American Criterium Cup: Ryan and Castillo win at LHM|CC Salt Lake Criterium

Kendall Ryan of L39ion of Los Angeles and Ulises Castillo of iSpeed-Felt won in the shadow of the Wasatch Mountains on stop four of the ACC at the Salt Lake Criterium p/b LHM|CC on Sunday.

In the women’s race, Kendall Ryan took the victory from a sprint out of a small group that escaped early in the women’s race. She was joined in the breakaway by several of the race's strongest riders and they quickly built a gap that was clear to go to the line.

Ultimately, it was a close sprint with the current ACC leader Skylar Schneider of the Miami Nights, but Ryan came out on top just as she had in Tulsa on stop one, while Shannon Koch of Kingdom Elite was third.

The men’s race was a much cagier affair with many moves starting, but few gaining traction. Big teams moved and other big teams covered those accelerations on a course that was demanding, but without the difficulty that seemed needed to break apart the field.

When the elastic did snap there was only one lap to go as Ulises Castillo hit the front on the hill under the line and took the bell with massive speed. Castillio immediately put a decisive gap into the rest of the field and held it to the line ahead of Jordan Parra and Danny Summerhill of REIGN Storm Racing.

Skylar Schneider retained her lead in the ACC overall for the women while Jordan Parra ascended to the red jersey for the men. In the race for the mid-race sprint point green jersey Rylee McMullen held onto her lead in the jersey despite missing out on full points in Salt Lake. Danny Summerhill was also second in his ACC mid-race sprint point and extended his lead in that competition.

The women’s race set off in the middle of a beautiful summer afternoon in the Salt Lake suburb of Sandy, Utah. The course was unorthodox with a few sweeping turns and a punchy uphill to the line along the course that runs around America First Field, the home to the Real Salt Lake MLS club and the Utah Royals NWSL team.

Historically, Salt Lake City is the hottest stop on the ACC. Fortunately for the riders, this year it was not quite as scorching with temps hovering around 86 degrees. Furthermore, a breeze blowing from the north made the temperatures even more comfortable, even if it made for a slight headwind coming into the hill up to the finish line.

Between the hill and the wind the race was always likely to tilt in favor of a breakaway and the field responded with a ton of aggressive racing early. Around 20 minutes into the race, the gaps started to form before the race opened up as several of the favorites found their way off the front.

Seven riders formed the breakaway leading into the mid-race sprint with Ryan, Schneider, Koch, Rylee McMullen, and Shayna Powless of DNA Pro Cycling, Jenna Nestman of Goldman Sachs EFT Racing, and Arielle Verhaaren of Automatic Abus Racing quickly getting to work forming a gap that would grow each lap as the group behind tried to rally with only a few teams left to try to catch the team leaders who stole the march ahead.

In the ACC mid-race green jersey sprint, Schneider surprised McMullen and took the top points for the day. While she was unable to vault McMullen in the standings on that result, Schneider has closed the gap to only two points. That competition is very much still in play as more points are awarded to races later in the series, so expect Schneider to continue to put more pressure on McMullen as the ACC races continue this summer.

As the race rolled into its second half, the result crystalized as the breakaway kept its control of the time gap ahead of the peloton. Additionally, the two fastest sprinters in the race were both in the breakaway as Ryan and Schneider have been dominant in sprints where they had the chance to race for the win this season.

The DNA Pro Cycling pair made a good effort to try to break things apart, as did Verhaaren, but the power and speed of the pair in the finish were overwhelming. On this day, the kick from Ryan was enough to dispatch Schneider as the L39ion of Los Angeles sprint had a clean set of wheels to celebrate her second ACC win of the summer after her triumph in Tulsa.

“It was unexpected, I wasn't planning to be in the break, I was trying to initiate for Alexis [Ryan] who wanted to go for it,” Ryan said after the finish. “I guess I ended up getting in the magic combination, so I tried to be smart be smooth and conserve as much as possible so I’d have energy for the end.”

Race results