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Team USA

Team USA Recap: Powless Earns Mountains Jersey at Tour de France; Pinkerton, Amos, and Willoughby Podium at MTB & BMX World Cups

By: Anne Stein  July 03, 2023

We recap the latest in American bike racing from the past two weeks (June 20-July 3)

ROAD
Tour de France

(July 1-23) – After 21 stages of racing that started in Bilbao, Spain and covered more than 2,100 miles, the Tour de France wrapped up Sunday on the Champs-Elysées. Of the six Americans who started the race, one ended up on the podium in Paris: Super domestique Sepp Kuss (Jumbo-Visma) and his Jumbo-Visma teammates were honored for best overall team time. Kuss, who shepherded Tour champion Jonas Vingegaard up nearly every mountain climb, finished 12th overall on GC. A crash on Stage 20 dropped Kuss down two spots from 10th place.

Kevin Vermaerke (Team DSM-Firmenich) was the second-youngest rider to complete the 2023 Tour and finished 11th in the Youth category. Neilson Powless (EF Education-EasyPost) held on to the King of the Mountains jersey for two weeks and finished 4th overall in the KOM category. Lawson Craddock (Team Jayco-AlUla) had a career-best Grand Tour finish on Stage 15 when he took 4th place.

Of the 176 riders who started the race, 150 finished it. USA Road Race National Champion Quinn Simmons (Lidl-Trek)withdrew on Stage 9 a few days after a crash. Matteo Jorgenson (Movistar) withdrew before Stage 16 with an injury, but not before scoring two top-5 finishes. He placed 3rd on Stage 12 and 4th on Stage 9, when he won most combative rider for his solo effort to conquer the Puy de Dôme.

Complete results here.

Giro d’Italia Donne: Italy

(June 30-July 9) – With four stages down and five to go, Veronica Ewers (EF Education-TIBCO-SVB) sat 3rd overall on GC at the women’s Giro d’Italia. Ewers took 2nd on stage 4 and 9th on Stage 2.

Other Americans competing in the 9-stage Women’s World Tour race are Chloé Dygert(Canyon//SRAM), who captured 3rd on the Stage 3 sprint and 6th on Stage 4; Megan Jastrab (Team DSM-Firmenich), Lauren Stephens (EF Education-TIBCO-SVB), and Lily Williams (Human Powered Health).

Complete results here

USA Cycling Pro Road National Championships: Knoxville, TN

(June 22-25) – Hundreds of America’s best road cyclists converged on Knoxville over three days of racing to vie for Stars and Stripes jerseys at the 2023 Elite National Road Championships.

Day 1 saw Brandon McNulty (UAE Team Emirates) and Chloé Dygert (Canyon/SRAM) earn the men’s and women’s Elite Time Trial titles, with McNulty coming in more than 30 seconds ahead of the 2nd place finisher. Betty Hasse (CCB-LLG) won the U23 women’s title.

Day 2’s Elite Criterium titles were won by Luke Lamperti (Trinity Racing) and Coryn Labecki (Team Jumbo-Visma). Lamperti was a master of consistency and tactics, winning his third consecutive Criterium National Championship, while Labecki earned her 73rd National Title. Junior track world champion medalist Chloe Patrick (Serious Cycling) placed 3rd in the elite race to take the U23 Women’s National Championship.

On the final day of racing, Chloé Dygert and Quinn Simmons (Lidl-Trek) won Elite Road Race National Titles, giving Dygert her second national title of the weekend. Simmons, who earned his first elite national title, debuted his stars-and-stripes jersey at the Tour de France, while Dygert wore hers at the women’s Giro d’Italia. Natalie Quinn (CCB-LLG) won the women’s U23 title.

Complete results here

Race Recaps: Time Trial | Criterium | Road Race

MOUNTAIN BIKE
MTB World Series, XCO/DH/XCC: Val di Sole, Trentino, Italy

(June 29-July 2) – Team USA podiumed twice at the MTB World Series in Val di Sole, with Ryan Pinkerton (GT-Continental Factory Racing) kicking things off by earning silver in the men’s Junior DH. Pinkerton, 18, had the fastest qualifying time, then recovered from a crash in the final to take 2nd. Taylor Ostgaard (Transition Factory Racing) and Abigail Ronca(Gravity Academy) placed 6th and 8th respectively in the women’s Junior DH race.

Riley Amos (Trek Factory Racing XC) took bronze in men’s U23 XCO, (two weeks after placing 2nd in XCC in Leogang), while Bjorn Riley (Trek Future Racing) was 10th.

In men’s elite cross-country short track, Christopher Blevins (Specialized Factory Racing) placed 6th, while Kate Courtney (Scott-SRAM MTB Racing Team) was 10th on the women’s side. Riley Amos placed 4th in the men’s U23 race, missing another podium spot by less than a second.

Complete results here

BMX RACING
UCI BMX Racing World Cup, Rounds 3 and 4: Papendal, Netherlands

(June 24-25)Alise Willoughby (Team Toyota/Daylight Cycle Co.) earned bronze in round 4 of BMX World Cup racing at Papendal, adding to her two podium finishes in Rounds 1 and 2 in Sakarya, Turkey.

Junior national champion Ava Corley placed 7th on day 1 and 6th on day 2 in the women’s U23 race, while Felicia Stancil (Factory SSquared/Answer) placed 8th in Round 3’s elite women’s race.

The 10-round World Cup series counts toward qualifying points for the Paris 2024 Olympics. Next up for Team USA is the World Championships in Glasgow in August, then it’s back to World Cup racing with Rounds 5 and 6 in Sarrians (France) on September 23 and 24.

Results: Round 3 | Round 4