DEVO: Leah Thomas Fourth at Tour de Feminin in European Debut
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Leah Thomas (r) was third in the time trial while Tayler Wiles (l) placed second.
Thomas was solid throughout the five-stage race and was bolstered by a third-place finish in the stage 3 time trial that moved her into fourth in the GC. U.S. riders left their imprint all over the race as Americans Ruth Winder and Tayler Wiles, riding for their UnitedHealthcare Pro Cycling trade team, captured the top two spots in the final GC.
The National Development Program team got off to a strong start with Skylar Schneider (West Allis, Wis./Team Illunimate) finishing fifth on the opening stage, but the team was caught up in several crashes the following day forcing Schneider, Samantha Schneider (West Allis, Wis./Team Illunimate) and Holly Breck (Santa Ynez, Calif./Sho-Air Twenty20 Pro Cycling) to abandon the race. With Emma White (Delanson, N.Y./Rally Cycling) also retiring due to illness, the team was left with just Thomas and Hannah Arensman (Rutherford College, N.C./Sho-Air Twenty20 Pro Cycling) in the final three stages.
“The purpose of this race was to get the USA National Team ladies settled into the European peloton so we could work on fine tuning a sprint lead-out system prior to heading to Thuringen,” said USA Cycling Women’s Endurance Program Manager Jack Seehafer. “It was also an opportunity to work one-on-one with these athletes to help them to continue to improve their pack positioning and comfort in the group and to build upon things they learned each day. While bad luck befell us on stage 2, we were on our way to fulfilling one of our goals. Thanks to this, they did get the opportunity to learn about post-crash recovery and recuperation.”
Team USA (l to r) before the start of the Tour de Feminin: Skylar Schneider, Samantha Schneider, Leah Thomas, Holly Breck, Emma White and Hannah Arensman.
“We had the chance to talk tactics and race dynamics at length with the end result being the utilization of these at Thurlingen,” added Seehafer. “Leah Thomas had a great result in her European debut and we are looking to expand on the knowledge learned here at Krasna Lipa and take it to the road of Germany. Although the ladies are a little bruised and banged up, they are ready to continue working toward a team goal and outcome at Thuringen.”
See complete results from Tour de Feminin here.
Coming Up
Next up for the women’s development program athletes is the Internationale Thuringen Rundfahrt der Frauen in Germany, July 12-18.
The junior men will take on a UCI Nations’ Cup event, the Tour de l’Abitibi in Canada, July 18-23.
The U23 team will be in action July 26-30 at the Tour of Alsace in France.
About USA Cycling’s National Development Programs
USA Cycling’s National Development Programs aim to achieve sustained success in international cycling competition for the United States by providing promising young athletes with a pathway to the top tier of the sport. Our athlete development programs begin with Talent ID Camps and move athletes all the way through to top international competition. Thanks to support from the United States Olympic Committee and to the generous support of our Foundation donors, we’re able to facilitate programs for junior and U23 cyclists in all five discipline of competitive cycling. If you want to help support the future of American cycling, click here to make a donation now.
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This Article Updated July 18, 2017 @ 02:52 PM For more information contact:
