{"id":341101,"date":"2025-12-12T19:58:08","date_gmt":"2025-12-12T19:58:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/341101\/"},"modified":"2025-12-12T19:58:08","modified_gmt":"2025-12-12T19:58:08","slug":"haley-smith-leaves-trek-driftless-gravel-team","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/341101\/","title":{"rendered":"Haley Smith leaves Trek Driftless gravel team"},"content":{"rendered":"

After two globe-trotting seasons chasing the gravel dream, Haley Smith is parting ways with Trek Driftless. The U.S.A.\u2019s Russell Finsterwald is also leaving the program.<\/p>\n

Smith scores wins around the world with Trek Driftless<\/p>\n

While with the brand\u2019s new factory-level gravel program, Smith found broad and wide-ranging success. Both at the LifeTime Grand Prix, where she finished fifth overall in 2024, and at far-flung events like the 2025 Migration Gravel Racing in Kenya, which she won.<\/p>\n

The standout result from Smiths two years with Trek include a remarkable fourth-place at Unbound Gravel, North America\u2019s premier gravel race and an iconic event in the global gravel scene, in 2024. Smith also won her second Canadian XC marathon national title while with the team.<\/p>\n

\"Haley<\/a>Haley Smith in her MAAP Privateers kit. Photo: Pete Photographie<\/p>\n

\u201cI loved getting to spend time with my teammates. I enjoyed the adventure races I got to do. And I loved working with the staff that we had a lot,\u201d Smith said. \u201cI truly enjoyed the people, and I learned a lot about the importance of your social circle and your immediate social surroundings to help you perform, and help you get through the times when you can\u2019t.\u201d<\/p>\n

Smith joined Trek Driftless after starting the gravel\/adventure chapter of her career with Maxxis Factory Racing. That saw her win the inaugural Life Time Grand Prix series. Before that, Smith represented Canada at the Tokyo Olympics in 2021 while racing with Norco\u2019s now closed Factory XC program.<\/p>\n

Russell Finsterwald ends long-run with Trek<\/p>\n

While Russell Finsterwald\u2019s also leaves Trek Driftless after just two years, the U.S. rider has a much longer history with the brand. back in 2010, he started racing mountain bikes with Subaru-Trek. During that time, Finsterwalkd\u2019s won five U.S. national mountain bike titles. He switched to gravel racing in 2020, where he has helped push the professionalisation of that sport in North America.<\/p>\n

Finsterwald finished sixth overall in the 2024 Life Time Grand Prix and, in 2025, won the Belgian Waffle Ride series overall title.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"After two globe-trotting seasons chasing the gravel dream, Haley Smith is parting ways with Trek Driftless. The U.S.A.\u2019s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":341102,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[445],"tags":[49,48,635,117922,117923,149212,82,149213],"class_list":["post-341101","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cycling","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-cycling","tag-gravel-news","tag-haley-smith","tag-russell-finsterwald","tag-sports","tag-trek-driftless"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/341101","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=341101"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/341101\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/341102"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=341101"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=341101"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=341101"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}