Gravel Nationals Recap: The Obed Team Takes On the Driftless
Last weekend, three members of the Obed family lined up for the 2026 USA Cycling Gravel National Championships in La Crescent, Minnesota: front-group regular Austin Sullivan, Obed VP Chris Brown, and his talented son, Jonathan Brown.
If you caught Austin's redemption story at UNBOUND Gravel earlier this year, followed his Transcordilleras battle for a top-10, or read about Chris and Jonathan's huge weekend of wins at SBT GRVL, you already know this crew shows up ready to race hard. Gravel Nationals was no exception.
The Results: The Start of Something Bigger
Austin (green/brown kit) was too fast for the camera!
- Austin Sullivan finished 11th in the Men's 35-39 category
- Chris Brown finished 7th in the Men's 50-54 category
- Jonathan Brown finished 8th in the Junior Boys' 13-14 category
As you'd expect, the Gravel Nationals field was stacked from top to bottom, and it would be a tough battle for anyone seeking a podium. As a racer in the 35-39 category myself, I recognized tons of hitters in Austin's race, so I have to give him massive kudos for landing 11th in this field. Looking at the average speeds (the 35-39 winner averaged 23.9 mph!), this was one of the fastest gravel events in North America, exceeding even this year's ultra-fast Gravel Worlds.
Austin prepped specifically for a good showing here. "I love putting a race date on the calendar and shifting focus to how I can be at my best for the specific course," he said. Early in the race he matched the pace of the leaders, and produced some of his best 5-minute power efforts of the year on the opening climbs. Then his body had other ideas. "What I didn't expect was a massive jolt of cramps in every corner of my body," he said. "Calves and hamstrings are to be expected, but hip flexors and triceps?!" He got dropped after about 90 minutes, hung on to whatever wheels he could find, and eventually let the front of the race go around the four-hour mark, soft-pedaling the rest of the way with no illusions about chasing anyone down.
Having pre-ridden about 75% of the course beforehand, Austin still had one goal left: nail the final descent and singletrack. That part of the day delivered. "While the race wasn't the highlight of my season like I had hoped, flying down the dirt ribbon and passing four other racers was certainly up there," he said. "I love disregarding all things and just throwing myself and my bike down a trail."
Jonathan rolling out for the Junior boys' 13-14 start
Chris and Jonathan also felt the depth of the field here. "The 13-14 age group was pretty stacked, as it turned out the Marathon MTB National Champion, Max Thornton, was there," Chris said. "He lit it up on the first paved, longer steep climb and blew the race apart." Jonathan couldn't quite make the split with the leaders and spent the rest of the 31-mile course chasing and holding off the riders behind him. He gave it everything and crossed the line 8th.
We're especially excited about that result. At 13, Jonathan is still one of the youngest riders in his category, and finishing 8th at a national championship at his age is a serious sign of things to come. As Chris put it, "What a season for Jonathan! We started in March and finished in September with some wins along the way, and he landed a POC sponsorship as well." If his two wins at SBT GRVL taught us anything, it's that the future is Brown, and Jonathan's star is definitely on the rise.
Chris's own race was no easier. Racing the 50-54 category alongside the 50-59 field on a 66-mile course, he described a day that went full gas from the first climb and barely let up. He has been on the podium before with a 2nd at Masters Road Nationals Criterium, a 4th in the Road Race twice, so he had a good read on just how stiff this Gravel Nationals field would be.
"I knew I needed to survive the first couple of climbs with the lead group, and that I would be stronger as the race goes on and others fade a bit," he said. A lead group of around 30 riders held together until roughly mile 30, when the climbing started splitting the field apart. A small group slipped away after the second feed zone near mile 40 and stayed away to the finish, leaving Chris in a chasing group with the podium out of reach.
The Brown duo at the finish.
"I attacked what was left of the group before the final snowmobile downhill and came in solo for 7th. I almost caught 6th at the line," he said. "Fun day. It was tough. I've never eaten so many gels in a race."
This was the first, but it certainly won't be the last Gravel Nationals for the Obed team. Hopefully, it's a stepping stone on our journey to complete domination in future years. We look forward to coming back and improving!
The Location: The Epic Driftless Region
Gravel Nationals returned to Minnesota's Driftless Region for its fourth edition, a unique stretch of the Upper Midwest that was never covered by glaciers during the last ice age. Without glaciers to flatten the landscape, the Driftless kept its ancient, deeply carved terrain full of steep limestone bluffs, narrow river valleys, and ridgelines that rise hundreds of feet above winding coulees.
Instead of flat, arrow-straight Midwest roads, riders got hit with a constantly shifting mix of punchy climbs and technical descents. This is terrain that rewards bike-handling and durability, which is exactly why it's become one of the premier gravel racing destinations in the country. This year's 107-mile, 66-mile, and 31-mile courses suited our team very well, since they do the majority of their training and racing in Appalachia, which features similar terrain.
Jonathan doing course recon on his GVR.
"We were fired up to race Gravel Nationals," Chris said. "It's a beautiful area of the country. The course was a legit gravel national championship course, with some technical descents. They're slippery, with loose small rocks on top of hardpack. There's some snowmobile and double track, punchy short climb after punchy short climb, and some solid winds thrown in."
USA Cycling has not officially announced the location for the 2027 Elite and Amateur Gravel National Championships yet, but we're hoping for another tough and beautiful venue where our bikes and riders can truly shine.
The Bike: The Aero and Lightweight Obed GVR
All three of our riders lined up on the Obed GVR, our next-gen gravel race platform. It's the same bike Austin rode to his UNBOUND redemption and the same one Chris has been racking up age-group wins on all season. It's aerodynamic and lightweight, designed with lightning-quick handling, and built to handle everything from smooth Driftless gravel to the technical sections that separate the front of the field from the rest.
One extra thank-you is owed here: after a blowout just before heading to the race, the team at Maxxis rushed a fresh set of Reaver tires to Chris and Jonathan in time for the start line. Thanks, Maxxis!