Kendall Ryan held onto the elite women's criterium title at the USA Cycling Pro Road National Championships in Charleston, repaying the work of her Caldera Medical x Aurea Racing teammates with a powerful leap from the final corner.
The sprint played out from among a reduced field, with a crash midway through, right on the line of the mile-long circuit, as the bell rang for the last lap. That left around ten riders on the ground and out of the running.
There was, however, no disruption to the line of riders in red that were positioning Ryan, who then slotted in behind the Virginia Blue Ridge Twenty28 duo of Ella Sabo and Olivia Cummins before the final bend and jumped to the front once through it.
"I'm really proud of my teammates for selflessly working for me today to come down to a sprint," she said in a USA Cycling interview after claiming victory. "I knew what I had to do to get to the last corner and just give it everything I had. I'm super proud to finish it off for them."
Ryan claimed the victory for a second year running ahead of Cummins, while Sabo held on for third in the attack-filled 75-minute race that was pulled back together for the sprint.
“It was so fast. It was non-stop attacking," said Ryan. "Everyone was hungry today, and it showed."
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Top 10
Position
Rider (Country) Team
Time Gap
1
Kendall Ryan (USA) Caldera Medical X Aurea Racing
1:13:53
2
Olivia Cummins (USA) Virginia's Blue Ridge Twenty28
Row 1 - Cell 2
3
Ella Sabo (USA) Virginia's Blue Ridge Twenty28
Row 2 - Cell 2
4
Andrea Cyr (USA) Higherdose | Renova
Row 3 - Cell 2
5
Alexis Magner (USA) EF Education-Oatly
0:00:02
6
Kaia Schmid (USA) O'Shea Red Chilli Bikes
0:00:02
7
Tess Ivy Eleanor Edwards (Aus) Caldera Medical X Aurea Racing
0:00:02
8
Aubrey Drummond (USA) Competitive Edge Racing
0:00:04
9
Lyllie Sonnemann (USA) CCB Kenetik P/B Levine Law Group
0:00:04
10
Leslie Timm (USA) United Cycling Women
0:00:04
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Simone is a degree-qualified journalist that has accumulated decades of wide-ranging experience while working across a variety of leading media organisations. She joined Cyclingnews as a Production Editor at the start of the 2021 season and has now moved into the role of Australia Editor. Previously she worked as a freelance writer, Australian Editor at Ella CyclingTips and as a correspondent for Reuters and Bloomberg. Cycling was initially purely a leisure pursuit for Simone, who started out as a business journalist, but in 2015 her career focus also shifted to the sport.
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