The ACC showdown in the Beehive state was perfectly suited for sprint finals with a short, wide course around the Sandy Promenade, the site for Saturday’s race.
In the women’s race, Ryan had to fend off a series of late breaking moves from Kingdom Elite and Cynisca Cycling. Without a team, all eyes were on her, but the veteran sprinter was able to stay the course, be patient, and make it count when the sprint opened up with a hundred meters to go.
The men’s race flipped the script with a lot of aggressive racing early as the team-less riders tried to forge clear. One team that was especially active was Cadence Cyclery, which was curious given that it was the team of Lucas Bourgoyne — perhaps the fastest sprinter in the field. Yet, as Bourgoyne raised his hands across the line, it was clear there was a method to the strategy.
The men’s race in Utah was set as a perfect chance for redemption for Lucas Bourgoyne and Cadence Cyclery team after striking out at the Saint Francis Tulsa Tough ACC stop. Despite an early season of great form, Bourgoyne was sick in the lead into Tulsa and the team couldn’t get together for the final sprint. From the word go in Sandy, it was clear the team was going to go all out to reverse their fortunes at stop number two.
Luke Fetzer (Cadence Cyclery) was the early aggressor for the team, rolling a few attacks early including a solo breakaway for almost ten laps in the opening 30 minutes of the race. Bourgoyne and their teammate Richard Holec were both active in tracking down the counter attacks and made their presence felt at the front of the peloton for much of the early attacking period of the race.
They were countered by the strong solo riders who were trying to get up the road rather than fend for themselves in the sprint with Danny Summerhill (L39ion of Los Angeles) and Brody McDonald (Golden State Blazers) among the more active aggressors. While plenty of riders and teams seemed open to a breakaway, ultimately, nothing beyond Fetzer’s early solo challenged the odds of it being a grand sprint final in the end.
Most of the action instead came from the big money primes during the race, primary of which was the ACC Green Jersey points at the halfway point. Summerhill, who won the jersey last year, is back to fight for the jersey again this season and dutifully claimed full points at the halfway point.
In the second half of the race, all the attacks started to peter out as the sprint seemed more and more likely. The teams that were present consolidated around their sprinter, while the solo riders found the wheels they wanted to follow into the last few laps. All of this culminated in the final lap when Cadence Cyclery came with three riders out of turn one and ready to launch Bourgoyne to the line. With Holec as the lead out and Fetzer as the sweeper, they were in perfect position setting up for the tight final two turns.
Nevertheless, a gutsy challenge from Dusan Kalaba (Parks Law Firm All-Stars) and Maurice Ballerstedt came at the last moment and suddenly Bourgoyne was sprinting from third in a tailwind sprint. Bourgoyne remained calm, however, and stepped out of the draft with 50 meters to go to kick clear of Ballerstedt and claim his first ACC victory ahead of the German and McDonald who completed the podium.
“In the altitude and in the heat everyone was really flat,” Bourgoyne said after the race. “Breakaways would look like they would get away, but after 5 minutes of effort everyone was obliterated.”
“It made for a slow sprint as well because our team was a little spread out. We had Richard Holec come through with one to go, I couldn’t find Luke [Fetzer] but then I looked back and saw him dive bombing like a crazy man into turn one and we were lined up from then on.”
- Lucas Bourgoyne — Cadence Cyclery
- Maurice Ballerstedt — Unattached
- Brody McDonald — Golden State Blazers
- Danny Summerhill — L39ion of Los Angeles
- Dusan Kalaba — Parks Law Firm All-Stars
- Ian Williams — Empyr Cycling
- Maddox Simmons — Chaney Windows and Doors Pastaria
- Conor Mullervy — Clif Family Drifters
- Alejandro Che — Kelly Benefits Cycling
- Jade Rohde — Rio Grande Elite Cycling
Heading into the second ACC race of the season, Kendall Ryan knew she had less of a margin for error compared to her win on night one of competition. Without the help of teammates, like Holly Breck and Laurel Rathburn who were key to her win at the Blue Dome DIstrict, she’d have to find a way to keep it all together on her own.
For most riders, that would be a tall order. Yet, Ryan has a way of being a one woman wrecking crew if the conditions are right.
The first half of the race proceeded with a few moves, mostly coming from Kingdom Elite which was the team with the biggest collection of riders after crashes took a few of the Virginia’s Blue Ridge Twenty28 riders out of contention early, but most of these moves were in ones and twos. More significantly, there always seemed to be other riders willing to close things down despite Ryan being the odds on favorite at the end.
Throughout this attacking, Heidy Praderas (Kingdom Elite) was the most prolific with multiple stints off the front. One of those expeditions netted the ACC Green Jersey for her mid race prime win, while the other one came towards the end of the race and looked for a time like she might just take the win. Praderas at one point in the final ten laps had over half a minute on the chasing peloton without a clear cut team to nail the gap back.
Nevertheless, a last pitch prime in the final three laps got the peloton motivated enough to close the gap down before the sprint could proceed.
One final move from Tess Edwards (Cynisca Cycling) looked like it could rip up the script at the last possible moment, just as a move from Cynisca in Tulsa looked like it would as well, but ultimately the outcome was the same: in the end, Kendall Ryan catches the attacker at the last most, times her sprint to perfection, and wins.
Behind Ryan it was Aline Seitz and Rylee McMullen completing the podium.
“It’s a cool course, really fast, but the wind did a total 180 on us after I prerode this morning,” Ryan said after the race. “We had a tailwind finish instead of a headwind so I had to rethink where I wanted to sit heading into the last corner.”
“It kind of got dicey because of the last minute move by Tess Edwards but during the race I tried to not do too much. I lit one match to see what would happen, but it stayed together the whole time. Kingdom Elite did ride a really strong ride today and sent a few attacks way up the road which did make me nervous, without any teammates.
“I have been racing in the humidity and today it was so dry, I drank both my bottles, but yeah its a fun course and I am just happy to be out here.”
- Kendall Ryan — L39ion of Los Angeles
- Aline Seitz — Unattached
- Rylee McMullen — Virginia’s Blue Ridge Twenty28
- Andrea Cyr — Fount Cycling Guild
- Ava Hachmann — Team Soundpony
- Aylena Quevedo — Kingdom Elite
- Arielle Verhaaren — Automatic Racing
- Jenna Nestman — Kingdom Elite
- Ashley Bremert — Ride or Die Racing
- Samantha Clark — Kingdom Elite
The USA Cycling Criterium National Series and American Criterium Cup continues at the Tour of America's Dairyland on June 28.
Photo credit: @veloimages
