On a course that tends to favour sprinters, today at Boise Twilight, it was all about the attackers, with Sofia Arreola and Luke Fetzer winning on late-breaking attacks.
For Arreola, her last-ditch move came with two laps to go after Virginia’s Blue Ridge Twenty28 team dominated the 70 minutes of action. With a team of three strong riders, Arreola used her position as lead-out to launch early. She took advantage of the eyes on her sprinter teammate Marlies Mejias and went all out before the bell, getting a gamblers’ prime for her troubles. All of the before the last lap saw Mejias lead a charging peloton in for second, right behind Arreola for the team’s 1-2 finish.
On the men’s side, it was a more egalitarian race as riders from across the peloton sent different moves up the road. The most dangerous move came 50 minutes in when Andrew Frank of Empyr cycling took a flyer and immediately forged a dangerous gap. With about five laps left, the gap was around 30 seconds. Fetzer, sensing the risk of the win slipping away, hit out with vengeance. Two laps later he had caught and passed Frank. Two laps after that, he was solo, winning his first ACC race and getting a massive return for all of his efforts in support of his teammate Lucas Bourgoyne.
In the fight for the overall ACC titles, Aline Seitz finished close enough to the podium to retain her lead in the standings, while Virginia’s Blue Ridge Twenty28 made a big leap to the top of the team standings. Maurice Ballerstedt did enough to snatch the red jersey from Brody McDonald, while Cadance Cyclery have built a massive lead in the team standings.
Sofia Arreola snatches the win after a dominant team performance
Courtesy of Brian Kohagen
In the women’s race, it was all about Virginia’s Blue Ridge Twenty28 versus the two top individuals on the ACC circuit, Aline Seitz and Andrea Cyr. With numbers to play with, Virginia’s Blue Ridge were aggressive early and often, attacking numerous times in the first half of the race and mopping up the vast majority of the crowd sourced primes that kept the action flowing.
The first big move of consequence came when Rylee McMullen (Virginia’s Blue Ridge Twenty28) attacked hard with just under half of the race remaining. No one went with McMullen, but that was part of the effectiveness of the move as it forced the rest of the peloton to keep the pressure on with Arreola and Mejias were able to keep their powder dry for the final few laps. While McMullen was marooned off the front just 10 to 20 seconds ahead of the rest of the peloton, she was able to continue to snag primes as the laps count down including the ACC mid race point sprint that put her back in the green jersey.
Eventually, McMullen was brought back into the fold and a sprint looked inevitable as Mejias looked to be the fastest in the field. Nevertheless, Virginia’s Blue Ridge Twenty28 had one more surprise up their sleeve in the form of Sofia Arreola.
Arreola, who often combines with Mejias as her last leadout rider, had the freedom to attack the race and find the opportunities to try and win one for herself. With just over three laps to go, Arreola found that opportunity and took it with both hands.
“Its really fun racing with Marlies,” Arreola said after the race. “We have been racing against each other and together since we were juniors. It’s just really fun to be teammates because she can win out of a sprint or a breakaway and I can too.
“We knew we were a strong team and we knew we could win from different scenarios so when I found myself off the front I knew I could just keep going.”
Behind Arreola, Mejias closed fast, nearly passing Arrelo on the line, but holding off just enough to manage to let Arreola take a huge win and for the team to go 1-2 at the line, while Makayla Macpherson (CCB p/b Levine Law Group). Aline Seitz finished sixth which kept her in the lead of the ACC ahead of Andrea Cyr, and Macpherson.
Women’s results
- Sofia Arreola — Virginia’s Blue Ridge Twenty28
- Marlies Mejias — Virginia’s Blue Ridge Twenty28
- Makayla MacPherson — CCB p/b Levin Law
- Andrea Cyr — Fount Cycling Guild
- Rylee McMullen — Virginia’s Blue Ridge Twenty28
- Aline Seitz — UTC Butterbox Cycling
- Isla Carr — UTC Butterbox Cycling
- Tessa Beebe — Byrds
- Sara Vladimirova — Ride or Die Racing
- Zoe Saccio — PDX Dream Team
Women’s ACC overall standings
- Aline Seitz — UTC Butcherbox Cycling — 124 points
- Andrea Cyr — Fount Cycling Guild — 110
- Makayla Macpherson — CCB p/b Levine Law — 82
- Rylee McMullen — Virginia’s Blue Ridge Twenty28 — 81
- Kendall Ryan — L39ion of Los Angeles — 70
- Odette Lynch — Fearless Femme Racing — 66
- Marlies Mejias — Virginia’s Blue Ridge Twenty28 — 64
- Arielle Verhaaren — Automatic Racing — 56
- Sofia Arreola — Virginia’s Blue Ridge Twenty28 — 40
- Isla Carr — UTC Butcherbox Cycling — 40
Women’s ACC sprint standings
- Rylee McMullen — Virginia’s Blue Ridge Twenty28 — 6 points
- Bella Kroutil — Fount Cycling Guild — 4
- Heidy Prederas — Kingdom Elite — 4
Women’s team standings
- Virginia’s Blue Ridge Twenty28 — 193 points
- UTC Butcherbox Cycling — 192
- Fount Cycling Guild — 127
Luke Fetzer steals the show
Courtesy of Brian Kohagen
The men’s race might have had a similar end result to the women’s race, however, the way the race got to that outcome was drastically different. Instead of having a dominant team attacking the race, the men’s field had a bunch of strong racers and sprinters working with very few teammates. There were a few strong groupings — namely Cadence Cyclery and L39ion of Los Angeles — but with strong solo riders like Brody McDonald and Maurice Ballerstedt two of the main favorites for the win it was always likely to be a scrappy, unpredictable race.
Despite that unpredicatble pretense, most of the race proceeded without any sustained moves. Consistent attacking was met with consistent chasing and marking, with the primes adding to the ebb and flow of the action.
The biggest mid race pre contnest came at the ACC mid race point sprint as Owen Gillott (Cheney Windows and Doors) and Danny Summerhill (L39ion of Los Angeles) have been locked in a season long battle for the jersey and it looked set to be a full sprint between the two. However, right before the bell was being run for the sprint, Ben Elumbaugh (Team RF Foundation p/b George’s Cycles) took a massive flyer and nabbed the sprint from Gillott and Summerhill who were chanrging hard from behind. In the end, Elubaugh has yet to place in the ACC green jersey points, so the race for second was crucial. Gillott edged out Summerhill on the line, which put him back in the Green jersey for Chicago Grit next week.
With 20 minutes left of racing, the race finally had its first significant breakaway when Andrew Frank (Empyr) went solo. The move didn’t attract attention at first, but after a half dozen laps, Frank had a gap of over 30 seconds and the race was entering its final phase. Without any big teams to chase, Empyr put themselves on the front to try and block the field and give Frank more of an advantage before the sprint.
Their plan was almost successful, until nine laps to go when Luke Fetzer jumped from the peloton with a leadout from his sprinter Lucas Bourgonye, and quickly closed the gap to Frank by himself. When he got to Frank with just under 3 laps to go, Fetzer hit out again, dropping Frank and taking over the front of the race alone, never to be seen again.
“At nine to go Lucas was like, ‘there is a guy off the front, you got to go!’” Fetzer said of the move that won him the race. “He set me up coming into the first turn and I made it across in three laps, and it was wrapped from there.
“The last ditch effort is the exact same as a solo flyer so it transitioned well. Its the first time I have won a race like that solo, so all the time leading out Lucas has paid off.”
Back in the field, two crashes stymied any strong chase as Empyr cycling’s blocking tactics backfired in a big way, first on the backstretch with one of their riders swinging off and clipping his teammate from the front of the peloton causing a big crash. Not to be out done, through the finish with two laps to go, Empyr was embroiled in another self-inflicted crash as they overlapped wheels again as they were pulling off the front of the field. Two laps, two teammate on teammate crashes.
Nevertheless, up ahead Fetzer cruised to his first big victory on the criterium scene, raising his arms well before the finish and soaking in the cheers from a massive crowd. Behind him Frank, unaware of the chaos his team caused behind him, was holding on to a small gap into the final straight. He was just meters away from taking the second spot on the podium before Maurice Ballerstedt and Ama Nsek burst by him with 25 meters left to race to snatch a podium finish from him.
In the end, it was fourth for Frank, third for Ballerstedt, and second for Nsek. Ballerstedt did enough to work his way into the ACC overall lead as well before the series heads to Chicago next weekend.
Courtesy of Brian Kohagen
Men’s results
- Luke Fetzer — Cadence Cyclery
- Ama Nsek — Pinarello Maap
- Maurice Ballerstedt — Rose Bikes
- Andrew Frank — Empyr Cycling
- Danny Summerhill — L39ion of Los Angeles
- Lucas Bourgoyne — Cadence Cyclery
- Brody McDonald — Golden State Blazers
- Dusan Kalaba — UTC Butcherbox
- Dante Young — Unattached
- Owen Gillott — Chaney Windows and Doors Pastarias
Men’s ACC overall standings
- Maurice Ballerstedt — Rose Bikes — 121 points
- Brody McDonald — Golden State Blazers — 116
- Danny Summerhill — L39ion of Los Angeles — 114
- Lucas Bourgoyne — Cadence Cyclery — 110
- Dusan Kalaba — Parks Law Firm All Stars — 98
- Luke Fetzer — Cadence Cyclery — 51
- Tim Smith — Chaney Windows and Doors Pasteria — 49
- Dario Rapps — DCC — 40
- Ben Oliver — MitoQ New Zealand Cycling Project — 40
- Nolan Church — Above and Beyond Cancer — 38
Men’s ACC sprint classification
- Owen Gillott — Chaney Windows and Doors Pasteria — 13 points
- Danny Summerhill — L39ion and Los Angeles — 13
- Ben Elumbaugh — Team RF Foundation p/b George’s Cycles — 6
Men’s ACC team standings
- Cadence Cyclery — 200 points
- Golden State Blazers — 132
- Bikers Cycling Team — 115
