Alzate, Rivera continue UnitedHealthcare dominance of NCC

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The second and third rounds of the USA Cycling National Criterium calendar took place in North Carolina this weekend, and the UnitedHealthcare team continued its sweep of the races in both the men's and women's series.

Carlos Alzate and Coryn Rivera, winners of the opening round, the Sunny King Criterium, padded their leads in the NCC with Alzate taking back-to-back victories on the weekend, and Rivera racking up two podium performances behind teammates who won the races.

On Saturday at the Charlotte Criterium, it was British criterium champion Hannah Barnes who won by a clean pair of wheels over last year's NCC overall winner, Colavita's Erica Allar. Rivera was third. The following day in Belmont, Alison Powers completed the UnitedHealthcare sweep of the weekend over Rivera and Laura Van Gilder (Mellow Mushroom).

In the men's races, Alzate topped SmartStop's Shane Kline and Jure Kocjan in Charlotte and Dan Holloway in Belmont, with teammate Hilton Clarke coming in third.

The results give UnitedHealthcare a commanding lead in the men's team standings: they lead SmartStop with 403 points to 140, with Hincapie Devlo in third with 126. In the women's standings, Colavita is second with 251 points to UHC's 403, and TIBCO in third.

Alzate leads the individual standings with 250 points, 135 ahead of consistent performer Isaac Howe (Champion System-Stan's No Tubes), and last year's overall NCC winner Hilton Clarke.

Rivera has a 60 point lead over Allar, with Powers just ten points further back in third.

The NCC takes a break for the rest of the month, and resumes on May 4 with the Dana Point Grand Prix in California.

NCC standings after three races