Evans crowned US Criterium Champion

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Victory at the elite women’s criterium championship has given Shelley Evans (Peanut Butter & Co-TWENTY12) her first road stars and stripes jersey. The savvy sprinter outpaced Erica Allar (Vera Bradley Foundation) and her lead-out woman Lauren Tamayo in the bunch sprint.

“This is very nice,” Evans said. “The best part about it is that the team came together so well and we were so strong. Today Lauren and the rest of my teammates made it possible for me to win. Without these girls I would not be able to pull off this win. This is a product of our team gelling. It doesn’t have anything to do with me being the fast sprinter, it has more to do with us riding as a team with a plan and executing it.

“We will celebrate a little tonight but we have a hard road race on Sunday to rest up for,” she added.

This year the elite women’s race was moved from its traditional location in Downers Grove, Illinois alongside the USPro Criterium Championships, to join the series of elite, Under 23 and junior US National Championships held in Bend, Oregon.

The race was packed with the speed of former title holders Theresa Cliff-Ryan (Colavita-Baci) and Brooke Miller (Tibco-To the Top). Other strong sprinters included Allar and Kelley Benjamin (Colavita-Baci.

“There were some strong sprinters here and I give them respect,” Evans said. “I had a lot of confidence coming into this race after winning Nature Valley Grand Prix. The girls believed in me and when you have the team backing you, you don’t want to let them down. Tibco had nine riders and other teams were trying to attack. Our girls just kept it all together and I really had to do no work the whole time.”

After multiple unsuccessful attacks the field barreled around the last lap intact for a bunch sprint. Teams vying for good position included Colavita-Baci, Vera Bradley Foundation and Tibco. Evans’ teammates Katharine Carroll and Tamayo provided much of her lead-out on the last two laps.

“They really allowed me to take that win,” Evans said. “Lauren was my lead-out. There were a few attacks coming into the finish. Meredith Miller attacked out of the last corner and Lauren covered it. I was sitting on Lauren’s wheel. She was patient and waited until 250 metres to go. I had Erica Allar on my wheel and when I sensed that she was going to jump, I did. Lauren held on for third which was very impressive.”

The elite women’s peloton will compete in the US Road National Championships held at the Awbrey Butte Circuit Race on Sunday.

Hammer time gets King U23 title

Ben King (Trek-Livestrong) won a two-man sprint against Oscar Clark (Mountain Khakis-Jittery Joes) to win the Under 23 Men’s US Criterium Championships held in Bend, Oregon on Friday. Kings’ teammate Justin Williams won the bunch sprint for third place.

“It felt great to give a good salute to winning this jersey,” King said. “It was nice to represent Trek-Livestrong and get the win for them. Criteriums aren’t really my specialty but we just came from racing the Nature Valley Grand Prix, which was a bunch of criteriums, so I got some good practice there.”

The 1.3 km, four-corner circuit was a held on a modified version of the Cascade Cycling Classic’s criterium stage. The riders raced along Wall St and Bond St, parallel roads in the entertainment and shopping district of downtown Bend.

“It was a fun course,” King said. “It was a pretty standard, four-corner circuit with two long straights. It was fun and Bend is a great place to be. There were great crowds today because there were races going on all day.”

Some 100 potential champions lined up to race a 60 km event in pursuit of the prestigious title. Several breakaways had little success in gaining time on the peloton until three laps remaining when King made his winning move. Clark followed King and the pair gained a slim margin ahead of a field hungry for a mass sprint.

“The team wanted to take an aggressive approach to the race today,” King said. “We had three of the faster guys in the race but we wanted to force some of the other strong teams to do some work early on. The whole team was active and did a great job.

“The peloton was getting tired with 10 laps to go,” he added. “With three laps to go, I shot up the inside and got a gap. I was off the front with one guy and just put my head down and went. I wasn’t really thinking about the win for myself, I was thinking about how that would set up the final sprint. But we still had a good gap with one lap to go so I knew it was hammer time.”

King rounded the final corner in a full sprint to take the victory ahead of Clark. The pair finished mere seconds ahead of the bunch sprint won by former Under 23 Criterium Champion Williams.

The Under 23 men’s peloton will compete in the US Road National Championships held at the Awbrey Butte Circuit Race on Saturday.

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