Marlies Mejias Garcia (Virginia’s Blue Ridge TWENTY24) and Simon Daniels (UNC Lotto Max) won the elite races at the Northwestern Medicine Lake Bluff Criterium on Saturday, which served as the seventh stop in the American Criterium Cup national series.
There were no changes at the top of the ACC leaderboard for individual standings, with Paola Muñoz (Miami Nights) and Danny Summerhill (American Cycling Group) maintaining the top spots for pro women and pro men.
It was the 11th edition of the Lake Bluff Criterium, sponsored each year by the Northwestern Medicine Lake Forest Hospital, and the ninth out of 10 days for racing for the longstanding Intelligentsia Cup. The flat and fast contest was held on a six-corner course in the Lake Bluff village, 35 miles north of downtown Chicago.
Muñoz finished one spot off the podium in Lake Bluff behind Peta Mullens (Roxsolt Liv SRAM), but was able to pad her ACC lead to 499 points. Across seven events at Intelligentsia Cup she finished seventh or better each time. Mejias Garcia had four podiums across nine events.
Equally as successful on the week across Intelligentsia Cup events was Samantha Schneider (L39ION of Los Angeles), who was second at Lake Bluff and closed her margin to ACC women’s leader Muñoz from 182 points to 165 points and remained in third place overall. Samantha Schneider had four podiums in eight races, two of those victories (Northbrook Grand Prix and William Blair Grand Prix).
Andrea Cyr (Miami Nights) remained second in the ACC overall, but finished eighth at Lake Bluff, and her margin over Schneider shrunk to 58 points.
The DNA Pro Cycling duo of Kimberly Lucie and Holly Breck continue to preside over the ACC sprint classification, Lucie adding 35 more points and extending her lead to a total of 160. Breck, who did not compete at the race, is now tied in second place with Alexis Ryan (L39ION of Los Angeles), both with 50 points.
Breck was part of the DNA Pro Cycling squad at the Vuelta a Colombia where she helped Diana Peñuela to victory on the first two stages and the points classification title. Teammates Kaitlyn Rauwerda also won a stage and Anet Barrera won the best foreigner rider jersey.
Summerhill, who finished 13th on Satruday, now has a 43-point lead over rival Alfredo Rodriguez (Miami Nights), who was three positions behind him in the bunch finish. Two more Miami Nights riders, Clever Martinez and Bryan Gomez, dropped down in the overall ACC standings to fourth and fifth overall, respectively. They were overtaken by Dusan Kalaba (ButcherBox Cycling p/b LOOK), who was fifth at Lake Bluff and is now 20 points ahead of Martinez and 21 points in front of Gomez.
American Cycling teammates Summerhill and Michael Hernandez are one-two in the sprint classification, with Kalaba moving into third.
The next stop on the ACC is the LIttleton Twilight Criterium in Denver, Colorado on August 5. The race will be streamed on GCN+.
