In the women’s race, the result was far from surprising as Kendall Ryan secured a second consecutive win at night one of the three day series. The way she did it, however, was far from the script. A two women breakaway got a jump early and only was reeled in on the last lap when the sprinters launched into action.
While Ryan managed to release a monster kick to come around the wheel of her sister, Alexis Magner (Cynisca Cycling) and Cassidy Hickey (CCB p/b Levine Law Group) who were her closest competitor at the end, the key for the victory was the massive work from her L39ion teammates Holly Breck and Laurel Rathburn.
“Basically when the two got 40 off the front we knew we needed to be the ones to bring it back,” Holly Brock said. “One would go, it would lull, then another would go, and it would lull — there was never any cohesiveness to bring it back. Then, two started to go across and it was panic.
”Laurel took a mega pull with three to go and then I just had to try to do what I could to bring it back. Thankfully we caught them just after one to go and then it was kind of ‘Kendall you got to go do your thing.’”
The men’s race was, on paper, more conventional with a big group gallop bringing down the curtain on the night. Dario Rapps was the winner with a massive sprint into the second to last turn before holding it all the way up the hill to the line. His team, Destroy Cycling Club, managed the sprint lead out perfectly in the hectic sprint and it paid dividends for the sprinter who was ecstatic after the line.
The aggressive racing started early with a dangerous group including Robin Carpenter and Eric Brunner hitting out early, but when the group got closer Dario Rapps was already making moves to weld things together and tamper the attacks as he and his team played it coy. That aggression seemed to burn itself out by the back half of the race where things were clearly building towards a sprint. Then, it was all about building the lead out trains and letting the cards fall in the frantic final.
“I can’t even describe it, I never thought I’d win such a big race,” Rapps said in a raucous post race interview after his victory lap. “This atmosphere is so amazing, I never could imagine I could win a race like this. I don’t know if I can do it again, but lets see what the next days will bring and I am so hyped for the next races.
“This is absolutely the best criterium in the whole world.”
The women’s race rolled off the line at 7:08 pm last night under a setting sun with a large field of the best in American racing and the next seventy minutes of action absolutely delivered.
The main catalyst came in the form of a two-women breakaway that formed within the first 30-minutes as Bryony Botha (Fearless Femme Racing) and Grace Arlandson (Automatic-Abus Racing) hit off for glory. The pair immediately began to work seemlessly together and a ballooning gap followed, starting at 8 seconds through the first lap, before it grew, and grew, and grew to 40 seconds just a handful of laps later.
By the time they hit the mid-race ACC points sprint, the race was firmly in the balance as a chase had yet to materialize in earnest. Clearly, Cynisca, L39ion, and CCB were all interested in making it a sprint, however, none of those teams had number to burn and it was a stop-start chase for many laps that didn’t do much to bring down the gap to the flying duo.
Ultimately, the three teams found a working releationship to put impetus into the chase with under ten laps to go and the gap started to drop as the breakaway was becoming visibly tired. Nevertheless, the gap was still stubbornly over the 30 second mark and time was running out.
With four laps to go the tenor changed as Laurel Rathburn took the strong tempo of the previous handful of laps and raised it, stretching the group and quickly bringing the breakaway back into range of a last ditch catch.
Her two laps of tempo was followed by a bridge move from Chloe Patrick (Cynisca Cycling) and a rider from LA Sweat which threw yet another wrench into the mix. Patrick is a former U23 criterium champ and one of the strongest riders in the domestic peloton. She motored across the gap, making the breakaway of two suddenly turn to four as the race shot across the line as the final lap bell tolled. The race was in the balance once again as the sprinters queued up for the final charge.
Crucially, Ryan and L39ion still had their last move with Holly Breck putting in a massive pull along the backside of the course to weld the gap back together and Ryan, a sprinter perfectly suited for the sprint on night one of Tulsa, delivered in spades. When she kicked, neither Magner, nor Hickey, nor anyone else could match the speed.
- Kendall Ryan — L39ion of Los Angeles
- Alexis Magner — Cynisca Cycling
- Cassidy Hickey — CCB p/b Levine Law Group
- Odette Lynch — Fearless Femme Racing
- Andrea Cyr — Fount Cycling Guild
- Josephine Peloquin — LA Sweat
- Erica Carney — Care for Cycling
- Lauren Stephens — Aegis Cycling Foundation
- Aline Seitz — Butcherbox Cycling
- Rylee McMullen — Virginia’s Blue Ridge Twenty28
The crowd had little chance to come down from the high of the women’s race before the men’s begin. With a massive field of 140 taking on what was sure to be a flying seventy minutes under the lights in Tulsa. While the women’s race was a glorious cage-fight-esk romp, history says that wouldn’t be the case for the men’s event as bigger teams on a course as fast and open as Blue Dome is conducive to sprint outcomes.
Off the gun, Rapps and his DCC team made it clear they were on boards with that outcome as they sent three riders to the front right away to set the tone and control the pace all in a bid for the sprint at the end of the night.
Nevertheless, even with the odds looking unlikely, a big move was made early by Robin Carpenter who hit out around ten minutes in in a bid to shake things up for his L39ion of Los Angeles squad. He was joined by three other riders, including Eric Brunner who has been prolific on the American road scene thus far in 2025.
The four looked good for a few laps, but the impetus to try and jump across the gap was much too high from behind for the break to gain enough of a margin. Eventually, five riders joined them, before more and more riders jumped across and the move was neutralized.
Moves continued to flow from the peloton, but nothing gained much traction as the specter of a sprint grew bigger and bigger on the horizon. Riley Wrightsman (First Internet Bank Cycling) did make a good go of it solo and while he didn’t make a dent on the final result sheet, he did manage to nab the ACC Mid Race Sprint which netted him the first jersey in that season long competition.
Into the final, L39ion was the dominant team at the front. With Justin Williams and Danny Summerhill as the sprint options, the team set up shop at the front of the field and tried to fend off the countless teams trying to break their way in. Eventually, the British Trekkerz team managed to do just that, breaking through with around five laps to go and staying there all the way to the bell in service of their sprinter, Matthew Bostock.
Nevertheless, behind them the whole time was Rapps and his DCC team. Their whole plan boiled down to the last lap.
”Position is key, especially in the last lap,” Rapps said. “Around the last two corners we have to be in the very front, perhaps position one, two, or three. If you are further back you won’t win.”
Well, position one worked pretty well for Rapps last night. Through the fight of the back-side of the course, Rapps surfed the right wheels and was first into turn seven, turn eight, and had enough gas to hold off the challenge from Jordan Parra (Bikers Cycling Team) and Ollie Wood to take a commanding sprint win.
- Dario Rapps — DCC
- Jordan Parra — Bikers Cycling Team
- Ollie Wood — Unattached
- Matthew Bostock — Trekkerz
- Danny Summerhill — L39ion of Los Angeles
- Dusan Kalaba — The Parks Law Firm All Stars
- Brody McDonald — Golden State Blazers
- Preston Eye — Team Flicker
- Juan Arango — Bikers Cycling Team
- Maurice Ballerstedt — Unattached
The USA Cycling Criterium National Series and American Criterium Cup continues with LHM|CC Utah Crits on June 14.
Photo Credit: Saint Francis Tulsa Tough
