(February 21-23) – Team USA earned three gold medals plus a slew of podium spots at the Tropical MTB Challenge and XCO Junior Series in Salinas, Puerto Rico. It was the first of two successful race weekends for the squad in Puerto Rico.
Gwendalyn Gibson (Trek Factory Racing-Pirelli) led the way, winning both the elite women’s XCC and XCO races. Bailey Cioppa (Bear National Team) placed 3rd and 4th respectively in XCC and XCO.
Jack Spranger (Bear National Team) took 3rd in the elite men’s XCC, and won the U23 men’s XCO race, with Austin Beard and Dane Grey placing 4th and 5th. Robbie Day (Bear National Team) placed 4th in the elite men’s XCO.
Makena Kellerman (Bear National Team) and Bayli McSpadden (Bear National Team) placed 2ndand 3rd in the U23 women’s XCO race.
In the junior women’s XCO series, Sophia Wellmeier placed 2nd, followed by Zanna Logar in 3rdand Landrie McClain in 4th. In the junior men’s XCO series, Rowan Nistal placed 2nd, followed three seconds later by Dillon Lee in 3rd and Michael Ziomek in 5th.
Complete results here
(February 28-March 1) – It was another double-gold weekend for Gwendalyn Gibson (Trek Factory Racing-Pirelli), who placed first in the elite women’s XCC and XCO races in Rincón.
Zanna Logar (Future Frameworks) took 1st in the junior women’s XCO series, followed by Mary McLarnon in 3rd and Emma Clark in 4th. In the junior men’s XCO race, Maddix Thiel placed 3rdand Luke Ozment was 5th.
Complete results here
(February 19-23) – Neilson Powless (EF Education-EasyPost) started his road season strong with a 6th-place finish at Volta ao Algarve, in southern Portugal. Powless, who said afterwards that he still wasn’t at 100 percent after dealing with pneumonia in January, placed top-10 in all four stages of the race, which was scheduled to go five stages but was shortened by one.
Complete results here
(March 1) – Day one of a weekend consisting of two French classics ended oddly for the peloton. After nearly 169 kilometers of racing, including 3,000 meters of tough climbing, a trio of riders in the lead group including Brandon McNulty (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) attacked near the finish line but went off-course.
The riders followed some motorbikes and took a right turn at the final roundabout instead of going straight, leading to a victory by Frenchman Romain Grégoire (Groupama-FDJ). McNulty, who’d previously won the event in 2022, quickly turned around and came in 22 seconds later to place 8thoverall.
Complete results here
(March 2) – Quinn Simmons (Lidl-Trek) placed 8th the following day at the Faun Drôme Classic, where he and other teammates supported Mattias Skjelmose, who finished second. The race finished with Simmons in a large group sprinting for third after 189 kilometers of racing and more than 2,400 meters of climbing. “It might as well have been Quinn, Andrea, or Tao on that podium today,” said Skjelmose afterwards. It was the 23-year-old Simmons’ first weekend of road racing this season.
Complete results here
(February 17-23) – Matthew Riccitello (Israel-Premier Tech) placed 8th in the Youth category at the seven-stage UAE Tour. The 23-year-old finished 17th overall behind winner Tadej Pogačar.
Complete results here
