Kendall Ryan (L39ION of Los Angeles) and Luke Lamperti (Soudal-QuickStep) captured the victories in their respective categories of the Saint Francis Tulsa Tough Criterium on Friday evening.
Ryan came out atop the Women-Pro-1-2 category, edging out Skylar Schneider (Miami Blazers) and her own teammate, Alexis Ryan in a four rider group timed at just two seconds ahead of the rest of the field. Ryan was already ahead on the final corner just before the line, taking a clear win.
42 riders completed the course, with a further 42 abandoning in a race affected by a big crash with four laps to go.
In the men’s equivalent event in the McNellies-BlueDome Criterium races, WorldTour pro Lamperti took a comfortable victory against Bryan Gomez (Reign Storm Racing) and Miami Blazers rider Noah Granigan.
Third in line on the final corner of the nighttime event and using clever positioning, the Soudal-QuickStep racer blasted across the line well ahead of the opposition, with time to look back to check the gap before raising his arms.
Lamperti has recently completed the Giro d'Italia, part of a Soudal-QuickStep squad helping Tim Merlier take three stage wins. But in the opening round of the USA Criterium Cup series the young American had the chance to strike out for himself.
In other racing on Friday, the Category 3 Men event was won by Austin Rosso (Paragon Racing), the Masters 40+ Cat 1-2 by Emile Abraham (NGCA Elite p/b Tyler Perry Studios&Pharmaco) and the Men’s Cat 1-2 by Hogan Sills (Apex Cycling Team p/b Old Fort Bicycles).
Racing continues on Saturday and Sunday in Tulsa with the FC Tulsa Arts District Criterium and the McElroy River Parks Criterium, respectively.
