It was a great weekend for U.S. National Team athletes at the FISE World BMX Freestyle World Cup in Montpelier, France with 3 riders on the podium. Hannah Roberts (Buchanan, Mich.) continued her streak of dominance winning her second World Cup of 2019 while teammate and Current World Champion, Perris Benegas (Reno, Nev.) placed second. On the men’s side, current World Champion, Justin Dowell (Virginia Beach, Va.) also won gold in the UCI Freestyle BMX Park event as well as placing third in the BMX Freestyle Spine ramp, a separate event at the same competition.
“My body stayed strong and I rested really well,” said Dowell, “I was happy to end up on the podium for both [events]”
The gravity athletes headed to Fort William, U.K. for the second round of the Mountain Bike World Cup where Anna Newkirk (Riehen, Switzerland) won the Junior Women’s field. Newkirk won silver at the 2018 UCI Mountain Bike World Championships in Lenzerheide, Switzerland last August.
After completing last week’s World Cup in Nove Mesto, Czech Republic, Mountain Bike National Team Riders raced in Poland and the Czech Republic. Lea Davison (Jericho, Vt.; Sho-Air TWENTY20) placed second at Jelenia Góra Trophy - Maja Włoszczowska Mountain Bike Race and Keegan Swenson (Park City, Utah; Stans Pivot Pro Team p/b Maxxis) took gold at the Strabag Czech Mountain Bike Cup the following day.
In Italy, the Giro d’Italia concluded with Chad Haga (McKinney, Tex.; Team Sunweb) winning the final stage, a 17km Time Trial. Haga, who has become one of the top time trialists in the U.S., placed second last year in the Time Trial at the U.S. Pro National Championships.
Our Junior Men National Team riders backed up their previous week’s performance with impressive results at raced the 4 day UCI Nations Cup event, the Tour du Pays de Vaud this past weekend. Jared Scott (Boulder, Colo.) set an early fast time in the prologue, but suffered a crash in stage 1 and was forced to abandon. The team of Magnus Sheffield (Pittsford, N.Y.), Luke Lamperti (Sebastopol, Calif.), Michael Garrison (Decatur, Ga.) and Quinn Simmons (Durango, Colo.) helped place Matthew Riccitello (Tuscon, Ariz.) into 7th place on GC with a concentrated team effort over the next 3 stages. Simmons won the ITT stage and the Points jersey with an early long range attack on the final stage that forced the German, Danish and Norwegian teams into a hard chase over a long 75km. Riccitello attempted many breakaways but settled into his GC position. The Junior men now sit sixth in the Nations Cup Rankings. All athletes will head home to compete in the Amateur Road National Championships in Hagerstown, MD and the Tour de l'Abitibi in Canada.
Juniors also raced in Canada for the U.S. National Team at the Cross-country Olympic Junior Series - Baie Saint-Paul, Quebec. There were several stand-out performances including Madigan Munro (Boulder, Colo.), Madeline Robbins (Durango, Colo.), Ada Urist (Boulder, Colo.), and Alexis Bobbitt (Austin, Tex.) all placing in the top 10 for the Women coming in third, fourth, seventh and tenth respectively. For the Junior Men, Riley Amos (Durango, Colo.) placed second while Devin Debruhl (Santa Maria, Calif.) placed tenth.
National Team riders Ashton Lambie (Lincoln, Neb.) and Christina Birch (Los Angeles) made a pit stop in Kansas for the Dirty Kanza Gravel Race on their way to Trexlertown’s series of UCI track races. Lambie won the 100 mile race while Birch placed in the women’s field in the same race. Lauren Stephens (Dallas, Tex.) also completed the 100 mile race, winning the women’s field and coming in second overall to Lambie.
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For more information, please contact Kelly Fox at apalermo@usacycling.org.
