Team USA captured silver in the men’s Team Pursuit at the UCI Track Nations Cup in Konya, Turkey the weekend of March 15-16. The squad of Ashlin Barry, David Dononoske, Graeme Frisle and Anders Johnson also set a new National record with a time of 3:47.
In addition to the silver medal, 17-year-old Barry, current US junior road and time trial national champion, placed second in the elite men’s Omnium.
Over the four events, Barry placed fourth in Scratch, won the Tempo race, finished third in Elimination and was leading the Points race but placed second, one point behind the overall winner Yanne Dorenbos of the Netherlands. Barry was the youngest of 37 competitors in the field, which included 20-year-old Ben Wiggins of Great Britain, who finished 10th.
Mexico's Yareli Acevedo Mendoza won the gold in an exciting elite women's Elimination Race, making her move on the final corner around Lisa van Belle of the Netherlands to win by a bike length. She was sixth overall in the women's Omnium.
Replays of the two days of racing at the Konya velodrome, which opened in 2022, can be seen by US and Canadian audiences on FloBikes, with a paid subscription. This is the fifth season for the UCI Track Nations Cup, and to date, the round in Turkey is the only competition on the 2025 calendar, which has had three stops.
Domonoske and Johnson were named to the endurance squad for Team USA to compete in the Pan American Track Cycling Championships, to be held April 1-6 in Asuncion, Paraguay.
PAS Development Team filled by three U23 riders from US
Three US youngsters from Colorado have been selected to ride on the PAS Development Team, officially launched this week by Pas Normal Studios to support and nurture the next generation of gravel racers in North America.
Samantha Campbell and Scarlett Hardie are both from Grand Junction while Oliver Rutberg resides in Colorado Springs. Campbell, who turns 21 this year, won the women's senior division (ages 19-29) at US Marathon Mountain Bike Nationals last year and the women's senior MTB short track title in 2023. She competed previously on the Colorado Mesa University cycling team.
Hardie is still a teenager and recently completed several seasons in mountain bike competitions with the Colorado High School Cycling League. Two years ago she won Arizona's Cactus Cup women's 13-15 division MTB race.
Rutberg, who turned 18 in November last year, finished third in the men's 17-and-under division on the 99-mile Blue Course at SBT GRVL last year. 2024 was a good year in other disciplines, as he won the Pikes Peak Apex mountain bike event and earned the men's 17-18 junior road title at the Colorado State Championships.
French cyclocross veteran and a US resident, Caroline Mani, will serve as the mentor for the riders. The trio will also receive comprehensive support with the PAS Development programme, including race expenses, training camps, high-performance apparel, and equipment. The team kicks off its season with a training camp in March before competing in key races that include Sea Otter Classic (April), Unbound Gravel (May and STB GRVL (June).
"I’ve enjoyed putting this project together and seeing it come to life. It’s incredibly rewarding to give these young, talented riders the opportunity to compete at a high level in the gravel scene while still focusing on their education. This program is about more than just racing - it’s about creating a pathway where they can grow as athletes and individuals without having to choose between their passion for cycling and their future,” said Sune Nicolajsen, US general manager at Pas Normal Studios.
The PAS Racing Team has 16 elite rides on their pro gravel team, including Denmark's Tobias Mørch Kongstad (third at Unbound Gravel 200 in 2024), Norway's Simen Nordahl Svendsen (2024 Gravel Earth Series overall winner for men), USA's Morgan Aguirre (2024 Gravel Earth Series runner-up for women) and Karolina Migoń (2024 Traka 360 winner and women's overall winner for Global Earth Series).
Sunny King Criterium adds state, collegiate championships with USA CRITS races
USA CRITS begin their 16th season on April 5 with the Sunny King Criterium and this year organisers of the Anniston, Alabama event will award state championship and collegiate titles across two days of racing.
Alabama State Criterium championships on Saturday will be awarded in six divisions, three for women and three for men, on the same four-corner course as the USA CRITS events.. The Choccolocco road race on Sunday, a 13.5-mile (21.7km) circuit, will be also have six divisions, the number of laps varying for each division.
The Sunny King Criterium will host the Southeast Collegiate Conference Championships, with seven divisions, three of those for women. There will be five divisions in the collegiate championships for the road race, two of those for women.
Under the lights in the early evening on Saturday, elite women and elite men will battle for the first placings in the nine-race USA CRITS competition, which culminates at the Winston-Salem Cycling Classic in North Carolina on May 24.
Live streaming will be provided for all USA CRITS events, with extra coverage on Saturday at the Sunny King Criterium for the amateur races. In combination with additional criteriums in the southeast for Speed Week, a prize purse of more than $170,000 is up for grabs, divided evenly between elite women and elite men, including overall prizes for top teams.
