Valente Earns Gold on the Track, the Juniors Race Downhill Finals, and the Americans Complete the First Gran Fondo Event of the Week

August 4, 2023

The United States earns one medal on the track and four medals in Gran Fondo on the second day of the 2023 UCI Cycling World Championships.

August 4, 2023, GLASGOW /ENDURANCE SPORTSWIRE/ – Day two of the 2023 UCI World Championships saw racing at the Perth Gran Fondo course, the Fort William Downhill track, and the Sir Chris Hoy Velodrome.

Track

The second day at the Sir Chris Hoy Velodrome opened with the Women’s Team Pursuit qualification round. The U.S. team of Olivia Cummins (Fort Collins, Colo.; DNA Cycling), Chloé Dygert (Brownsburg, Ind.; CANYON//SRAM Racing), Jennifer Valente (San Diego; TWENTY24 Pro Cycling), and Lily Williams (Tallahassee, Fla.; Human Powered Health) performed well, stopping the clock at 4:14.814. The team’s time placed them in third behind Great Britain and New Zealand, going into the next round of competition on Saturday.

In the Women’s 500-meter Time Trial, multi-time national champion Mandy Marquardt (Allentown, Pa.; Team Novo Nordisk) started the event in heat eight. She finished her ride in a time of 34.456, bettering her time from the national championships by over a tenth of a second.

During the evening session, Valente came back to tackle her first individual event, the Women’s Scratch race. The 40-lap race was exciting with several attacks breaking up the group on the latter half of the event. Spain and Egypt put in a massive attack at 6 laps to go, where the two riders separated themselves from the bunch. At three laps to go, a Canadian rider brought the group back together. Valente was floating towards the middle of the group but stayed in a good position on the outside. She focused on her position to execute the perfect attack. At one lap to go, she put in an incredible effort up around the outside and was in front with half a lap remaining. Dutch rider, Maike Van Der Dunn followed the attack and kept on her wheel, but Valente was able to edge her out at the line. This marked Valente’s second individual World Title, and sixth gold medal in her tenure as an elite rider.

The group stayed together for most of the race, but Valente knew she had to stay on offense. Spain and Egypt put in a massive attack at six laps to go, where the two riders separated themselves from the bunch. The race stayed together for most of the event, but Valente knew she had to stay on the offensive. “The GB rider that attacked a little bit earlier in the race kind of mixed things up. From that point, the flow was somewhat disrupted, which made for a more exciting race. The sprint was pretty chaotic, and it was strung out still with five to go and four to go, but it ultimately did end up coming down to a field sprint in the last couple of laps,” said Valente. With several more events to go, she’ll be setting her eyes on the next race.

Valente attacked early but went into with a strategy saying, “I couldn’t see her, but I was very aware. You always kind of think of what you would do. If I were her, I would be trying to take a run. When I went knowing someone was always going to be there pushing on the outside.”

When asked how winning tonight’s event felt, she said, “It’s just the beginning of competition for me. There’s a lot of racing to go, so it’s really exciting, but I’ll be trying to refocus for the rest of the events.”

Downhill Mountain Bike

Today the juniors completed their final downhill runs to kick off the first off-road championship events of the week. Ryan Pinkerton (Aliso Viejo, Calif.; GT Factory Racing) was the one to watch after qualifying first yesterday. Unfortunately, Pinkerton crashed early on in practice which ended his World Championships week. Evan Medcalf (Albuquerque, N.M.; Commencal USA) was the fastest American of the day going eight seconds faster than his qualifying run slotting him in 13^th.

Gavin Tomlinson (Burbank, Calif.; Specialized | DVO | Fox Racing) finished 28^th, same as qualifying, with a time of 4:47.5. Nate Kitchen (Bakersfield, Calif.; KHS Factory Team) crashed and did not finish his final run.

It was a lot of firsts for the group of Junior Women. All of the riders competing in this division were competing in a World Championship for the first time. Riley Miller (East Burke, Vt.; Killington Mountain School) was the top American taking sixth. Miller finished in a time of 5:24. National Champion, Kale Cushman (Old Town, Maine, Slipping Gears Cycling) took ninth with Abby Ronca (Bethlehem, Pa.; The Gravity Academy) in 13^th, and Taylor Ostgaard (Selah, Wash.; Transition Factory Racing) slotted rounding the team out in 17^th.

The Elites started off the day with qualifications. The top 60 riders will move on to the final round tomorrow at Fort William. The American’s proved that they are podium worthy with Luca Shaw  (Hendersonville, N.C.; Canyon Cllctv) finishing two seconds back from the top qualifier Loic Bruni (France) who ran a 4:25.57. Dakotah Norton  (Clinton, Tenn.; Intense Factory Racing) finished on the same second as Shaw putting them fifth and seventh, respectively.

Austin Dooley  (Yucaipa, Calif.; Commencal / Schwalbe) qualified 25^th with Dante Silva  (Chula Vista, Calif.; Canyon Cllctv) finsihing in 36^th. Christopher Grice  (Brevard, N.C.; Generation Specialized) and Neko Mulally  (Pisgah Forest, N.C.; Frameworks Racing) would also make it into the Finals finishing 42^nd and 56^th. Dylan Maples (Orangevale, Calif.; Commencal USA) had a major crash going over the bars forcing him to DNF and will not be starting tomorrow’s final round.

In the Elite Women’s race, Anna Newkirk (Riehen, Switzerland; Beyond Racing) rode to a strong seventh place finishing ten seconds off first place qualifier Vali Holl (Austria). The second American in the field, Abby Hogie (Heidelberg, Germany; Beyond Racing) took  26^th heading into tomorrow’s finals.

Gran Medio and Gran Fondo Road Race

Friday morning kicked off with the Medio Fondo and Gran Fondo. Athletes participating in the Medio Fondo completed 85.7 kilometers. Gran Fondo riders completed nearly doubled that distance by doing 160.3 kilometers.

Both events started and ended in beautiful and historic Perth, Scotland. With 47 finishers in the Men’s and Women’s events, the United States managed to finish the day with three gold medals, and one silver.

A full list of results can be found below –

19-34 Men – 177^th Cobi Allen, 215^th Jared Shore (Madison, MS), 256^th Jordan Picchiottino

35-39 Men – 98^th Alan Fischer (Atlanta, Ga.; The Paceline Project p/b LC Food)

40-44 Men – 14^th Owen Shott, 156^th Ashley Murphy

45-49 Men – 83^rd Brian Zimny Sacramento, Calif.; Creative Blue Monster Racing), 160^th Norman Zellers

50-54 Men – 38^th Jason Boynton (Park City, Utah), 41^st Dan Netzer (Norfolk, Va.; Celerity Cycling), 47^th Dan Bryant, 128^th Trent Maddox, 176^th Gene Nuqui, 190^th John J. Foster III, 193^rd Mark Stoesz, 213th Julio Saenz Jr.

55-59 Men – 15^th Kyle Glerum, 57^th Nick Theobald, 133^rd Fred Porter, 149^th Scott Wagar (Tacoma, Wash.), 155^th John Fillyaw (Atlanta, Ga.)

60-64 Men – 51^st Brendan Sullivan (Atlanta, Ga.) , 62^nd Steven Murdock, 74^th James Foster (Clayton, N.C.), 101^st James Whited (Port Charlotte, Fla.), 102^nd Bill Groves, 111th Derek Wilford (Euclid, Ohio; ETP Cycling), 120^th James Schaefer (Henrico, Va.)

65-69 Men – 54^th Alan Roberts (Corta Madera, Calif.)

70-74 Men – 9^th Kalman Szkalak (Capistrano Beach, Calif.), 33^rd Geary Schwartz (Clarksville, Tenn.), 40^th Walter Hard (Chattahoochee Hills, Ga.)

75-79 Men – 4^th Ed Chamberlin (Grand Junction, Colo.)

80-84 Men – 1^st James Macdonald (Williamsburg, Va,)

19-34 Women – 34^th Meredith Byrne (Brookside, N.J.), 40^th Stephanie Edwards (Huntsville, Ala.)

35-39 Women – 25^th Steph Anderson (Salem, Utah)

45-49 Women – 29^th Rebecca Menke

50-54 Women – 1^st Amy Phillips (Chattanooga, Tenn.), 22^nd Carolyn Maddox (Fernandina Beach, Fla.)

55-59 Women – 13^th Jennifer Slawta (Talent, Ore.)

60-64 Women – 2^nd Lillian Pfluke, 5^th Ruth Clemence, 10^th Beth Leasure-Hudson (Shepherdstown, W.V.; Artemis Racing)

65-69 Women – 5^th Diane Schleicher (Dahlonega, Ga.; Sorella Cycling), 7^th Betsy Hard (Chattahoochee Hills, Ga.; Sorella Cycling)

70-74 Women – 1^st Vanessa Cooney (APO)

Up Next

The third day of the 2023 UCI Cycling World Championships has BMX Freestyle kicking off itsir qualification rounds. The crew in Fort William will finish up the downhill events with the Elite Men’s and Women’s finals. The Junior Men and Women will take on the 8-mile circuit fin Glasgow for the first day of road racing. Back at the velodrome, the Women’s Team Pursuit squad goes for the final round.

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, and BMX. 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).