Associate Professor of Chemistry Courtney Meyet poses with her medal and the flag after the UCI Gravel World Championship. Courtesy | Brian Newberry

Chants of “USA, USA” filled the streets of Belgium Oct. 5 as Chairwoman and Associate Professor of Chemistry Courtney Meyet completed the UCI Gravel World Championship. 

Meyet took 37th place out of 43 in her age bracket in the 82-mile cycling race.

It wasn’t the outcome she was hoping for, but Meyet knew this race wouldn’t be anything like what she had experienced before.

“I was the oldest female there, and that in of itself was cool,” Meyet said. “It is the world championship, the very best in the world are there, so I have to put that in perspective.”

In addition to highly experienced competitors from around the world, Meyet said she had to contend with dangerous conditions largely absent in American gravel racing.

“We have big railroads, and our starts are usually neutral,” Meyet’s personal coach Joe Dailey said. “Our gravel roads are pretty wide, too. So that’s a huge difference in the states versus Europe, because in Europe, the roads are much narrower. There are farm roads out in rural areas that we would call a golf cart path.”

Dailey is a lifelong bicycle racer with much experience in the sport, and he said there is one aspect of gravel racing that made this competition especially dangerous: the start.

“Everybody goes out like a bat out of hell,” Dailey said. “The reason is, would you rather race 100 people or five? If I can ride 95 people off my wheel and keep five around, that’s who I really have to concentrate on. So the starts tend to be extremely tense.”

Meyet said the course was muddy and narrow, with approximately 2,000 cyclists crammed into starting corrals. 

“The start was very technical and dangerous,” Meyet said, noting the outcome of such a start was something she had never experienced before.

“There were several crashes, really big, bad crashes,” Meyet said. “You would just actually see the bikes pile up in front of you. It was the weirdest thing.”

For these reasons, Meyet said she chose to remain in the back of the start corral, not wanting to risk severe injury miles abroad — a decision that Dailey said was very wise.

As soon as she started racing, however, Meyet came to a stop.

Meyet said a contender from Great Britain had crashed and subsequently been pinned to the ground in a pile up, still clipped into his bike and left behind by the other bikers. No one thought to stop and help him until Meyet came by.

“I was the first in the group to come upon him, and I stopped and I used my bike to block the path because his head was in the middle of the road,’” she said. “I’m like, ‘I’m not gonna stand on a podium today, so I am going to help.’”

Meyet said she doesn’t know if he finished the race and said a lot of people had turned back by the first 10 miles.

As the race progressed, the situation improved and soon Meyet found herself in the midst of some unexpected fans.

The area of Belgium she was passing through had a large U.S. presence defending them in WWII, something the locals haven’t forgotten. 

“If there’s a USA cyclist, they chant ‘USA,’ and if you acknowledge them, they go nuts,” Meyet said, “If you look, make eye contact, wave to them, raise your fist in agreement, they will run with you.”

Meanwhile, Meyet’s husband, Brian Newberry, waited at the finish line. With no way of reaching her, he thought the worst when she failed to come in at the estimated time.

“I don’t have a way to check her progress,” Newberry said. “So I’m just waiting and waiting, and at six o’clock, I started to get worried.”

Meyet had been cut off earlier to make way for the pro group as they made a second loop. As a result, she fell too far behind to get motorcade support, leaving her further bogged down by traffic.

Meyet finished with a time of 5:55:49, according to the UCI website.

Newberry said he has been Meyet’s number one supporter in her cycling journey since day one, jokingly taking credit for getting her into it. 

“I would rather take the hit than have her take the hit,” Newberry said. “When you are supporting someone who is competing at any level, their wellbeing becomes a primary concern.”

With this race over, Meyet said she isn’t sure what she will do next.

For now, Newberry and Meyet said they plan on taking it easy and participating in scenic and exciting bike rides as they recover from the experience of a lifetime.

“It’s hard to be the dog that caught the car, because what do you do next?” Dailey said.