American Criterium Cup: Kendall Ryan and Ulises Castillo earn sprint victories on second day at Salt Lake Criterium

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Kendall Ryan (L39ion of Los Angeles) and Ulises Castillo (iSpeed-Felt) won elite races at the Salt Lake City Criterium p/b LHM-CC on Sunday in Sandy, Utah, which served as the fourth stop of the American Criterium Cup. 

Skylar Schneider (Miami Nights) finished second to her former teammate and retained the women’s individual overall lead in the eight-race series. Jordan Parra (REIGN Storm Racing) used his runner-up finish Sunday to move into the men’s individual lead. The green jerseys of the sprint competitions remained in possession of Rylee McMullen (DNA Pro Cycling), who was fourth in Sandy, and Danny Summerhill (REIGN Storm Racing), who was third in Sandy.

Still branded the Salt Lake Criterium with a weekend of races near the state capitol that began in 2019, Provo hosted an opening round of races on Saturday paired with ACC races on Sunday in the Salt Lake City suburb of Sandy. Alexis Magner (L39ION of Los Angeles) beat Skylar Schneider to the line on Saturday for the women’s victory, Ryan taking fourth behind DNA’s Makayla Macpherson. It was a deluge of REIGN Storm Racing riders in a men’s podium sweep, Alfredo Rodriguez winning ahead of Danny Summerhill and Parra.

Sunday’s criterium offered top points for the ACC on a sweeping 1.28km course with a sharp segment of climbing around America First Field, the soccer stadium for the Real Salt Lake MLS club and the Utah Royals NWSL team. Historically, the ACC stop in Utah has been the hottest of the series, as far as temperatures. This year the thermometer hovered at a manageable 86 Fahrenheit and heat took a back seat to a headwind on the new uphill finish. 

Ryan was part of a small group of women who escaped by the mid-point of the race, the group including Skylar Schneider, eventual third-place finisher Shannon Koch (Kingdom Elite), DNA Pro duo McMullen and Shayna Powless, Jenna Nestman (Goldman Sachs EFT Racing, and Arielle Verhaaren (Automatic-ABUS Racing). 

The DNA Pro duo were aggressive on home turf in Utah and tried to disrupt the final sprint, but Ryan and Schneider surged at the end with Ryan adding a second ACC victory from her first at Tulsa Tough.

“It was unexpected, I wasn't planning to be in the break, I was trying to initiate for Alexis [Ryan] who wanted to go for it,” Ryan said after the finish. “I guess I ended up getting in the magic combination, so I tried to be smart be smooth and conserve as much as possible so I’d have energy for the end.”

The men’s race was a series of attacks and counter-attacks which saw an ebb and flow of catches and then an instant repeat at another release at the front. REIGN Storm Racing, L39ION of Los Angeles and Miami Blazers were most active in not allowing any breaks to get away. It was not until the penultimate lap that Castillo launched his attack and he held off a charging herd of REIGN riders for the victory.

“I felt that the peloton was being really aggressive with people trying to take the lead, so I was a little scared of the sprint finish,” Castillo said later. “I was feeling good so I said to myself ‘OK, let's take it from far as hard as I can’, so it just was the perfect moment. People were going hard and some riders were coming back so I tried it and it worked, they opened the gap and I did the best I could.” 

IU Health Momentum Indy begins the second half of the eight-race series next weekend, taking place July 12 in Indianapolis, Indiana.

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