Team USA Kicks off 2024 Cyclocross World Championships in Tabor

February 2, 2024

After battling for a podium spot, a few mistakes left Team USA in seventh in the Team Relay.

TÁBOR, Czech Republic /ENDURANCE SPORTSWIRE/ – The team relay event kicked off the 2024 Cyclocross World Championships in Tabor, Czech Republic today. The course conditions were unpredictable with an icy frozen base, then a thin layer of slick mud on top. It left the riders on their toes while they tried to put down their fastest lap of the weekend.

Team Relay

At the World championships, countries can nominate a Team Relay squad consisting of a rider from each category: Junior, U23, and Elite. Team USA consisted of: Scott Funston (Boulder, Colo.), Andrew Strohmeyer (Mount Airy, Md.; CXHairs Devo), Clara Honsinger (Portland, Ore.; S&M Racing), Vida Lopez de San Roman (Sebastopol, Calif.; Bear National Team), Lauren Zoerner (Highlands Ranch, Colo.; Groove Off Road Racing Team), and David Thompson (New Canaan, Conn.; AG2R Citroën U19 Team).

Funston was the first rider from Team USA to take on the course. He managed to ride through most of the pack. He went from seventh up to third. After a few small mistakes, he was in fifth place, and handed it off to Strohmeyer. He held on to fifth place, then it was off to Honsinger who worked her way up to third position exchanging with Lopez de San Roman. She was battling for second place, but ultimately rode into the exchange zone in third position. Then it was off to Zoerner who crashed at the beginning of the lap, pushing Team USA back. It was challenging to recover from that with one lap to go, but Thompson gave it his all. He was eager to keep pushing riding in seventh position but ended up crashing as well. This ultimately solidified Team USA’s position of seventh. It’s all or nothing in the Team Relay and the Unites States put up a fight.

“I think it went well,” said coach Grant Holicky. “The individual riders had a chance to see what they wanted to do on course and when they get to their main races, they have a good opportunity to put that into practice again. We had a little bit of bad luck out there, but that’s just the nature of the course, and how it’s going to go sometimes. The riders had a lot of fun, and we had a lot of fun cheering them on.”

Visit USACycling.org for more information on the athletes, events, and membership programs, and follow @USACycling across all channels for the latest on Team USA.

For more information, contact Angelina Palermo at apalermo@usacycling.org.

ABOUT USA CYCLING (usacycling.org)

USA Cycling is the national governing body for the sport of cycling and oversees the disciplines of road, track, mountain bike, cyclocross, gravel, BMX, and esports. USA Cycling’s mission is to grow participation and engagement with the sport of bicycle racing and achieve sustained international success across all cycling disciplines. USA Cycling supports cyclists of all levels and abilities, from those just beginning in the sport to international caliber athletes. The organization identifies, develops, and selects cyclists to represent the United States in international competition through the support of youth and interscholastic programs, amateur and grassroots bike racing events, athlete development programs, and operational support for cycling clubs, racing teams, and event organizers. USA Cycling has a membership of 80,000, sanctions over 2,500 events annually, and is a member of the Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI) and United States Olympic & Paralympic Committee (USOPC).