Team USA call up 'frustrated' rider for the World Championship road race after Powless dropped out

The U.S. team is counting heavily on Quinn Simmons in Montreal, with Brandon McNulty, Artem Schmidt, Matteo Jorgenson, Kevin Vermaerke, Larry Warbasse, and Sean Quinn also on the roster. Powless was supposed to be there as well, but had to withdraw due to illness.

Sheehan thus received some good news after racing at full speed this week. First, he flew to Canada for the GP Québec (25th) and the GP Montréal (14th), before returning to Belgium for the Lotto Grand Prix de Wallonie and the Flandrien 0.0 Classic.

The American will now have to head back to Canada, where he had such a great time just recently. “Two of my favourite races of the year. I really had a blast tearing through the two cities and pushing myself to the finish line. I’m already looking forward to coming back,” he wrote on Instagram.

The fact that he will be allowed to compete in the World Championships after all will undoubtedly be both good news and a bit of an awkward situation for Sheehan. The rider had voiced criticism in early September when the U.S. team roster was announced, after he didn’t see his name on the list.

"Let's not pick the guys who've won races...," he wrote cynically on his social media accounts. That post has since been deleted. Sheehan won this year’s Lotto Circuit de Wallonie and took a stage victory in the Tour of the Czech Republic, but initially wasn’t selected for the World Championships.

Now he is, which means Sheehan gets another chance to race on what is, for him, a favorite track in Montréal. His 14th-place finish in last week’s local Grand Prix already showed that he’s in good form.