbs were kind of the easiest.”
McElveen has had an up-and-down season, starting with breaking his hip in a crash at Sea Otter in April. He hasn’t had his best stuff recently as he’s done a lot of traveling and hasn’t had the best sleep. McElveen knows he’s not very far off the front, but the margins are so tight that feeling a little bit off can make the difference.
Durango was represented on the top step of the podium in the junior categories last weekend. Leah Morozowich won another national championship, this time cruising to victory by over a minute in the 15-16 junior women’s gravel national championship.
“It feels amazing,” Morozowich said. “I trained really hard this season and just coming off mountain bike, just worked on my endurance, and I'm super happy to win this to two years in a row.”
Morozowich was ready to compete in La Crescent after she was still fresh and in good form after the mountain bike championships. She added some distance into her weeks of training and continued to train at a high intensity.
The 15-year-old finished the 74-mile course in 4:05:15. Sarah Black was second in 4:06:51 and Kate Elwell finished third in 4:17:40.
Morozowich enjoys how gravel racing combines dirt and road racing. She feels like gravel riders need to have good mountain bike and cyclocross skills along with good road tactics.
There was a mass start of around 130 riders made of up the 15-16 boys and girls races and the 17-18 boys and girls races. Morozowich knew positioning would be critical early on. She got through any early chaos and was cruising in the peloton for the first 10 miles.
Once the riders hit the climbs, Morozowich settled into a group of about 15. On the fourth climb, Morozowich thought she had more pace than the girl she was riding with, so she picked up the pace and built a gap. She held that gap for the final 15 miles.
Owen Morozowich finished second in the 11-12 junior men’s race. He finished the 32-mile course in 2:08:23, followed by Durango’s Ian Barton in third in 2:08:24. Dash Prigge won the race in 2:08:00.
Ellen Campbell nearly finished inside the top 10 of the elite women’s race, but came across the finish line in 11th in 5:27:21. Lauren Stephens won the race in 5:09:51, followed by Sarah Lange in second in 5:10:15 and Lauren De Crescenzo in third in 5:11:14.
“I feel good,” Campbell said. “I'm really happy with just having a clean run and mostly just happy that I felt motivated and in that in that mindset for the whole race. That's been kind of a struggle for me this year is just getting locked in and having my head in the game.”
Lauren Aggeler finished 17th in the elite women’s race in 5:36:46. Henry Nelson finished 40th in the elite men’s race in 4:53:19.
bkelly@durangoherald.com
