The 2025 American Criterium Cup will begin Friday at dusk as the best criterium racers from around the world come to Oklahoma for three days of racing at the Saint Francis Tulsa Tough.
The Saint Francis Tulsa Tough has quickly shot up the metaphorical power ranking of American criteriums in its relatively short history to its position as a universally celebrated five-star event on the calendar. Sure, the famous Cry Baby Hill race on Sunday has a lot to do with this, as the challenging criterium along the banks of the Arkansas River mixes a tough climb, a college party, and live music all in one place — but the race is so much more with three distinct days offering a different vibe, race tactics, and, in most cases, winners.
The Friday night American Criterium Cup is all about bringing the energy to a revitalized downtown Tulsa. A short course and world-class video production keep the racing front and center, as tons of racing fans and curious Tulsans alike flock to the barriers when the day turns to night in the invariably hot and humid early-summer weather.
The McNellie’s Group Blue Dome Criterium is a celebration of the new energy that is taking hold around the fringes of Tulsa’s downtown. The Blue Dome itself is an old relic of a 1924 Route 66 gas station that served travelers 24-hour gas access along the famous route, but now gives identity to an area of Tulsa that is filled with new restaurants, entertainment, and art installations that give the race its big event feel on Friday night.
From a racing perspective, the McNellie’s Blue Dome Criterium is, on paper, the simplest proposition. With a flat course around a sweeping figure-8 course, the race skews towards the sprinters under the lights in both the men’s and women’s pro fields. Undoubtedly, sprinters like Kendall Ryan and Lucas Bourgoyne will be hoping to keep their red-hot summers building as the calendar has turned to June. Nevertheless, with field sizes as big as they will be all year and many teams with different objectives, the action will surely stretch from the gun to the bell.
“I think it is one of the biggest, if not the biggest, sprinter course of the year. And so everyone wants to win it,” Lucas Bourgoyne said. The Texan is the newly crowned national champion in criterium racing and heads into the race Friday as the number one favorite along with his Cadence Cyclery team.
“It’ll be under the lights, that adds a little factor of danger, and then obviously just being Tulsa Tough means everyone is prepared to risk life and limb through every corner. I think for us it's gonna be about staying calm, cool, and collected. Racing to this team is about finding a flow state and it's a vibe. We find success because we know it's serious, we want to go to every race with one expectation in that one expectation is to win, but outside of the expectation is to keep it fun and find that synergy with each other.”
For Bourgoyne, like so many other fast finishers on the start list, the pressure will be on for Friday night because few events live up to its stature in this day and age of American cycling.
“I said it before, I said it after — if we could end our season with a pro title, we could not win another race all year and it wouldn't even matter. Reflecting on that statement, that's a lie, winning a day at Tulsa Tough cements what we've been doing and what we've been building,” Bourgoyne said.
“Tulsa, it is a huge race. Sponsors love them some wins at Tulsa tough, and that brings in budget, that brings in exposure, and so we've got one more race to do business at this year and it's Tulsa tough. Maybe that's the one, if we win that one, then we can lose all the races for the rest of the season and it won't matter.”
Where does the McNellie’s Group Blue Dome Criterium take place? The criterium takes place in the Blue Dome District of Tulsa, Oklahoma, at 2nd & Elgin st.
What is the date and time of the event? The women’s event will start at 7:05 PM Friday, June 6th, and the men will follow at 8:20 PM. Both races are 70 minutes long.
What are the course attributes? The course is a 0.7 mile, eight-turn, course that is mostly flat except for a slight drag up to the finish line.
How many editions of Tulsa Tough have taken place? The race began in 2006, with 2025 set to be the 19th edition.
Who won the event in 2024? Luke Lamperti and Kendall Ryan took wins at the 2024 McNellie’s Group Blue Dome Criterium.
The Blue Dome circuit is a 0.7-mile sprinters paradise. Comprised of two rectangles and big roads to work with along the entire course, the race is fast and smooth for the peloton. Most of the night will see the action strung out with the sprinters teams controlling the few intrepid attacks that will look to upset the apple cart.
This accordion will be in full effect through the finish line each lap around and a slight uphill drag extends the peloton from turn eight to turn one. In the front, they will be fighting for sprint points and primes. In the back, they will be fighting to hold on the coat-tails of the pack and survive another lap before the fight begins again.
What the race may lack in its capacity to generate breakaways, it makes up for with the sprint showdowns which are always in the running for best of the year. The quick laps, fast straightaways, and sweeping turns are the perfect setting for the teams with strength and speed to come en-mass to the front and bring the peloton to maximum velocity before depositing the purest of the speedsters into the final turn to put on the afterburners on that final drag to the line.
“At Tulsa, the twilight element doesn't affect the race as much as other races. You're in downtown Tulsa so there's plenty of lights. You can see everything that's going on,” Bourgoyne said.
“Still, it makes it a bit more dramatic because it makes people a little more antsy and makes them a little bit more twitchy. There's more crashes than what you'll find in a daytime crit. It does create a certain factor of, I called it the oh shit factor, where it keeps your heart rate pinned a little bit higher because you're kind of puckered up the whole time.”
Last year, it was Kendall Ryan who used her L39ion team to dominate the final for the women while Luke Lamperti used his WorldTour craft to jump the dominant Reign Storm Racing train to take the wins. This year, Lamperti won’t be in attendance as he has just finished the Giro d’Italia, but Ryan will be back with her strong team and hopes of going back to back at the Blue Dome.
On the men’s side, Tulsa is full of top flight sprinters. Justin Williams, for one, is a multi-time winner of the Friday night race and will be back with his L39ion of Los Angeles team to get back into the mix after a rather anonymous spring, while his brother, Cory Williams, is in a similar boat for the Golden State Blazers. Their number one option is likely to be Jim Brown. The Brit has been racking up podiums for the outfit after making his name on the American scene last year with Ribble Rebellion.
The international contingent on the men’s side is deep this year with both the MitoQ New Zealand Cycling Project and the Destroy Cycling Club out of Germany. MitoQ will be led by Ben Oliver, who was all over the podiums of ACC races last year, while DCC will be headed by sprinter Dario Rapps. Other teams to watch are BIKERS Cycling and Jordan Parra, winner of multiple ACC stops last season, CRCA Foundation with Sean McElroy who won the UCI GP New York, and Kingdom Elite with Bryan Gomez.
For the women, the tone will surely be set by Kendall Ryan and her L39ion of Los Angeles squad. They will have a full team of strong riders which will be fully committed to getting Ryan across the line first in the final sprint. Riders like Laurel Rathburn will be on lockdown duty before they will set up a leadout for the new criterium national champion.
If the winner is not Ryan, the next likely contender will come from the Cynisca Pro Cycling roster. Not only does Cynisca Cycling have Alexis Magner, Ryan’s sister, who was on the podium at the Blue Dome criterium last year, but they also have Chloe Patrick who is the current U23 criterium national champion.
Beyond Cynisca and L39ion, other teams to watch are the Fount Cycling Guild, which brings a deep line-up including Andrea Cyr, CCB p/b Levine Law Group, Virginia's Blue Ridge TWENTY28, and LA Sweat.
Photo credit: Saint Francis Tulsa Tough
