Team USA Recap: Victory at the Tour des Pyrénées and Two More Podiums From the U.S. Women at the North American MTB World Cups

(August 5-7) – Krista Doebel-Hickok (EF Education-TIBCO-SVB) captured the yellow jersey on Stage 2 and held it to the end to win the overall title at the first-ever CIC-Tour Féminin International des Pyrénées. Her team, including Americans Emily Newsom, Clara Honsinger and Road Race National Champion Emma Langley, won the opening time trial, then Doebel-Hickok won stages 2 and 3. She placed 7^th on stage 4 to lock in her top GC spot, while Emma Langley placed 9^th. Hickok also won the mountain and points titles.

(August 9-14) — Olympic bronze medalist and 3-time Junior World Champion Megan Jastrab (Team DSM) took 2^nd in a bunch sprint on stage 1 at the inaugural Tour of Scandinavia for her first WorldTour podium spot where she also grabbed the Best Young Rider jersey. She went on to place 4^th on stage 2 and finished 56^th overall on GC and Top-20 in the Best Young Rider classification. Jastrab, 20, was the sole American competing at the six-day, six-stage race that crossed through Denmark, Sweden and Norway.

(July 30-August 5) – Four Americans were at the start line of the 7-stage Tour de Pologne, which began in Kielce, Poland and ended in Kraków. Sean Quinn (EF Education-EasyPost), Magnus Sheffield (INEOS Grenadiers), Lawson Craddock (Team BikeExchange/Jayco) and Will Barta (Movistar) competed in the 79^th version of the race, which covered nearly 1,200 kilometers.

Top results included Sheffield’s 2^nd place on Stage 6, an individual time trial, while Craddock placed 14^th. Overall, Sean Quinn was the top-placing American, 21^st on GC and 14^th in King of the Mountains.

(August 14) — USA Cycling’s new women’s development program, sponsored by Cynisca Cycling, raced their second race of the season in France. The team of

Skylar Schneider, Shayna Powless, Heidi Franz, Erica Clevenger, Cara O’Neil, and Kyleigh Spearing raced the one-day event covering 120 kilometers in France. Schneider took 2^nd and teammate Powless placed 7^th along with Franz winning the Queen of the Mountains jersey.

USA Cycling’s Director of Road and Director Sportif for the event, Mike Sayers, said, “It was a great day. The plan was to ride for a reduced group sprint. We had Skylar as a protected rider. When we hit the finish circuit at 30 km to go, the team took control. They rode the front until the sprint commenced. Shayna lead out Skylar with the FDJ rider passing her inside the last 20 meters. During the race Heidi was very active and ended up winning the QOM classification.”

(August 6) — The eighth stop of the 10-race American Criterium Cup brought racers to Littleton, Colorado. The rain came pouring down in the middle of the women’s race, but it didn’t stop L39ion of Los Angeles from taking first and second along with sweeping the men’s podium afterwards.

Elite Men: Alec Cowan (L39ion of Los Angeles), Gavin Hoover (L39ion of Los Angeles), Ty Magner (L39ion of Los Angeles)

Elite Women: Kendall Ryan (L39ion of Los Angeles), Skylar Schneider (L39ion of Los Angeles), Anna Christian (Colavita Factor)

(August 4-7) — Hundreds of American cyclists from ages 35 through 89 competed for National Champion titles in the Time Trial, Road Race, and Criterium over four days of racing in Albuquerque. Complete results and the recap from the event can be found here: Results,Recap.

(August 5-7) — After two weekends of competing at home, American racers headed north of the border for World Cup racing in Québec at Mont-Sainte-Anne, where they captured two podium spots and several top-10 placings.

Gwendalyn Gibson (Norco Factory Team) kicked things off on day one with a 2^nd place finish in elite women’s XCC, along with Kate Courtney (Scott-SRAM) taking 6^th. That’s two weekends in a row that Gibson landed on the Short Track podium in her first year of elite racing.

Haley Batten (Specialized Factory Racing) added to the medal count finding herself back on the podium with a third-place finish in the women’s XCO race, just missing the second-place spot in a sprint finish. Kate Courtney (Scott-SRAM) placed 8^th.

Aaron Gwin (Intense Factory Racing) took 4^th in the elite men’s downhill, while Anna Newkirk (Beyond Racing) took 7^th on the women’s side. Ryan Pinkerton (GT Factory Racing) placed 5^th in U23 men’s downhill. The team is looking strong as they prepare for the Mountain Bike World Championships August 22-28, 2022.

(August 13-14) — The men’s reigning US XC national champion, Keegan Swenson, won the 100-mile Leadville Trail race on Saturday and the 142-mile SBT GRVL race Sunday, making him the Leadboat Challenge champion. Lauren De Crescenzo, who finished second at this year’s USA Cycling Pro Road National Championships, won SBT GRVL for the second year in a row with Hannah (Finchamp) Otto winning the women’s Leadville race.