National Championships 2017 – USA – [Road Race – FULL RACE]

June 25, 2017

National Championships 2017 – USA – Knoxville, Tenn. – Knoxville, Tenn. : 179 km

The United States National Professional Road Race Championships began in 1985. They are run by the governing body, USA Cycling. Until 2006 the race was open to all nationalities, the first American to finish being named the winner and given a distinctive jersey. Since the championship in Greenville, South Carolina, in 2006, all riders have had to be American.
Before 1985, only the amateur champions were named. From 1921 to 1964, the Amateur Bicycle League of America (ABLA) National Championships were held as an omnium of track-style events for Men, Women, and Juniors, rather than as a road race. In 1964 the American Cycling Newsletter (later Bicycling) reported the results of a Flemington, NJ race as the national road racing championships, but these results do not appear in the USA Cycling list of winners.

Less than two weeks after claiming his first ever pro victory in the Tour de Suisse, Larry Warbasse earned himself a year in the stars and stripes jersey, taking the US Pro men’s road race title in Knoxville, Tennessee.

The 26-year-old Aqua Blue Sport rider proved strongest out of a three-man late escape group, besting Axeon Hagens Berman’s Neilson Powless and LottoNL-Jumbo’s Alexey Vermeulen at the line.

“I’m in disbelief. I think this has been the best two weeks of my life,” Warbasse said after taking the victory.

“I had a really great race in Suisse a couple weeks ago. Yesterday, I felt pretty bad in the time trial, I was a bit disappointed, and I told some friends ‘I guess I work well with disappointment, so hopefully tomorrow will be good.’

“Honestly I didn’t feel good the whole day. At the start I was suffering – actually I was suffering the whole time. I don’t think I was the strongest today but I think I was the smartest. I can’t believe it, I’m so happy.”

Warbasse, Powless and Vermeulen got clear of the pack on the 12th of 14 total laps on the Knoxville circuit and managed to build enough of an advantage that it was clear they’d battle for the win among themselves with a few kilometres still to go.

Warbasse made a probing attack around two kilometres from the line but his companions managed to hold his wheel, setting up a three-man battle on the finishing straight. Warbasse found more success when he jumped early over the crest of the final rise and powered downhill to the finish line with gravity on his side.

“When I was riding it earlier this week, and I thought if I had the legs, I would go on the climb (Sherrod Road), but shortly into the race, I knew that I would have to do something somewhere else. I just thought OK, I knew the last rise would be important.

“I was planning on going on the rise, but when we were going into it, I was able to play it cool and watch the other guys. I knew that if I could get a little jump on them on that downhill it would be hard to come around. I don’t have a good sprint, so I knew I had to get some advantage and it worked out. That was really cool.”

Powless gave a hat tip to Warbasse for playing it smart, but showed a touch of disappointment after landing on the podium for the second time in the weekend but shy of the top step.

“I’m still happy to be here and I am proud of my race,” Powless said. “But it’s a little frustrating with two podium finishes and missing the win.

“Tactially, up until the very end I played it pretty perfectly. I tried to conserve as much as possible and not put my nose in the wind unless something serious was going up the road.”

“Once we got away we just kept it together up until the finish, basically. We knew we were strong enough to take it to the line if we stayed together. We all gambled on a sprint finish, and Larry hit it first over the top of the climb. It’s tough to follow that on a downhill sprint.”

How it unfolded

Sun greeted the 102 riders as they set off for their 176.9km championship race. The first two laps were riddled with small attacks, but no move could stay away until Ian Garrison (Axeon Hagens Berman), Sean Bennett (Jelly Belly) and Daniel Eaton (UnitedHealthcare) managed to forge clear on the fourth lap. They never gained more than a few minutes, however, as Holowesko-Citadel took sole responsibility for the chase.

Their pressure proved too much for the trio by the time they reached 70 kilometres to go, with the peloton closing in on the climb and then making the catch in the feed zone.

Rally put in two attacks on the next lap, first with Shane Kline, then with Evan Huffman, who went clear with Oscar Clark with three to go, but an attentive batch of WorldTour riders marked every move.

The peloton began to shatter heading into the penultimate lap, with the main contenders all at the front and many of the sprinters distanced by the pace. When the race hit two to go, Axeon Hagens Berman attacked, with Tennessee local Jonathan Brown getting a slight gap.

But it wasn’t to last, as Rosskopf launched a move with Vermeulen that forced others to respond on the penultimate ascent of Sherrod Road. Coming over the climb, it was Powless, Vermeulen and Warbasse opening up a gap. The trio poured all of their efforts into the move knowing that when they reached the line, it would be just one lap and 12.7 kilometres to go.

The men’s field could see the trio as they headed into the turnarounds, but the escapees refused to let up. Nearing the penultimate crossing of the line, WorldTour singlets Brent Bookwalter (BMC Racing) and Alex Howes (Cannondale-Drapac) were feeling the pressure and attacked the chasing group, but the Rally train reeled in the move.

With half a minute in hand, however, the three leaders out front would not be denied, cooperating well to maintain their advantage into the last few kilometres. Although his attempt to solo clear came up short, Warbasse proved on the finishing straight that he still had something left in the tank, out-gunning Powless and Vermeulen in the sprint.

Results :
1 Lawrence Warbasse (USA) Aqua Blue Sport 4:20:45
2 Neilson Powless (USA) Axeon Hagens Berman
3 Alexey Vermeulen (USA) Team Lotto NL – Jumbo
4 Robin Carpenter (USA) Holowesko | Citadel Racing Team 0:00:35
5 Colin Joyce (USA) Rally Cycling
6 Brent Bookwalter (USA) BMC Racing Team
7 Alex Howes (USA) Cannondale-Drapac Pro Cycling 0:00:38
8 Kiel Reijnen (USA) Trek-Segafredo 0:00:47
9 Eric Young (USA) Rally Cycling
10 Joseph Rosskopf (USA) BMC Racing Team
11 William Barta (USA) Axeon Hagens Berman
12 Chad Beyer (USA) Canyon Bicycles
13 Justin Oien (USA) Caja Rural – Seguras RGA
14 Gage Hecht (USA) Aevolo Cycling Inc.
15 Christopher Blevins (USA) Axeon Hagens Berman
16 Stephen Bassett (USA) Silber Pro Cycling
17 Jacob Rathe (USA) Jelly Belly p/b Maxxis
18 Robert Squire (USA) Canyon Bicycles
19 Geoffrey Curran (USA) Axeon Hagens Berman
20 Jacob Sitler (USA) CCB Velotooler
21 Kevin Girkins (USA) ELBOWZ Racing p/b Synergy.O
22 Alex Hoehn (USA) Elevate-KHS Pro Cycling
23 Erik Slack (USA) Canyon Bicycles
24 Edward Anderson (USA) Axeon Hagens Berman
25 Travis McCabe (USA) UnitedHealthcare
26 Eric Marcotte (USA) Cylance
27 Connor McCutcheon (USA) Team Illuminate
28 Evan Huffman (USA) Rally Cycling
29 Gregory Daniel (USA) Trek-Segafredo 0:01:29
30 Christopher Jones (USA) UnitedHealthcare 0:01:51
31 Gavin Mannion (USA) UnitedHealthcare 0:03:03
32 Jonathan Brown (USA) Axeon Hagens Berman
33 Steve Fisher (USA) Canyon Bicycles
34 Kyle Murphy (USA) Cylance
35 Cory Lockwood (USA) Elevate-KHS Pro Cycling 0:05:00
36 Tyler Magner (USA) Holowesko | Citadel Racing Team 0:05:23
37 Taylor Eisenhart (USA) Holowesko | Citadel Racing Team
38 Danny Pate (USA) Rally Cycling 0:06:22
39 Emerson Oronte (USA) Rally Cycling
40 Sepp Kuss (USA) Rally Cycling
41 Brian Mcculloch (USA) Elevate-KHS Pro Cycling 0:08:22
42 Micah Engle (USA) Gateway Harley-Davidson Trek U2
43 Brad Neagos (USA) Team Illuminate
44 Cameron Piper (USA) Team Illuminate
45 Charles Huff (USA) Rally Cycling
46 Cortlan Brown (USA) Canyon Bicycles
47 Morgan Schmitt (USA) Arapahoe Resources / Garneau
48 Noah Granigan (USA) CCB Velotooler
49 Spencer Petrov (USA) CCB Velotooler
50 Shane Kline (USA) Rally Cycling
51 Ezekiel Mostov (USA) Aevolo Cycling Inc.
52 Joseph Schmalz (USA) Elevate-KHS Pro Cycling
53 Tyler Stites (USA) Aevolo Cycling Inc. 0:08:30
54 Lance Haidet (USA) Aevolo Cycling Inc. 0:08:47
55 Cameron Beard (USA) CCB Velotooler 0:09:29
56 Griffin Easter (USA) Team Illuminate
57 Michael Hernandez (USA) Aevolo Cycling Inc.
58 Cory Greenberg (USA) Canyon Bicycles
59 Sean Bennett (USA) Jelly Belly p/b Maxxis
60 Kaler Marshall (USA) Canyon Bicycles
61 Nicholas Torraca (USA) Elevate-KHS Pro Cycling
62 Connor Brown (USA) Elevate-KHS Pro Cycling
63 Grant Koontz (USA) Arapahoe Resources / Garneau
64 Mat Stephens (USA) Arapahoe Resources / Garneau
65 George Simpson (USA) Gateway Harley-Davidson Trek U2
66 Brett Wachtendorf (USA) Gateway Harley-Davidson Trek U2
67 Stefan Rothe (USA) ELBOWZ Racing p/b Synergy.O
68 Matthew Zimmer (USA) Gateway Harley-Davidson Trek U2
69 Dennis Ramirez (USA) Gateway Harley-Davidson Trek U2
70 Brendan Rhim (USA) Holowesko | Citadel Racing Team
71 Miguel Bryon (USA) Holowesko | Citadel Racing Team 0:09:54
72 Mackenzie Brennan (USA) Holowesko | Citadel Racing Team
73 Joshua Berry (USA) Jelly Belly p/b Maxxis
74 Christopher Butler (USA) Caja Rural – Seguras RGA
75 Justin Stanley (USA) ELBOWZ Racing p/b Synergy.O
76 Maxwell Ackermann (USA) Gateway Harley-Davidson Trek U2
77 Brant Speed (USA) ELBOWZ Racing p/b Synergy.O
78 Patrick Collins (USA) CCB Velotooler
DNF Cory Small (USA) CCB Velotooler
DNF Benjamin Wolfe (USA) Jelly Belly p/b Maxxis
DNF Daniel Eaton (USA) UnitedHealthcare
DNF Adrian Hegyvary (USA) UnitedHealthcare
DNF Jesse Anthony (USA) Rally Cycling
DNF Brandon McNulty (USA) Rally Cycling
DNF Thomas Soladay (USA) Rally Cycling
DNF Curtis White (USA) Rally Cycling
DNF Oscar Clark (USA) Holowesko | Citadel Racing Team
DNF John Murphy (USA) Holowesko | Citadel Racing Team
DNF Ian Garrison (USA) Axeon Hagens Berman
DNF Michael Sheehan (USA) Jelly Belly p/b Maxxis
DNF Cullen Easter (USA) Team Illuminate
DNF Jake Silverberg (USA) Start Vaxes Cycling Team
DNF Bryan Lewis (USA) Cylance
DNF SamueL Snipe Grove (USA) Cylance
DNF Ansel Dickey (USA) CCB Velotooler
DNF John Harris (USA) CCB Velotooler
DNF Cooper Willsey (USA) CCB Velotooler
DNF Evan Bybee (USA) Arapahoe Resources / Garneau
DNF Andrew Dahlheim (USA) Arapahoe Resources / Garneau
DNF Michael Burleigh (USA) Canyon Bicycles
DNF Keegan Swirbul (USA) Jelly Belly p/b Maxxis
DNF Ricky Randall (USA) Arapahoe Resources / Garneau