Coryn Rivera of Kahala La Grange Claims Her 18th Junior National Title- Bicycle.Net - cycling news, product reviews :: Interbike & UCI World Road Race Championships Varese

Coryn Rivera of Kahala La Grange Claims Her 18th Junior National Title

By editor on August 9th, 2008

Junior Road Races Highlight Friday’s Competition at USA Cycling Junior, U23 and Elite National Championships

Anaheim, Calif. (August 8, 2008) - When 15-year-old Coryn Rivera (Tustin, Calif./Kahala LaGrange) soloed across the line 45 seconds before breakaway companion and second-placed Kaitlin Antonneau (Racine, Wis./Nova-IsCorp) and over 3 minutes ahead of third-placed Kendall Ryan (Ventura, Calif./Major Motion Development) in Friday’s junior women’s 15-16 road race, she not only secured her second 2008 national champion jersey [she won Wednesday's time trial], but her 18th career Stars-and-Stripes jersey. Rivera competes in road, track and cyclo-cross, and has accrued more national titles than years of life. After missing the winning break in Thursday’s criterium and then flatting just before the last turn, Rivera came into Friday’s seven-lap, 56-kilometer race looking for redemption.

“I had some unlucky stuff go on yesterday and I wanted to come back and make up for it,” she said.

In the men’s 15-16 race at the 2008 USA Cycling Junior, Elite and U23 Road National Championships, 16-year-old Australian Lachlan Morton (Littleton, Colo./RAK) won his first national title when he outsprinted breakaway companions Daniel Tisdell (San Jose, Calif./Team Specialized Racing) and Anders Newbury (Fairfield, Vt./Hot Tubes Cycling) at the line. The 82-strong field raced the same seven-lap, 56-kilometer course as the women.

While racers 17 years and older must be U.S. citizens to compete in the national championships, juniors 10-16 must simply be permanent U.S. residents, and Morton is, having moved to Colorado where his father is working, in June. He has raced with juniors in Australia, but said the competition is quite different in Colorado where he has been racing in Pro/1/2 fields.

“It’s been good racing with the pros there [in and near Boulder],” he said. “It’s really strong in Colorado, a lot of good guys there. We race the local criterium and you get Tom Danielson and guys like that, guys who should be at the Tour. It was a perfect lead-up to this.”

Morton initiated the winning break in the first lap of the race. “I just sort of made an attack at the bottom of the first climb just to see how they’d react,” he said. “And a few guys came with me and we were working well. A few other guys came across, and so we sort of kept rolling. Everyone was working quite well together, and we just kept working right to the finish and sprinted it out.”

In the last lap, their gap began to decrease. “We all started to suffer a bit,” Morton said. “But a few guys came across and got the break moving again and got us all motivated to go to the finish.”

He said that riders in the break began sitting up after the last turn that headed into the final climb to the finish, but when they could see that the field was still right behind them, they started working again. “Then it was sort of just whatever you had left for the last 150 meters. Everyone gave it everything and it paid off. It wasn’t really tactical, just whatever you had left.”

The women’s 13-14 event was on the same course, but included three laps for 24 kilometers. After taking the silver in Wednesday’s time trial and Thursday’s criterium, 14-year-old Grace Alexander (Boise, Idaho/BYRDS) was thrilled to finally step into the top spot after outsprinting Alexis Ryan (Ventura, Calif./Major Motion Development) in second and Wednesday’s time trial winner, Zoe Frazier (Suwanee, Ga./Frazier Cycling) in third. They all came across the line in what was left of a splintered field, as an increased pace in the second lap broke the 24-woman field into various small groups.

Alexander was with a group of roughly 10 at the bottom of the final climb to the finish. “There were a couple accelerations up the hill,” she said. “And then about 150 meters to go, I got Zoe Frazier’s wheel and got around her and sprinted to the finish.”

This isn’t the first year that Alexander has stood atop the podium at national competition. Two years ago, she was fifth in the 10-12 time trial and third in the 10-12 road race. But she didn’t race last year due to a broken leg sustained in a skiing accident.

The men’s 13-14 road race was also three laps for 24 kilometers, and the field of 59 riders stayed together the majority of the race with only a few successful but short-lived breaks. When the finish came down to a bunch sprint, it was 14-year-old Scott McClary (Bloomington, Ind./Morris Trucking Velo) who crossed the line first, just ahead of second place Michael Dessau (Boulder, Colo./5280 Magazine) and third place Erik Volotzky (Chatsworth, Calif./Major Motion).

McClary finished tenth in both Wednesday’s time trial and Thursday’s criterium, so was quite happy to earn his first national champion jersey; he was also a bit surprised. “I haven’t been riding too much. I just wrecked about a month ago and broke my collarbone,” he explained with a laugh. “This feels really good. I was speechless coming across the finish line.”

Having won Thursday’s junior women’s 10-12 criterium, 12-year-old Katrina Howard secured her second 2008 national champion jersey - and her seventh altogether - when she outsprinted second-placed Marielena Banuelos (El Paso, Tx./Newbond) and third-placed Laurel Rathbon (Monument, Colo./5280 Magazine) at the line.

The majority of the 11-rider field stayed together throughout their two-lap,16-kilometer race, and Howard said her strategy was to “wait until the end and sprint”. As a group of about eight women started up the climb to the finish, she said, “one girl went [Banuelos] with 150 meters to go and then I just went around her. I knew I had to get around her. She was the one girl I was looking for. She was second yesterday and had a pretty good sprint.”

After taking third in Wednesday’s time trial and fourth in Thursday’s criterium, 12-year-old Dylan Drummond (Walnut Creek, Calif./Tieni Duro) finally pulled on the national champion jersey when he won the bunch sprint in the two-lap, 16-kilometer junior men’s 10-12 event. He was closely followed by Noah Granigan (Cape May Court House, N.J./Team Somerset) in second, who also took second on Wednesday’s time trial and third in Thursday’s criterium, and Teddy Kozlowski (Bridgewater, N.J./Vortex Cycling) in third, who took second in the criterium.

Early in the race, the field of 49 broke into two large groups separated by as many as 19 seconds, as well as some smaller, splintered groups. Drummond was in the first group during the entire race and when someone attacked at 300 meters on the final climb to the finish, he said, “I got on his wheel and then I jumped at the 150 meters to go.”

While this is Drummond’s first national jersey, he is the current California State Champion in road, criterium, time trial, and track. Racing in his first national competition, he said the Stars-and-Stripes jersey “beats it all”.

The 2008 USA Cycling Junior, U23 and Elite Road National Championships continues on Saturday with road races for the junior 17-18 and Elite/U23 women.

2008 USA Cycling Junior, U23 and Elite Road National Championships

Orange County, Calif.

August 6-10

Junior Women’s 15-16 Road Race

1. Coryn Rivera (Tustin, Calif.) 1:29:41.1

2. Kaitlin Antonneau (Racine, Wis.) +0.45.1

3. Kendall Ryan (Ventura, Calif.) +3.17.5

Junior Men’s 15-16 Road Race

1. Lachlan Morton (Littleton, Colo.) 1:14:33.3

2. Daniel Tisdell (San Jose, Calif.) s.t.

3. Anders Newbury (Fairfield, Vt.) s.t.

Junior Women’s 13-14 Road Race