Kendall Ryan and Lucas Bourgoyne sprint to US National Criterium Championship titles

Kendall Ryan and Lucas Bourgoyne sprinted to US National Criterium Championship titles Friday evening in Charleston, West Virginia.

Fount Cycling Guild seemed comfortable at the front for the first several laps of the women’s race.

Tess Edwards of Cynisca Cycling was the first to throw down a move to string out the field, but Fount and L39ion of Los Angeles’s Laurel Rathbun quickly shut down the attack.

Attacks continued to fly early in the race, with Fount and Cynisca as the most active teams.

In their green jerseys, the women of Fount were relentless in their attacks and counterattacks, but 20 minutes into the race, nothing had yet to stick.

Andrea Cyr opened a workable gap, and L39ion’s Holly Breck and Cynisca’s Allison Mrugal successfully bridged over. CCB’s Katherine Rusch contributed to the chase and brought the short-lived break of 3 back.

A reduced peloton was still all together as the 75-minute race closed in on its minutes.

Cyr went on a late flyer with 1.5 laps to go to keep the pace high for Fount. Fount led out the sprint but Kendall Ryan powered ahead to win yet another criterium national championship for L39ion of Los Angeles. This is Ryan's fourt national criterium title. Her sister, Alexis Magner finished in second place and Cynisca's Chloe Patrick came away with the bronze medal.

Elite Women’s Criterium Results

1. Kendall Ryan (L39ion of Los Angeles)
2. Alexis Magner (Cynisca Cycling)
3. Chloe Patrick (Cynisca Cycling)
4. Cara O’Neill (Unattached)
5. Alia Shafi (Fount Cycling Guild)
6. Katherine Rusch (CCB p/b Levine Law Group)
7. Marjie Bemis (LA Sweat)
8. Stephanie Halamek (United Cycling p.b. Cadence Cyclery)
9. Olivia Reeve (United Cycling p.b. Cadence Cyclery)
10. Heather Fischer (Smash Racing)

A new men's criterium champion

In the men's race, Daniel Uhranowsky made an early move for Visit Pittsburgh, joining Robin Carpenter (L39ion of Los Angeles) and Fergus Arthur (Foundation Cycling) in a group of three. Brody McDonald of the Golden State Blazers also made a move off the front, but the Project Echelon-controlled peloton brought the moves back.

Carpenter joined another three-man move to open a gap, but it seemed that Echelon was keeping them on a leash.

Winston Salem showed themself for the first time in the race with Will Hardin searching for a breakaway and was quickly brought back. Then, Colby Simmons of EF Education Eastpost pushed the pace at the front, which broke up Echelon’s control of the front for a moment.

As darkness fell over Charleston, a move of five men rolled off the front which strung out the peloton and turned into a group of nine, but everything quickly came back together. Several additional moves were tried but were again kept in check.

With four laps to go, a touch of wheels split the back half of the group, with several riders hitting the deck, including L39ion’s Ty Magner.

Heading into the finale, the pink jersey of Simmons sat third wheel, attempting to spoil Project Echelon’s sprint train. Twenty-four-year-old Lucas Bourgoyne (Team Cadence Cyclery) floated into the perfect position for the final corner, jumped into his sprint, and powered to victory.

Elite Men's Criterium Results

1. Lucas Bourgoyne (Team Cadence Cyclery)
2. Scott McGill (Project Echelon Racing)
3. Colby Simmons (EF Education Easypost)
4. Robin Carpenter (L39ion of Los Angeles)
5. Wil Hardin (Team Winston Salem)
6. Michael Garrison (MGR p/b +Speedstudio)
7. Tyler Williams (Golden State Blazers)
8. Brendan Rhim (Project Echelon Racing)
9. Samuel Smith (Team Cadence Cyclery)
10. Andrew Frank (Empyr Cycling)