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Marlies Mejias and Juan Arango win the ACC finales at the Giro Della Montagna

By: Logan Jones-Wilkins  September 03, 2024

Marlies Mejias and Juan Arango take wins at the last stop of the ACC at the Giro della Montagna, the third race of the 2024 Bommarito Audi West County Gateway Cup. 

Mejias (Virginia’s Blue Ridge Twenty24) took her third straight win at “The Hill” with a close-fought win ahead of Skylar Schneider (Miami Blazers) and Alexis Magner (L39ion). The race saw a few attacks but with the strength of L39ion and Miami marshaling the front of the race. 

The men’s race was a more aggressive affair as attacks flew the entire race. Ultimately, a breakaway succeeded with three riders stealing away in the final three laps including two Work Hard Be Humble riders and Johnathan Clarke. Preston Eye and Juan Arango were the two Work Hard Be Humble riders in the and Eye went full gas to support Arango who was able to save energy and attack Clarke on the last last to take the win on the line ahead of Lucas Bourgoyne (Miami Blazers) and Alfredo Rodriguez (Reign Storm Racing).

Mejias makes it a hat trick at the Hill

The women’s race started with hot and humid conditions with a deeply Italian flare as the Hill welcomed back the Giro della Montagna for the 37th time. 

The big sprinters of the season were back in the fold for the final ACC race of the season with Skylar Schneider’s Miami Blazers and Alexis Magner’s L39ion of Los Angeles both ready to control the race for a sprint after the 70-minute race. And control they did with both squads putting numbers at the front throughout the first half of the race.

The big action point came halfway through at the mid-race ACC sprint point as Rylee McMullen has been locked in a season-long battle with Schneider. Schneider had made inroads over the last few races and had a slight lead in the competition, but McMullen had a chance to come from behind with the largest point total of the season available at the Gateway Cup stop. 

Nevertheless, Schneider was just too quick for the Kiwi and she powered to win the mid-race sprint and clinch the jersey. 

After the mid-race point, the race turned a bit more aggressive as different riders made moves off of the front. Nothing looked serious until five laps to go when Rebecca Lang (Fount Cycling) and Jennifer Wheeler (Kingdom Elite) jumped out of the peloton and quickly built a lead of around 30 seconds. 

That gap held for the next two laps and it looked like the duo might just do it, however, as she had previously in Tulsa and Chicago, Laurel Rathburn (L39ion of Los Angeles) was there to stick things back together as the powerful rider put in a huge pull through the bell to set up her sprinter Magner. The duo was back in the fold by the time the road was kicking up on the backstretch and the sprinters began to kick. 

Ultimately, despite the work done by Miami and L39ion, there are riders who seem to have a knack for certain courses and Mejias certainly seems to have the sprint at the Hill down to a science. She powered away from Schneider and Magner out of the final corner and held the lead on the downhill run to the line to take her third win in a row at the Hill, her second win of this year's Gateway Cup after wins Friday and Saturday, and her second ACC win of the year. 

Women’s results:

  1. Marlies Mejias (Virginia’s Blue Ridge Twenty24)

  2. Skylar Schneider (Miami Blazers)

  3. Alexis Magner (L39ion of Los Angeles) 

  4. Paola Muñoz (Goldman Sachs EFTs Racing) 

  5. Olivia Cummins (DNA Pro Cycling) 

  6. Lauren Stephens (Cynisca Pro Cycling)

  7. Rylee McMullen (DNA Pro Cycling)

  8. Regina Doty (LA Sweat)

  9. Arielle Verhaaren (Automatic-Abus Racing)

  10. Alexi Ramirez (Miami Blazers) 

Work Hard Be Humble turns a master class in upsetting the applecart

The men’s race followed with 125 riders taking on the same 70-minute race as the women except all of the control present in the women’s race was immediately out the door for the men. From start to finish, it was a free-for-all.

Early on the central characters were L39ion with Ty Magner and Robin Carpenter trading attacks early on in the race. Magner in particular sent an early attack that put him off the front solo for a couple of laps. One of the big changes that helped bring about the race’s aggression was Reign Storm Racing letting go of their grip on controlling the front of the race as they have throughout the season. 

With Reign Storm taking a more passive approach and squads like L39ion pouring on the pressure the races continued to constantly change as big names kept attacking and other big names kept closing the gaps down. Ultimately, Robin Carpenter’s second move was the first to get significant breathing room when he attacked with Preston Eye as the race entered its final act. Eye ultimately had a mechanical that took him out of the move, but he would be back in the action a few laps later. 
Carpenter continued his effort solo and held onto a gap long enough for a second group to split off the front of the and join Carpenter with five laps to go, including Bryan Gomez (Reign Storm Racing), Jonathan Clarke (Miami Blazers), and, crucially, Juan Arango. 

With three laps to go the peloton was quickly closing down on the breakaway as a sprint looked imminent and most of the breakaway sat up to call it a day as Arango and Clarke pushed forward in a move that seemed doomed. However, out of the back Preston Eye launched a huge counter-attack that got the Work Hard Be Humble rider to the front duo which included his teammate and the pair of riders in the white and gold skinsuits of the team from Nashville pushed the gap out again as Clarke sat on. 

Through the bell the gap looked like it could go either way as Reign Storm and the Austin Outlaws worked for a sprint, but Eye had one huge final pull left in his legs and hit the front hard, pulling out the final winning margin and giving Arango the slipstream he needed to save a bit of legs for one final attack to drop Clarke and take the win. Behind it was Bourgoyne taking another close second at an ACC race while Alfredo Rodriguez took third to give Reign Storm one last podium to cap a massive season of racing in the ACC. 

Men’s results:

  1. Juan Arango (Work Hard be Humble) 

  2. Lucas Bourgoyne (Miami Blazers)

  3. Alfredo Rodriguez (Reign Storm Racing)

  4. Clever Martinez (Rockland Development)

  5. Jordan Parra (Reign Storm Racing)

  6. Ben Oliver (Above + Beyond Cancer)

  7. Tyler Williams (Miami Blazers) 

  8. Cole Davis (Ribble Rebellion) 

  9. Alberto Ramos (CRCA Foundation)

  10. Cesar Serna (Team Skyline-Cadence) 

The ACC has wrapped up and Skylar Schneider (Miami Blazers) and Jordan Parra (Reign Storm Racing) have won the individual season-long titles. In the team classification, DNA Pro Cycling and Reign Storm Racing taking wins after consistent performances all season long.

The men’s season has revolved around Reign Storm all season long. While they had a small hiccup on night one in Tulsa, the team took charge with Bryan Gomez’s win in Milwaukee and kept the train rolling through Gateway where Alfredo Rodriguez finished third. Behind the Reign Storm crew was the Austin Outlaws and Rockland Development who finished second and third in the overall standings by way of their sprinters Lucas Bourgoyne (Miami Blazers) and Clever Martinez (Rockland Development). 
Parra was the leading scorer for Reign Storm and won the individual title ahead of his teammates Rodriguez and Danny Summerhill, who also won the mid-race green sprint jersey. 

The women’s season was also punctuated by one consistent force in Skylar Schneider (Miami Blazers). Schneider, who won the overall, finished on the podium in every race with two wins in Boise and Littleton. Rylee McMullen (DNA Pro Cycling) finished second and Paula Muñoz (Goldman Sachs EFTs Racing) finished third. 
DNA Pro Cycling was the winning team for the women with a full squad performing all season. McMullen was their top performer but the team also scored significant points from Makayla MacPherson who was also in the top ten on the final standings. The Miami Blazers were second in the final standings while Goldman Sachs EFTs Racing rounded out the podium. 

Skylar Schneider also won the mid-race point green jersey after a summer-long battle with Rylee McMullen. 

Men’s individual standings:

  1. Jordan Parra (Reign Storm Racing) 

  2. Alfredo Rodriguez (Reign Storm Racing) 

  3. Danny Summerhill (Reign Storm Racing) 

  4. Clever Martinez (Rockland Development)

  5. Lucas Bourgoyne (Austin Outlaws)

  6. Ben Oliver (Above + Beyond Cancer)

  7. Bryan Gomez (Reign Storm Racing)

  8. Noah Granigan (Miami Blazers)

  9. Cade Bickmore (Project Echelon)

Men’s team classification: