American Criterium Cup: Skylar Schneider and Jordan Parra win exciting showdowns at Boise Twilight

Skylar Schneider (Miami Blazers) and Jordan Parra (REIGN Storm Racing) won the third round of the American Criterium Cup (ACC) at the Bailey Glasser Boise Twilight Criterium.

Even though the women’s field included only 19 riders on Saturday, Skylar Schneider rose to the occasion with top form and won her fourth consecutive criterium in Boise, Idaho.

“Obviously, having won here three times in a row made this a big goal for me, so my teammates were definitely on my side tonight,” she said after the race.

“It was a small field but really strong, which meant we had to be a bit more creative. Lapping the field was a bit of a surprise and that made the race more of a chess match than anything, but I’m really happy to finish it off.”

In the overall ACC standings of the eight-race series, Skylar Schneider extended her lead for individual women by 18 points over Arielle Verhaaren (Automatic-ABUS Racing), and another handful of points over DNA pair Rylee McMullen and Makayla Macpherson, who are third and fourth, respectively.

The men’s individual standings tightened to a one-point lead for Bryan Gomez (REIGN Storm Racing), who remained at the top of the leaderboard despite suffering a crash on the final lap and taking no points. His teammate Parra is in third, tied on points with second-placed Luke Lamperti (Soudal-QuickStep).

Rylee McMullen (DNA Pro Cycling) and Danny Summerhill (REIGN Storm Racing) continued as sprint leaders.

Skylar Schneider used the support of her teammates Samantha Schneider, who was part of the six-rider breakaway, and Alexi Ramirez to secure the win. At the halfway point of the race, the Schneider sisters were part of a move with Macpherson and Kimberly Lucie of DNA, Regina Doty (LA Sweat), and Verhaaren that went from a small gap to catching the back of the field with 10 laps to go.

From the field sprint to settle the podium, Skylar Schneider surged with 200 metres to go and won ahead of Verhaare, who recently placed third overall at Tour of America’s Dairlyand, with 20-year-old Macpherson in third. Samantha Scott (Lotto-Dstny) made the start in her hometown of Boise and finished seventh.

The men’s field of 61 riders saw Tyler Williams (Miami Blazers) make a solo move 10 minutes into the 70-minute affair. Boise-native Allan Schroeder (EMPYR) was next to go once Williams was caught.

By the mid-race sprint point, won by Alex Martinek (Team RF Foundations), another attack was tried by Cade Bickmore (Project Echelon), but nothing survived a few laps of the course in the capital city of Idaho.

Tyler Magner (L39ion of Los Angeles) was part of a small group that launched an attack and then Lamperti and Michael Garrison (MGR NICH+ SpeedClub) chased down the threat, breaking apart the main peloton.

Lamperti drove the pace on the final lap until he slipped a gear on turn two. One more corner later, Gomez crashed hard with Noah Granigan (Miami Blazers) leaving two REIGN Storm Riders at the front, Parra winning ahead of Summerhill, and Lamperti able to finish third, a spot ahead of Magner.

Results