In a two-up sprint, Ashlin Barry (Visma-Lease a Bike Development) edged out Marcis Shelton (Competitive Edge Racing) to win the under-23 men's road race title at the USA Pro Road Championships in Charleston. After taking fourth in the individual time trial, Barry nabbed his first national title in the under-23 category on Saturday.
Crossing the line eight seconds later, Brenda Luongo (Kelly Benefits Cycling) took third from among a four-rider chase group.
Beckam Drake (The Parks Law Firm All-Stars) went on a solo breakaway, which lasted for six of the seven laps, before the race detonated in the final lap with the winner surging from a chase group, as in the under-23 women’s race.
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"It was an awesome day to say the least. Two of us went to the line together, super hard race. The group kept getting smaller, up the two climbs," Barry said.
How it unfolded
The 92-rider under-23 men's field took on a 132.4km route comprising two laps of the 14.5km junior course, including the Wertz Avenue climb, before crossing the river to face the Bridge Road climb across five laps of the 21km elite course.
Early attacks were delivered the first time up the Wertz climb (2.3km at 5.5%) as temperatures crept toward 30°C under partly sunny skies, with humidity hovering around 50%.
Drake was the first rider to get a gap, increasing his lead from four seconds to 58 seconds after two laps. Behind, chasers included Joshua Walker (Mustangs), Colin Mathern (Cleveland Cycling Academy) and Roland Meunier (Kelly Benefits Cycling) with VeloVit Elite duo of Samuel Hart and Ben Boroff leading the field, 1:10 from the solo break rider.
Drake continued solo, building his one-minute lead to 1:46 on the two chasers, Gavin Sherry (CycleSport.com) and Alexander Scopinich-Burgel (Kelly Benefits Cycling) after three laps. Behind, five riders from the Meridian Racing p/b de la Uz team were setting the pace at the front of the peloton, 2:22 back. On the next 30-minute lap, the chasers were back in the field, reduced to 21 riders, as Drake soldiered on, still with over a two-minute lead.
A six-rider chase group trimmed Drake's lead to 26 seconds heading into the final lap. The group included 2025 third-place finisher Alfredo Bueno (EF Education-Aevolo), Barry, Marcis Shelton (Competitive Edge Racing), Noah Shelton (Kelly Benefits Cycling), Owen Cole (Winston Salem-Flow) and Garrett Beshore (Meridian Racing p/b de la Uz). Ezra Caudell (Modern Adventure Pro Cycling) led the second group, of around 10 riders, 1:06 behind the solo breakaway.
Drake was reeled in during the final lap of the race of attrition, leaving a small group to contest the title.
Results
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