Seventeen Titles Awarded on the Final Day of the 2026 Paracycling Road National Championships

The 2026 USA Cycling Paracycling Road National Championships concluded on Sunday in Bentonville with the road race events. Riders battled wet and windy conditions to finish an eventful weekend of racing.

The first wave of races for the day kicked off with the Handcycle and Tricycle classes. Dennis Connors (Beaverton, Ore.) completed four laps, for a total of 22 kilometers, and claimed gold in the Men’s T2 category. The Men’s H3-5 completed nine laps, covering a total distance of 49 kilometers. They started with a fairly large group that broke apart early on, with Alfredo De Los Santos (Hopewell Junction, N.Y.; Team Semper Fi/Semper Fi Fund) and Matt Tingley (Colorado Springs, Colo.) pulling away from their respective classes. By the last lap, Tingley broke away from De Los Santos, winning the H4 category. Meanwhile, De Los Santos scored the H5 national title and his second Stars and Stripes of the weekend. Kevin Hillery (Alexandria, Va.; Paralyzed Veterans of America Racing PB First Nation Group) secured the win in the Men’s H3 category.

When asked about his race, De Los Santos said, “I think it went really well, I pushed really hard...and it was good training. And it’s always good to be around these guys here. I feel blessed to be part of this event, and I’m hoping to continue doing this.”

Men’s T2 (Tricycle) Results: 

1. Dennis Connors (Beaverton, Ore.)

Men H5 (Handcycle) Results: 

1. Alfredo De Los Santos (Hopewell Junction, N.Y.; Team Semper Fi/Semper Fi Fund)

2. Panagiotis Ampelas (San Diego, Calif.; Peace Performance)

Men H4 (Handcycle) Results: 

1. Matt Tingley (Colorado Springs, Colo.)

2. Redzuan Abdul Razak (North Miami, Fla.)

3. Casey Falkner (Stevensville, Mich.; Mary Free Bed Handcycling)

Men’s H3 (Handcycle) Results:

1. Kevin Hillery (Alexandria, Va.; Paralyzed Veterans of America Racing PB First Nation Group)

The Women’s H3-5 and Men’s H2 completed eight laps for a 44-kilometer race. Jeremy Van Tress (Herriman, Utah; Paralyzed Veterans of America) delivered a powerful performance, winning the Men’s H2 category. On the women’s side, JoAnn Outten Kenton (Harrington, Del.) won her second title of the weekend. “It’s my first time in Bentonville,” said Outten Kenton. “Absolutely loved the time trial and the road race. I thought it was wonderful, greatly organized, wonderfully executed, and very much enjoyed taking on the course.” 

The Women’s H2 completed four laps for a total of 22 kilometers. “The race today was perfect,” said Women’s H2 winner Linden Williamson (Boerne, Texas; Texas ParaSport). “The roads were really smooth, and it’s really flat, so we got some really fast times today. And just as we finished, some crazy weather rolled in, so it was great timing!”

Men’s H2 (Handcycle) Results:

1. Jeremy Van Tress (Herriman, Utah; Paralyzed Veterans of America)

2. Nicholas McCoy (Boerne, Texas; Texas ParaSports)

3. Stephen Zuravel (Pinellas Park, Fla.; Carbonbike USA)

Women’s H4 (Handcycle) Results:

1. JoAnn Outten Kenton (Harrington, Del.)

Women’s H2 (Handcycle) Results:

1. Linden Williamson (Boerne, Texas; Texas ParaSport)

The second wave of races featured the Men’s C1-2 and Women’s C1-5 categories, each completing nine laps for a total of 49.5 kilometers. Fifteen-year-old Broden Ala (Vail, Ariz.; Hatch Toyota) went two for two, claiming his second gold of the weekend in the Men’s C2. When asked about his strategy given the windy conditions, Ala said, “I was just going to draft, but not draft the whole time, and help other people in their race, but just stay back and wait until the sprint finish, and just sprint hard.”

Men’s C2 (Cycling) Results:

1. Broden Ala (Vail, Ariz.; Hatch Toyota)

2. Cahin Perez (Christiana, Tenn.; Project Echelon Vanguard)

3. Denis McGrath (New York, N.Y.; Dare2Tri)

Men’s C1 (Cycling) Results:

1. Todd Key (Scottsdale, Ariz.; Velo Track Cycling)

On the women’s side, Shawn Morelli (Leavenworth, Kan.; Project Echelon Vanguard) and Samantha Bosco (Claremont, Calif.; Caldera Medical x Aurea), both racing in the Women’s C4 category, rode out front together for the nine-lap race. In the heartwarming moment of the day, they crossed the finish line hand-in-hand, with Morelli having the slight edge to take home the Stars and Stripes. In the Women’s C3 category, Jamie Whitmore (Mount Aukum, Calif.; Twenty28) secured her second national title of the weekend. 

“It’s an amazing course,” said Women’s C2 winner Allison Jones (Colorado Springs, Colo.; SRAM). “It was nice to have closed roads and wide roads, and getting to race with other athletes that are like-disability, we were able to put together a pretty good pace line and challenge each other, and get through this course, which was windy in sections, and then absolute blast with the tailwind shooting up the hill in the other sections. It was really good to just have that camaraderie and that competitiveness through it, pushing us to go faster.” 

Women’s C4 (Cycling) Results:

1. Shawn Morelli (Leavenworth, Kan.; Project Echelon Vanguard)

2. Samantha Bosco (Claremont, Calif.; Caldera Medical x Aurea)

3. Andrea Cherniak-Tyson (San Jose, Calif.; SJBC)

Women’s C3 (Cycling) Results:

1. Jamie Whitmore (Mount Aukum, Calif.; Twenty28)

Women’s C2 (Cycling) Results:

1. Allison Jones (Colorado Springs, Colo.; SRAM)

2. Tracy LaMarche (Easley, S.C.; Alive Day)

For the final wave of the day, the B Tandem classes and the Men’s C3-5 raced a total of 12 laps on the 5.5-kilometer course, which totaled 66 kilometers. Owen Cravens and William Seitz (Caver Creek, Ariz.) made the early breakaway in the Men’s B race and won their second gold of the weekend. Marina Mears and Cheyenne Meyer (Anderson, S.C.) secured the Women’s B national title. 

In the Men’s C5 category, Grant Simonds (Salt Lake City, Utah; Open Range Consulting) delivered a dominant performance, claiming the top step of the podium with a five-minute lead over second place Maxwell Winters (Harrison, N.J.; Team Solutions Cycling). 

In the same wave, the Men’s C4 race was tight all the way to the final sprint. In the early laps of the race, Jason Macom (Colorado Springs, Colo.) saw his opportunity to break away from the field and took it, becoming the solo rider out front. Ryan Jastrab (Apple Valley, Calif.) and C5 winner Simonds bridged the gap in the next lap, and the three rode together for most of the race. Jastrab and Macom kept eyes on each other, staying close until the final push in the last lap, where Jastrab pulled ahead to cross the finish solo, securing the Stars and Stripes. “I had a plan of sitting in, taking it easy with zero fitness, and we made it the hardest possible race today going from lap two,” said Jastrab. “Fun day out there, suffered the entire time through the rain, wind, and all the rest of the weather.”

In the Men’s C3 category, Justin Mathers (Fayetteville, N.C.; Pinarello Performance) delivered a powerful performance, claiming the top step of the podium with a three-minute lead over Noah Middlestaedt (Portland, Maine; GimpCyclist.com), who secured silver.

Men’s B (Tandem) Results:

1. Owen Cravens & William Seitz (Caver Creek, Ariz.)

2. Michael Murphy & Richard Soares (Rio Rancho, N.M.; Grit 2Greatness/Fat Tire Cycles)

3. Henry Escobedo & Jackson Mechem (Pearland, Texas; Texas Hold'em)

Women’s B (Tandem) Results:

1. Marina Mears & Cheyenne Meyer (Anderson, S.C.)

Men’s C5 (Cycling) Results: 

1. Grant Simonds (Salt Lake City, Utah; Open Range Consulting)

2. Maxwell Winters (Harrison, N.J.; Team Solutions Cycling)

3. Benjamin McCall (Rock Hill, S.C.; Clemson Cycling)

Men’s C4 (Cycling) Results:

1. Ryan Jastrab (Apple Valley, Calif.)

2. Jason Macom (Colorado Springs, Colo.)

3. CJ Howard (Sacramento, Calif.; Pacos/Shriners Racing)

Men’s C3 (Cycling) Results:

1. Justin Mathers (Fayetteville, N.C.; Pinarello Performance)

2. Noah Middlestaedt (Portland, Maine; GimpCyclist.com) 

Racing will return to Bentonville in 2027. A special thank you to our community partners for this event, which includes Visit Bentonville and the Ozark Foundation.

Full results from the 2026 USA Cycling Paracycling Road National Championships can be found here.

Photo By: Michael Drager