Skylar Schneider (Miami Blazers) seems to go eight for eight with podium finishes on the closing spherical of the American Criterium Cup on Sunday in St. Louis, Missouri. Even with out a victory within the Giro Della Montagna, it’s only a formality for the Miami Blazers rider to be topped the person ladies’s champion.
However, there may be nonetheless quite a bit on the road for the ultimate items of the eight-race ACC prize purse that totals $100,000. The particular person prize cash goes 10 deep, with $44,000 divided equally amongst women and men. And from the general purse there may be one other $12,000 for the highest three ladies and men from mid-race dash classification factors.
On the boys’s aspect, REIGN Storm Racing riders Jordan Parra or Alfredo Rodriguez will declare the boys’s particular person title on the conclusion of the Giro Della Montagna on Sunday, whereas teammate Danny Summerhill has dominated the dash classification title for a second yr. No shock, they’re the highest males’s workforce as properly.
Rylee McMullen (DNA Pro Cycling) trails Skylar Schneider by one level within the factors classification and battles final yr’s ladies’s winner Paola Muñoz (now with Goldman EFT Racing) for second total.
“I’m actually excited to race the ultimate ACC occasion with DNA, this collection has been a spotlight for our workforce all yr. We have a number of targets for the weekend of racing and clearly Sunday’s ACC race is vital,” McMullen informed Cyclingnews.
“I’m simply coming off a stage race in Colombia, however I’m feeling good and excited to be again racing crits with a robust DNA squad. It’s been an thrilling collection, particularly with the actually aggressive groups and my race throughout the race with Skylar.”
The New Zealander is contemporary off the six-stage Vuelta a Colombia Femenina, the place she scored two prime 10s, together with second on stage 4, and helped teammate Nadia Gontova to second on GC. It’s one of many closing races for the DNA Pro Cycling squad, because the workforce administration introduced the squad would fold on the finish of this yr after 12 years.
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Skylar Schneider has been essentially the most constant of the ladies’s riders within the ACC, and she or he locked up the person ACC crown with the win at Littleton Twilight Criterium on August 3. Kendall Ryan (L39ION of Los Angeles) has essentially the most ACC wins, three, and Kim Stoveld (Automatic ABUS Racing) received in her solely ACC look at Downer Classic in Wisconsin, and each is not going to be racing the Gateway Cup occasions.
Watch for Marlies Mejias (Virginia’s Blue Ridge Twenty24) to defend final yr’s victory within the Giro Della Montagna. She has solely competed in two different ACC races and received the IU Health Momentum Indy in June.
McMullen has extra than simply the dash classification on the road. She seems to carry off Paola Muñoz (Goldman EFT Racing) from second-place total and assist DNA Pro Cycling solidify their lead within the workforce standings forward of Miami Blazers. DNA is but to attain a race win and they are going to be going all out with the Kiwi sprinter McMullen in addition to US rider Makayla Macpherson, who’s fifth total and only some factors forward of Alexis Magner (L39ION of Los Angeles).
Pro males
For the boys, it’s all about REIGN Storm Racing, who might take all of the prizes of the 2024 ACC. Not solely has the workforce received 5 of the seven races with 4 totally different riders, they’ve additionally secured $22,500 of the ultimate ACC prize purse by way of fixed domination. Parra presently leads the general, having received Boise Twilight and posting podiums at 4 of 5 different races.
Alfredo Rodriguez, who was second total eventually yr’s ACC on one other workforce, has a pair of wins and is second total. REIGN Storm riders Fergus Arthur and Bryan Gomez have been race winners as properly.
Points chief Danny Summerhill has two podiums and is a two-time males’s champion from Giro Della Montagna so could also be on the hunt for 3 in a row.
“I feel the energy of the workforce speaks for itself while you learn off the record of outcomes we have now had this yr,” Summerhill, the 2023 ACC champion, informed Cyclingnews.
“I’ve loved being a part of a workforce with this a lot depth, talent and need to win the races we go to.”
Clever Martinez (Rockland Development), Lucas Bourgoyne (Austin Outlaws), Ben Oliver (Above + Beyond Cancer Cycling) and Noah Granigan (Miami Blazers) are in tight bunch combating for spots within the prime 5. Granigan and Bourgoyne each have third-place finishes in ACC occasions, so look to maneuver up.
For the boys’s workforce title, Austin Outlaws, Miami Blazers and Above + Beyond Cancer are within the operating for podium positions behind REIGN Storm.
Race particulars
Giro Della Montagna is one in every of 4 races this weekend that make up the Bommarito Audi West County Gateway Cup, which has offered a collection of criteriums in St. Louis neighborhoods since 1986.
The four-corner, one-mile course is in a neighborhood close to St. Louis referred to as ‘The Hill, and it’s a hill that defines the circuit. Riders go throughout the highest of the punchy climb on the backstretch of the oblong route between corners two and three. This units up the ultimate two corners for the descent to the lengthy end straight on Marconi Avenue.
A livestream on the ACC YouTube channel will broadcast each ACC races on Sunday, starting at 4:00 p.m. CST for the elite ladies’s race and ending at 7:20 p.m. CST when the elite males’s race has completed. The livestream, produced by Wild & Curious in St. Louis, will embody drone footage, a number of course-side digicam positions and a brand new first-person POV commentary from former professional bike owner Daniel Holloway.