American Pro Women Cycling On Fire

The American women have had a great week of cycling in Europe, not unlike all season, but it feels as if they are on a hot streak. The two big races this week are in Holland and France, and the Americans are showing just how strong they are as UCI Worlds approaches. We are hosting the Worlds in Richmond, Virginia and the American women are going to be top contenders. It's awesome to see them all coming into top form with only two weeks to go.

Tomorrow (Sunday) is the last stage of the Boels Rental Ladies Tour in Holland. The stage will be streamed live, so I'll be setting the alarm. We have two USA athletes in the Top 20 with Megan Guarnier in 9th (Boels Dolmans) and Lauren Hall in 20th (USA Cycling / Twenty16 p/b SHO-AIR). Lisa Brennauer (Velocio-SRAM) went into the leader's jersey yesterday after winning the time trial and won again today. Earlier this week, Lauren Hall won Stage 3 and the recognition she received from all the other riders was awesome. She is obviously loved and respected in the peloton. Other Americans with Top 20 stage finishes include Carmen Small, Coryn Rivera, Allie Dragoo, and Alexis Ryan.

Update: Lisa Brennauer won the GC after an impressive final stage by the entire Velocio-SRAM team. Americans Coryn Rivera and Andrea Dvorak were in the early break and Megan Guarnier was active in the final breaks. All had plenty of airtime on the live stream!

Coryn and Andrea in the break and on the front showing off their USA kits and strength!
Coryn finished in 13th and Andrea in 23rd overall.

Megan in one of the late stage breaks. She finished in 6th overall!

There are two more stages of the Tour Ardèche. Updates have been scarce from this race, but there is a website and there are occasional tweets. The Americans have really taken over in France. Lauren Stephens (Tibco-SVB) won Stage 2 and Tayler Wiles (Mix Reva composite / Velocio-SRAM) was 2nd, this put them 1-2 in the overall as well. On Thursday, there was a TT in the morning which the Americans swept with Lauren, Tayler, and Kathrin Hammes! Kathrin is German, but rides for American Team Tibco-SVB. Later that day, Tayler won Stage 3b and moved into the leader jersey while Lauren slipped into 2nd on GC. Tayler stayed in the pink leader's jersey after Stage 4. Today, another American Kristabel Doebel-Hickok (Tibco-SVB) won Stage 5. Tayler and Lauren are still ranked 1-2 overall going into the last two stages. Other Americans with Top 20 stage finishes include Lauren Komanski and Kendall Ryan.

Update: The last 2 stages brought even less coverage. Lauren Stephens and Tayler Wiles finished Stage 6 in the Top 20 and kept their 1-2 overall positions. Today, there was absolutely no news about Stage 7 until Nicola Cranmer (Twenty16 p/b SHO-AIR) let us know on twitter that Lauren Komanski won. According to the website results, Tayler, Kristabel, and Lauren Stephens all finished in Top 20. A few minutes later Olivia Dillon, Tayler's partner, tweeted that Tayler had kept the pink jersey and won the overall GC! Lauren also kept her 2nd place position so the Americans wrapped up 1-2 in France.

Great shot of Tayler after Stage 6 - she's coming into Worlds red hot!

On today's ride, I wore my Velocio-SRAM ProjectX kit in honor of the team being in the leader jersey in both races. I also got a cookie to celebrate because that's what Tayler "Cookie Monster" Wiles would do.

In addition to the European races, there are domestic races in St Louis and Steamboat Springs this weekend. Some teams are splitting riders between The Gateway Cup Crits and Steamboat Springs Stage Race, like DNA Cycling p/b K4. I was elated to hear from Breanne Nalder and Lauren De Crescenzo tonight after they excelled at the time trial. The Gateway Cup consists of four races and so far, it appears Samantha Schneider is on form with 3rd last night and a win tonight.

Update: The Gateway Cup wrapped up today (results at One2Go) but the most exciting news was Tiffany Pezzulo (DNA Cycling p/b K4) secured the USA Crits Series Championship with Sam Schneider 2nd and Tina Pic 3rd. In Steamboat, Breanne and Lauren continued to dominate with sweeps in Stage 2 RR and Stage 3 Crit which put them 1-2 in the overall GC.

Tiffany, Sam, and Tina - USA Crits Series Podium

If that wasn't enough, on Friday, USA Cycling announced the UCI Worlds Rosters. More on this in a future blog, but you'll see familiar names on the list as I've mentioned above. There are also American UCI teams racing the Team Time Trial at Worlds. BMW p/b Happy Tooth Dental Group announced their team of six, which includes US athletes Robin Farina, Lindsay Bayer, and Breanne Nalder. Hopefully we'll hear an official roster announcement from Pepper Palace p/b Happy Tooth and Twenty16 p/b SHO-AIR soon. I can't wait to be in Richmond to support all the women cyclists, but especially the Americans. They are strong, motivated, and ready to show the world why American women's cycling is a force to be reckoned with.