USA Pro Road Championships: Artem Shmidt claims elite time trial title

Last year's under-23 time trial champion Artem Shmidt (Ineos Grenadiers) upgraded his US road title in Charleston, West Virginia, powering to victory in the elite men's time trial on Wednesday.

 "It was a super-fast course. Pretty windy this year compared to last year, and it was a very close race," Shmidt said.

The 21-year-old had to overcome multi-time track national champion Anders Johnson, who climbed into the hot seat after his 39:09 effort in the 33.4km test.

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Shmidt was quickest at the intermediate check by nine seconds and while he faded a tiny bit, he sped through the finish line to snatch the stars and stripes jersey by 6.41 seconds with a time of 39:03.

Joshua Lebo (CS Velo) was third, 18 seconds slower than Shmidt.

In the under-23 competition, Cole Kessler (Lidl-Trek Future Racing) topped the leaderboard with a time that would have earned him a bronze medal in the elite race, blasting around the same course in 39:11.

"I haven't won a race in four years, so this feeling is amazing," Kessler said.

"I had a solid plan going in. I wanted to hold a consistent power early on. The wind picked up toward the end, so I took advantage of the tailwind on the way out and saved everything for the headwind coming back. I emptied the tank from the last roundabout."

Owen Cole (Team Winston-Salem) was second, climbing one rung up the results ladder after winning the bronze medal in 2024. Cole was 49 seconds adrift.

Taking home the bronze was Garin Kelley (XSpeed United) at 1:00.

U23 Men TT Results

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Elite Men TT Results

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