The sprinters had their day within the high-speed end of Saturday’s Crystal Cup on the Armed Forces Biking Traditional, with Reign Storm-JLL’s Alfredo Rodriguez and Legion of Los Angeles’ Kendall Ryan taking victory of their respective races. Sunday’s Clarendon Cup, with its technical corners and longer period, supplied a extra wide-open, dramatic day of racing.
The Ladies
When requested about her strategy for Clarendon after taking the weekend’s first win, Kendall Ryan appeared assured that she and her Legion squad might take the same strategy and arrange a profitable dash once more on Sunday. It seemed to be working coming into the closing laps of Clarendon as Legion took management of the entrance and honed in on the repeat victory. That they had weathered a heavy storm of assaults all through the race, making their job a lot tougher than the day earlier than.
The sector was way more lively within the earlier laps, with DNA-Blue Halo attacking virtually repeatedly and making an attempt to enhance on their tenth-place end from the day earlier than. Essentially the most threatening assault of the day got here from CCB-NT Ideas’ Cecille Lejeune, who held off the Legion chase for a number of laps and earned the jersey for the day’s Most Heroic Rider. These assaults splintered the peloton, with upwards of fifty of the ninety-plus starters getting dropped earlier than the finale.
On the bell lap, we noticed a full-on drag race between DNA, Legion and Virginia’s Blue Ridge 2024 going into nook one. As the ultimate lead-out riders pulled off on the ending straight, it was the identical three groups dashing in the direction of the road. Kendall Ryan hit out early as she had the day earlier than, however this time 2024’s Marlies Mejias managed to cling to her wheel, and the pair have been wheel to wheel with fifty meters to go. Mejias unleashed a wonderfully timed bike throw to take the race and, with it, the general omnium title for the second straight 12 months. Ryan adopted in second, and DNA’s rising Canadian star Sarah Van Dam took the ultimate podium spot.
Outcomes
1. Marlies Mejias – Virginia Blue Ridge 2024
2. Kendall Ryan – DNA-Blue Halo
3. Sarah Van Dam – L39ion
The Males
The 100-lap, 100-kilometer males’s race at Clarendon supplied a great battleground to pit among the world’s finest criterium specialists towards highly effective street race-focused squads like Undertaking Echelon-Ual-Aon. Clarendon defies specialization, and the victory requires a novel combination of pace, endurance, race IQ and ability from riders and their groups.
The pack was single-file for the primary third of the race, and the tempo by no means wavered on account of unrelenting assaults and responses. The race began with 150 riders however shrank each lap because the pace and a number of other crashes took their toll. Reign Storm-JLL used their deep squad to mark each transfer and ensure considered one of their fast-finishers was in each potential breakaway. Groups like Echelon, Ribble, Miami Blazers, and Legion examined them lap after lap, and gaps lastly began to open.
On the midway mark, the sector misplaced its grip on the attackers, and 7 riders pushed out a thirty-second hole. Echelon had two highly effective rouleurs in, Sam Boardman and Brendan Rhim who have been joined by Reign’s Bryan Gomez and Miami’s Noah Granigan, amongst others from Legion and Ribble. Each main staff was represented, and the pack behind misplaced steam with out a lot incentive to chase. Three extra riders made it throughout, together with an unbelievable solo bridge from underdog Marcos Mendez of the Rockland Devo staff.
From there, Echelon executed a tactical grasp class, exhibiting the category that has put them atop so many podiums already this 12 months. Rhim and Boardman acknowledged that they’d seemingly lose in a dash towards a sprinter like Gomez and commenced skipping turns to hedge towards that chance. When the breakaway got here near lapping the sector and providing Gomez an opportunity to reunite together with his dominant staff lead-out practice, the Echelon riders left in the primary group went to the entrance and raised the tempo to maintain the breakaway behind.
Rhim, the 2022 Clarendon champion, was seemingly the one rider that nobody within the breakaway wished to let up the street. However when the time got here below ten laps to go, there wasn’t something they might do about it. With more energizing legs and one of many greatest engines within the race, Rhim attacked alone, and nobody might reply. His hole solely grew because the laps ticked away, and he spent the final lap celebrating with the followers lining the course and absorbing an emphatic win. Mendez took the dash behind for a breakthrough victory, adopted by Boardman, who made it a one-three end for Echelon. Gomez clinched the omnium for the REIGN squad with a fourth-place end, and Jim Brown rounded out the highest 5.
It was a shocking finale and a becoming finish to a different 12 months of world-class racing on the Armed Forces Biking Traditional. We are able to stay up for an excellent greater spectacle in 2025 when the race’s first day strikes onto the streets of the Nationwide Mall in central DC for what might turn out to be probably the most iconic backdrop for racing in America.
Outcomes
1. Brendan Rhim – Undertaking Echelon
2. Marcos Mendez – Undertaking Echelon
3. Sam Boardman – Undertaking Echelon
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