Putt, Cole finish top 20 in road races at World Championships
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Tanner Putt races in the peloton during the U23 road race at the 2014 UCI Road World Championships. (photo by Casey B. Gibson)
The 162-rider field in the 10-lap, 182-kilometer U23 men's road race allowed three riders -- Sebastian Schonberger (AUT), Adil Barbari (ALG) and Roman Kustadinchev (RUS) -- to slip away early in the race and build a lead that topped out at 3 minutes and 38 seconds on the fifth lap. After that trio was consumed by the peloton, it was South Africa's Louis Meintjes enjoying some time at the front and looking strong, but he too was reeled in by the peloton with just under two laps to ride.
With one lap (18km) left, the U.S. team still had four of its five riders in contention for the podium, but it was Norway's Sven Erik Bystrom who engineered the decisive move within the last half lap of the race to pull away and claim the rainbow jersey. A field sprint behind him churned out silver medalist Caleb Ewan of Australia and Bystrom's teammate, Kristoffer Skjerping, for the bronze medal, both seven seconds back. That large group also contained Tanner Putt (Park City, Utah/Bissell Development Team) who crossed the line in 13th place as the top American.
"I think everybody was pretty tired going into that last lap," said Putt. "It was already kind of a smaller field. But at the bottom of the second-to-last climb on the feed zone I attacked and bridged up to another small group, and then I attacked from that and a Colombian and another guy came with me. We went over the top with a little gap but were caught on the last climb at the base. I was able to hang on with the lead group going over and ended up 13th at the end, so I was pretty happy with it."
Other U.S. finishers in the U23 men's race included Robin Carpenter (Philadelphia, Pa./Hincapie Sportswear Development Team) in 57th place, 2 minutes and 31 seconds behind, Alexey Vermeulen (Pinckney, Mich./BMC Development Team) in 59th, 2:48 back, and Logan Owen (Bremerton, Wash./Bissell Development Team) in 74th place, 6:10 off the winning time. Tyler Williams (Shafter, Calif./BMC Development Team) also contested the race for the U.S.
Putt was quick to credit his teammates for their strong work in the peloton all afternoon.
"Our goal was just to have one guy up there at the end and we did that. We all rode together really well. The guys did great positioning me and keeping me fed."
Janelle Cole races along n the juniors women's road race at the 2014 UCI Road World Championships in Ponferrada, Spain. She was the top U.S. finisher in 17th place. (photo by Casey B. Gibson)
"It was really fast right from the gun," said White. "The first lap was probably one of the fastest, aside from the last lap. We were dropping people the whole race and I was able to stick in the front group."
White lost contact with the bunch as the pace picked up on the final climb but Cole, after momentarily being slowed by another rider weaving into her path, used the descent to catch back on immediately move to the front with less than a kilometer to the finish.
"Going into the last lap I was feeling pretty good," Cole said. "The field was incredibly strong so I knew it was going to come down to a pretty big group of girls. I just tried to stay up in the front and ended up being a noob and dropping my bottle on the last lap, so that was fun. But going up the last hard climb a girl attacked and some other country cut me off into the boards and so by the time I got out to be able to catch they were already 100 meters up the road. That really burned me up quite a bit. I tried to get down the hill as fast as I could to catch up and I did and went right to the front, exactly where I didn't want to be."
As the sprint to the line began, Cole was overtaken and it was defending champion Amalie Dideriksen of Denmark hitting the line first in 2:02.59, ahead of Sofia Bertizzolo of Italy and Agnieszka Skalniak of Poland.
"It was a really exciting race," Cole added. "You replay that finish 10 times you'll get 10 different results, but I think I performed to the best of my ability and I ended up exactly where I didn't want to be in the last 1k. It was an incredible race. I had such a great time."
Cole finished in 17th place with the same time as that of the winner. White came across with a chase group 28 seconds later in 36th place.
"In the beginning (of the last lap) there was a long climb and everyone was kind of looking at each other," noted White. "A few teams went and it got really fast up that last climb. But I really liked the second half of the lap because there were shorter, punchier climbs and then some nice recovering downhills. It was going fast right up until the last climb. Somebody attacked and I just didn't stay with it."
Cole and White also took notice of how different a world championship is compared to a domestic race.
"Just the different style of racing is incredible," said Cole of her first world championship experience. "The competition is amazing. You have to be spot on all the time and you have to just take things as they come and know that it's not always going to work out the way you want. But you can be trained and I'm just happy to be up there. It was awesome."
"It was crazy racing with the European girls," White added. "They're all really aggressive and I've never really experienced that."
Madeleine Boutet (Anchorage, Alaska/TWENTY16 Pro Cycling) and Hannah Swan (Alpine, Calif./Strive Racing) finished together, 4:10 back of the winning time in 45th and 46th place, respectively.
The UCI Road World Championships continue on Saturday with the road races for the juniors men and elite women, and conclude on Sunday with the elite men's road race.
Follow Team USA at the World Championships on Facebook and Twitter, using #TeamUSA.
2014 UCI Road World Championships
Ponferrada, Spain
Sept. 21-28, 2014
FULL RESULTS | PHOTO GALLERY
U23 Men's Road Race (182km)
1. Sven Erik Bystron (NOR) 4:32.39
2. Caleb Ewan (AUS) +0:07
3. Kristoffer Skjerping (NOR) +0:07
13. Tanner Putt (Park City, Utah/Bissell Development Team) +0:07
57. Robin Carpenter (Philadelphia, Pa./Hincapie Sportswear Development Team) +2:31
59. Alexey Vermeulen (Pinckney, Mich./BMC Development Team) +2:48
74. Logan Owen (Bremerton, Wash./Bissell Development Team) +6:10
DNF. Tyler Williams (Shafter, Calif./BMC Development Team)
Juniors Women's Road Race (72.8km)
1. Amalie Dideriksen (DEN) 2:02.59
2. Sofia Bertizzolo (ITA) s.t.
3. Agnieszka Skalniak (POL) s.t.
17. Janelle Cole (Rockford, Mich./West Michigan Coast Riders) s.t.
36. Emma White (Delanson, N.Y./Hot Tubes Junior Development Team) +0:28
45. Madeleine Boutet (Anchorage, Alaska/TWENTY16 Pro Cycling) +4:10
46. Hannah Swan (Alpine, Calif./Strive Racing) +4:10
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This Article Updated September 26, 2014 @ 05:25 PM For more information contact:
