After mixing it up with the world's best 17 and 18-year-old riders in the road race on Sunday, the United States Cycling Team left the junior road and track world championships with not one medal.
The week-long event concluded yesterday with the junior men's and women's road races. Current U.S. junior national champion in both the road race and the cross country discipline of mountain biking, Chris Barton (Ojai, Calif./Bicycles of Ojai), was the top finisher for Team USA in the 122.4-kilometer junior men's road race. Barton placed 81st, 1 minute, 37 seconds off the pace of winner Diego Ulissi of Italy.
Racing nine laps of a 13.6-kilometer circuit that included five significant climbs, only 123 riders in the 174-rider peloton finished the race. Of the 51 riders that retired, three were Americans as Bjorn Selander (Hudson, Wis./Alan Factory), Benjamin Bradshaw (Winchester, Calif./IE Bikes Racing) and Peter Salon (Brooklyn, N.Y./GS Mengoni) did not finish.
The final U.S. competitor, national time trial champion Tejay Van Garderen (Fort Collins, Colo./5280-eSoles), finished 99th, 7:16 off the pace.
The junior women raced five laps of the same circuit for a total of 68 kilometres. Lauren Shirock (Emmaus, Pa./South Mountain Cycles) was the top U.S. finisher, placing 45th, 3:13 behind winner Rasa Leleivyte of Lithuania. Jacquelyn Crowell (Maitland, Fla.Colavita) placed 60th, 4:24 back and Arielle Filiberti (Worcester, Mass./Hot Tubes Development) finished 71st, 16:02 down.
At the end of the week's competition, the best American performance was a sixth-place effort courtesy of Shane Kline (Bally, Pa./Team Fuji) in the men's 10-kilometer scratch race on the track last Saturday.
