Evans wins U.S. women’s criterium title

Shelley Evans (Peanut Butter & Co.-2012) survived a late crash Friday evening to power to a win in the women’s criterium at the USA Cycling road national championships. Erica Allar (Vera Bradley Foundation) also made the 10-rider split in the penultimate lap and finished second, ahead of Evans’ leadout woman Lauren Tamayo.

Friday’s races took place on the four-corner, 1.3km downtown Bend course familiar to riders from the Cascade Classic. The mostly flat track featured a very slight rise on the backside of the course and a downhill right-hand corner onto the finish straight, which descended slightly before flattening 400 meters from the line.

Vera Bradley and Tibco-To The Top had very similar plans Friday, albeit they for contrasting reasons. With just five riders in the race, director Lisa Hunt said that the team planned to throw everything it had at the peloton early and often to force a split in the field. With nine riders, Tibco on the other hand hoped to flex the team’s muscle by putting two riders into any move that went clear.

National Racing Calendar leader Alison Powers (Vera Bradley Foundation) kicked things off with an early solo flyer that strung the field out for four laps. A number of riders, including Powers’ teammate Lauren Hall and Tibco’s Megan Guarnier, followed suit in the opening laps, though nothing would stick for more than a handful of laps.

“Our team wanted to go out there really aggressive,” said Allar. “We really wanted to make it hard. The girls early on, they wanted to attack, keep the other teams on their toes, and it worked out really well throughout the entire race. It was just one after the other after the other and it was awesome.”

The pace remained high through the meat of the 39-lap affair with Peanut Butter & Co. and Colavita-Baci forced to drive the pace in the field for the majority of the race. As the laps wound down to 11-to-go, Powers had another dig, moving free of the peloton for two laps. Rebecca Much (Tibco) countered the catch of Powers and after she was drawn back, Kristin Sanders (Vera Bradley) set out solo with five laps remaining. She built a maximum lead of eight seconds, but Tibco went to the front of the peloton, strung the race out and reduced her advantage to just two seconds with four laps to go.

When the peloton came through with three laps on the ticker, it was grupo compacto, with Tibco and Peanut Butter & Co. battling to position their sprinters, Brooke Miller and Evans, respectively. Recent Nature Valley Grand Prix TT winner Alison Starnes fronted the Tibco train, putting in a long dig in the final laps.

As the field entered the final corner on the penultimate lap, Miller sat third in the Tibco leadout behind Meredith Miler and Samantha Schneider. Miller lost Schneider’s wheel as she was squeezed by two unidentified riders. When the group constricted between parking islands in the final stretch, one of those two riders touched down, and Miller was forced to use her tuck and roll techniques picked up during a 10-year volleyball career.

Also caught behind the crash was nearly the entire Colavita-Baci squad, including former champ Theresa Cliff-Ryan, who hit her chest on her bars during the crash. After the race, Cliff-Ryan and teammate Kelly Benjamin were frustrated more than anything with the crash that robbed them of their shot at the title.

“I’m more disappointed than anything,” said Cliff-Ryan.

Miller went down in the crash and choked back tears of frustration at the finish.

“I was quite angry and wasn’t able to say who it was that I wanted to tell that I wasn’t happy,” said Miller. “(It was) not a loose corner. We’d done it 38 times totally safe; there were plenty of places to go.”

“I just heard it. We were out of there,” said Evans.

The crash led to a split that saw 10 riders come to the line in the final lap. Evans was planted firmly on Tamayo’s wheel, Allar in-tow, as they left the final corner and opened the long sprint. Evans distanced the Vera Bradley sprinter over the final 200 meters, winning by multiple bike lengths after posting up for the crowds with 50 meters to go.

Allar came in ahead of Tamayo, who sat up when Evans came around her, only to accelerate to contest second in the end. Afterward, Evans pointed firmly at her team and especially Tamayo as the reason she could pull off the win.

“That’s everything that was going on in my mind in the last three, four laps,” said Evans. “’I’m not leaving her wheel, I need to trust her.’ I’ve known all along that she could get me there; I just needed to give her a chance and today I did and it paid off big time, because it was easy almost.”

The win is Evans’ first national title on the road and assures her a place in the national team for the world championships in Australia. The parcours there suits the Tour of New Zealand overall winner well. “It really means a lot because I’ve switched gears to the road now,” said Evans. “This is where I want to be strong. To have this title now, I’m representing the whole team, not just me.”

Race Note
Early in the day, Evans’ teammate Coryn Rivera recorded her 27th national title, winning the Women’s 17-18 criterium from a two-rider breakaway with Kendall Ryan (NOW-MS Society) that went clear on the second lap.

FILED UNDER: News / Race Report / Road TAGS: USA Cycling elite national road championships

Brian Holcombe

Brian Holcombe is the managing editor of Velo Magazine. Holcombe joined VeloNews in 2009 following years spent introducing students to whitewater kayaking and working in avalanche control, among other more risky ventures. His graduate work in communications at the University of Denver focuses on innovation and digital media management. Holcombe is a CSU Ram fan and proud parent and has been accused of attacking too much on the VN lunch ride. Follow him on Twitter @FCBrian.

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