Over the weekend U.S. athletes competed across the globe and earned six World Cup Medals, four in BMX Supercross and two in Cyclocross.
The final two rounds of the UCI BMX Racing World Cup season took place in at the Sport Centre of Santiago del Estero, Argentina. Corben Sharrah (Tuscon, Ariz.) raced his way to the top of the podium with teammate Jared Garcia (Victorville, Calif.) placing third.
“It was an amazing day battling with the heat, pushing through and ending up on the top podium spot,” said the 2017 World Champion, Sharrah regarding his ride.
In the Women’s races, Alise Willoughby (Chula Vista, Calif.) earned Silver medals both days after coming back from an unfortunate crash in the finals at the World Championships in June.
“I wasn’t originally planning to make the trip down to Argentina this year, but after such a narrow miss on backing up my world championships win this year, I just wanted to get back in the ring and keep racing so here we are. I feel good overall and am excited for what the years to come have to offer leading into the 2020 games, but for today I was just focused on making things work here and I managed a second place finish,” said Willoughby of her performance.
Jinglecross, which is the second of two US based Telenet UCI Cyclocross World Cup races took place in Iowa City, Iowa over the weekend where third ranked Kaitlyn Keough (Racine, Wisc.; Cannondale p/b CyclocrossWorld.com) triumphed over World Cup leader Marianna Vos for her first gold medal at a World Cup. In the U23 race, Emma Swartz (Madison, Wisc.; Trek Factory Racing) placed second.
“It’s extremely special to have won my first World Cup yesterday. I’m extremely proud of all the hard work and focus that myself, my team and my sponsors have put in for this day to finally happen. I’ve been knocking on the door with a handful of World Cup podiums in the past three years and it feels so wonderful to now have a big win like this. Even better to have done it here in the United States. It was a really special day,” said Keough of her performance.
“It’s amazing to see such great results so early in the season against very strong international fields,” said Scott Schnitzspahn, Vice President of Elite Athletics, “With Ellen Noble coming in second at Waterloo and Kaitie Keough taking gold this weekend, we are really impressed by the depth of talent in our U.S. riders and are looking forward to the rest of the season.”
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For more information, please contact Kelly Fox at apalermo@usacycling.org.
