Jordan Parra and Skylar Schneider take wins at the Bailey Glasser Boise Twilight Criterium on a hot night of racing in front of a rambunctious crowd in the shadow of Idaho’s state capitol.
Parra was aided by his REIGN Storm teammate Danny Summerhill who finished second on the day beating Luke Lamperti (Soudal Quick-Step) after a thrilling day of dynamic racing at the third stop of the American Criterium Cup.
Schneider won in a field sprint after being a big part of the six women move that got away at the halfway mark of the women’s race and went a lap up before sprinting for the win. The victory on Saturday made it four victories in four consecutive years for Schneider in Boise as she asserts her dominance on the race once again.
“I’ve said it before to so many people, although [Boise] is not a highly participated race, this is one of the best races we get to go to all year,” Summerhill said after the finish. “The crowds are awesome and we just love it!”
In the overall ACC standings Skylar Schneider extended her lead in the women’s competition while Bryan Gomez held onto the jersey despite suffering a crash on the final lap. Likewise, Rylee McMullen retains the ACC sprint green jersey even though she did not attend Boise. Summerhill will retain his green jersey as well even though he did not score point at the mid race prime tonight.
In the men’s race, the action started early and continued throughout the 70 minutes to make for some of the best criterium racing seen all year long. Between the small teams, the number of strong individuals, and a course that lends itself to drastic changes in racing situations, the race was ripe to be one to remember for the thousands of fans who found their way to the 37th running of the race.
From the jump two names that stood out as aggressors who would play a role throughout the race was Luke Lamperti, who came into the race with the burden of being the odds on favorite, and Allan Schroeder who was the hometown heard in Boise. Nevertheless, the first move to establish a real gap came from Tyler Williams (Miami Blazers) ten minutes in as he went solo for a few laps.
While that move looked promising, it was welded shut as quickly as it started, which would become a theme throughout the night as different riders tried to jump up the road.
Allan Schroeder was the next to go as he linked up with a EMPYR rider for a brief stint off the front, but that was also quickly brought back before the mid race ACC sprint point. Summerhill, who had won the first two sprints in Tulsa and Milwaukee, looked set to get his third, but a shrewd move by Alex Martinek (Team RF Foundations) gave him full points ahead of Lamperti and Noah Granigan who pipped Summerhill on the line. Regardless, he will retain the green jersey for next week’s stop in Salt Lake City.
After the mid race sprint point Cade Bickmore (Project Echelon) tried his hand and looked set to be building an advantage as the gap went out to around 20 seconds before that too was snapped back together by a few strong riders behind, most notably the figure of Michael Garrison (MGR NICH+ SpeedClub) was taking massive pulls at the front of the race.
The last move to stretch the proverbial elastic came from a group of six that included last year’s winner Tyler Magner (L39ion of Los Angeles), both Miami Blazers riders and two REIGN Storm riders including Bryan Gomez. That group immediately got a gap which sent alarm bells ringing behind. Those calls were answered emphatically by Lamperti and Garrison who took a few passengers with them across the gap to the breakaway within a few laps creating an interesting dynamic where a breakaway of 20 was up the road with just 10 laps to and almost all the pre race favorites still in the mix.
Ultimately, that mix proved to be too cagey as none of the riders wanted to expend more energy than the others. This disunity brought that breakaway back to the rest of the rest of the race with only a handful of laps left to race.
Michael Garrison led through the bell, this time riding in an effort to help his friend Luke Lamperti take the win at the end of the day. Unfortunately for them, Lamperti had a gear slip on turn two of the final lap which cost him some speed which was then capitalized on by Danny Summerhill and REIGN Storm’s strength in numbers.
Nevertheless, turn three of the final lap was almost their undoing as Bryan Gomez crashed hard along with Noah Granigan and a few other sprinters. Summerhill and Parra, however, we’re able to keep clean and powered out of the final turn to take a 1-2 victory once again as the Boise crowd roared their appreciation. Lamperti avoided the crash and ended up third in the end while Bryan Gomez retains the ACC overall jersey ahead of Luke Lamperti and Jordan Parra.
In the women’s race the overwhelming favorite coming into the evening was Sky Schneider. Not only has Schneider been on great form this season, she has also won the event on three consecutive occasions.
With her stays as the rider on the top of everyone’s mind and a strong team as well, the first half of the race was a buttoned up affair as few attacks managed to get any kind of breathing room. Most of the attacks were from the trio of racers from DNA Pro Cycling and LA Sweat. Additionally, Samantha Scott made an appearance in her hometown of Boise as she tackles her first season on the Women’s WorldTour in Europe for Lotto-Dstny.
At the halfway mark, the race finally came alive as the stakes ratcheted up as the heat of the day began to relent. Kimberly Lucie of DNA Pro Cycling was the rider who got maximum points in the ACC mid race sprint points to help buffer her teammates lead in that classification. As it turns out, the action was just beginning with the mid race sprint. A lap after the points were awarded, six riders had stolen a small advantage over the peloton. A few laps after that and the gap looked like it was nearly insurmountable as the leaders had the right composition to immediately pull out a healthy gap.
In total, the breakaway had a full collection of the strongest teams and riders in the race with Skylar and Samantha Schneider in the escape for the Miami Blazers, Kimberly Lucie and Makayla Macpherson of DNA Pro Cycling, Regina Doty of LA Sweat, and Arielle Verhaaren of Automatic Abus. Within ten laps, the six had chased the tail of the remaining peloton down and were a lap up to contest the finish with a sprint within a sprint.
It was a slow boil from that point onwards as the riders who had gone a lap up marked their rivals closely. A cagey finish was a lock as the laps counted down.
In that final cagey sprint that materialized Skylar Schneider was the woman to beat and delivered an emphatic victory, using a strong lead out from her teammate and sister Samantha and get a jump on the rest through the final bend. She was untouchable in the final 200 meters to the line, taking her fourth Boise title by a few bike lengths in the end ahead of Arielle Verhaaren, who raced impressively all night as a rider without team support, and Makayla Macpherson who rounded out the podium in third.
“Obviously having won here three times in a row made this a big goal for me so my teammates were definitely on my side tonight,” Schneider said after the race.
“It was a small field but really strong which meant we had to be a bit more creative. Lapping the field was a bit of a surprise and that made the race more of a chess match than anything, but I’m really happy to finish it off.”
Photo credit: Brian Kohagen
