USA Cycling announces Junior World's automatic bids

Three junior women and four junior men received bids based on various performances in 2005 to the UCI junior road and track world championships in Vienna, Austria this August 7-14.

Shannon Koch (Flower Mound, Texas), Kimberly Geist (Emmaus, Pa.) and Cindy Lakatosh (Trexlertown, Pa.), earned the women's nominations and Chris Stockburger (Fort Collins, Colo.), Ben Barczewski (Breinigsville, Pa.), Spencer Hartfeld (Santa Barbara, Calif.), and Mike Schnabel (Emmaus, Pa.) automatically qualified in the junior men's ranks.

Road rider Stockburger earned his nomination with a win in the time trial at the Park City Cycling Festival. Koch captured two national titles last month in Utah, winning both the time trial and the road race to secure her spot on the road.

On the track, Geist earned a couple of national championships herself with victories in the individual pursuit and the scratch race last week, but it was her bronze medal performance in the individual pursuit at the 2004 junior world championships that gave her an automatic bid for this year's event. Lakatosh won two events at junior track nationals – one of which secured her spot on the world championship team.

The team sprint trio of Barczewski, Hartfeld and Schnabel clocked a winning time of 1:04.90 at the junior track nationals to meet the time standard and automatically qualify.

Discretionary nominations for the UCI junior world championships will be announced on July 18. Currently, team manager Danny Van Haute is utilizing four road races of the International Cycling Classic - Superweek to aid in his selection for the remaining junior men.