Two top-10 finishes by the Fort Lewis College women highlighted the second day of action at the USA Cycling Collegiate Road National Championships on Saturday.
Hopes of a 23rd national championship were likely eliminated Saturday, as Marian University’s strong performances in the criterium gave the team 354 points. Fort Lewis is in second with 266, and Midwestern State is in third with 213 points. University of Colorado-Boulder is in fifth with 192.
Sofia Gomez-Villafañe once again led the Skyhawks. She finished seventh overall in the Division I Women’s Criterium race won by Kathryn Buss of Virginia Polytechnic University in 56 minutes, 59 seconds. Gomez-Villafañe finished in 57:16.
The top-two riders established a dominant gap, as third-place Emma Swartz of Marian University finished in 57:14, well behind Buss and second-place Janelle Cole of Brevard College.
Gomez-Villafañe’s finish put her fourth overall in the individual omnium.
“I am pretty excited about that because my first year racing road was as a freshman,” Gomez-Villafañe said. “I got pulled from the crit and didn’t even start the road race, so to be a contender my final year with FLC was pretty exciting.”
Also for the FLC women, Jenna MacPherson raced strong to come in ninth in 57:19.
“I was able to hide during the crit and only take pulls here and there,” Gomez-Villafañe said of racing with MacPherson. “It was really nice to have a teammate there with me; it makes racing a whole lot less stressful when you have someone you know racing next to you.”
Emily Abraham rode in for 31st, for Fort Lewis, and Sydney Edmonson claimed 50th in the 58-rider field.
Though Fort Lewis, which entered Saturday in second in the team omnium standings behind Marian, scored big with two top-10 finishes, Marian once again one-upped the Skyhawks with Swartz taking third and Laurel Rathbun claiming fifth.
The men’s race was won by Jonah Meadvancort of Lindenwood. He finished in 1 hours, 23 minutes, 59 seconds. Marian’s Andrew Dillman was second in 1:24:00, with Stefan Rothe of Midwestern State third in the same time.
Durangoan and University of Colorado-Boulder junior Sepp Kuss placed ninth for his second top-10 of the weekend after taking seventh in the men’s Division I road race. He finished in 1:24:09 in the criterium.
Kuss said his plan was to ride aggressive and try to get into a breakaway later in the race.
“I tried a few moves with some stronger riders from (Midwestern State) and Georgia that I knew from the (USA Cycling National Racing Calendar) races this year, but the windy conditions made it hard to stay away for too long,” Kuss said in an email to The Durango Herald. “When I realized it would be hard to stay away, I just sat in and waited for the sprint.”
But Kuss made a mistake when a flag signaled a prime lap indicating three laps to go. Kuss thought it was signaling for the final lap.
“I unfortunately made a rookie mistake and sprinted for the line with two laps to go when I thought I was on the final lap,” he said. “I realized my mistake before I crossed the line, but the effort left me without any energy for the final sprint on the actual last lap, so I rolled in for ninth place.”
Kuss called it a disappointment but nothing he will dwell on, as his main focus in on this year’s NRC events and other big stage races, especially coming off promising results at the Tour of the Gila and Redlands Bicycle Classic earlier this spring.
Fort Lewis was led by Ian McPherson’s 13th-place finish in 1:24:15. Ryan Standish, who won the Squawker Classic criterium this year in a runaway, took 17th in 1:25:22. Teammate Emmanuel Gagne was 33rd in 1:26:31, and Thomas Gauthier rounded out the FLC team in 67th in 1:27:44.
Action will resume Sunday morning with team and individual time trials.
jlivingston@durangoherald.com
