Olds recovers from fall at Nature Valley GP to take win in Crit championship

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Shelley Olds (Diadora-Pasta Zara) won her second consecutive stars and stripes jersey in the criterium at the USA Cycling Elite Women National Championships held on Friday in Augusta, Georgia. She won the bunch sprint ahead of Theresa Cliff-Ryan (Colavita Forno D’Asolo) in second and Coryn Rivera (Peanut Butter & Co Twenty12) in third.

“I only got to wear my jersey at Nature Valley Grand Prix this year,” Olds told Cyclingnews. “I’m really proud to wear it and it’s an honour to be in the stars and stripes jersey for anything. I’m proud to ride for the US and wear the jersey when I can.”

Her win was some-what surprising after a serious crash sent her to the hospital with a bruised back and ribs last week at the Nature Valley Grand Prix. “I was still in a lot of pain from the crash and I wanted to make it easy on myself and stay at the front,” Olds said.

Rivera won the USA Cycling Women’s Under 23 criterium jersey by virtue of placing third and being the first under 23 rider to cross the line. It was her 33rd national title.

“I’ve always won a national championship every year and I’m really honoured and proud to continue this streak and represent the stars and stripes for another year,” Rivera said to Cyclingnews.

The Elite and Under 23 combined women’s field competed on a rectangle shaped circuit that was 1.2 kms in length for a total of 50 kms. However, race organizers were forced to shorten the event, part way through, due to the serious threat of lightening and thunderstorms in the area.

“I’m sure it affected the race because we only got about half way through it,” Cliff-Ryan told Cyclingnews. “You never know how the finish would have gone if we did a full race, maybe a break would have gone, you never know.”

The field was animated during the first 30 minutes of the race, however, small breakaways were short-lived and the field was in tact with roughly 30 laps to go. At that point, race organizers and team directeurs notified the field that they race was shortened and they had only five laps to go.

“A soon as they said we had five laps to go, the weather started getting really bad and as soon as the race ended we had torrential down pour,” Olds said.

Attacks were launched in a last ditch effort to form a late-race breakaway. The field rounded the final laps in tact, however, a crash on the last lap caused some interruption in the field.

“The race was shortened and we were supposed to do a full lead-out, but everything was jumbled and crazy,” Cliff-Ryan said. “We were not able to get our lead-out in.”

“Going into the last turn, I was getting squeezed and I tried to make room for myself otherwise I would have crashed. Our bars got squeezed and one girl ended up crashing, but I’m not sure what happened.”

“I hit my brakes, unclipped and didn’t have the best run in to the finish I tried to do what I could, went earlier than I wanted and caught back up,” she said. “I was happy to be on the podium.”

According to Olds, there was no time for a lead-out and every sprinter had to try and maneuver through the field to get into position for a bunch kick. She found herself on the top five positions during the final laps. She was behind Jennifer Purcell (Danbury Audi), in third position, out of the last corner.

“I saw Theresa jump and I knew that was the most dangerous rider of the sprinters,” Olds said. “I was able to squeeze through and it was pretty much a match sprint against Theresa to the line.”