The 2023 UCI Road World Championships have been derogatorily referred to as the 'criterium World Championships' by many of the European teams who don't favour the highly technical circuits in Glasgow. One team, however, are going into the women's elite road race with the experience and the confidence that comes with it but will be without their star rider.
Lauren Stephens, after finishing 22nd in the time trial, told Cyclingnews the team was ready to rally behind the gold medal-winning teammate Chloé Dygert.
"It's great to see her push through all the challenges she's had. When you're around her, her energy, she's excited about what she does. It's just really nice having her around, with her talent and her spirits."
Dygert won the individual pursuit gold medal on the track before turning her attention to the individual time trial. In between, she caught a cold and sounded terrible in the post-race press conference after taking her second rainbow jersey in the discipline. On the morning of the road race, USA Cycling announced she did not start.
"Due to ongoing illness, and at the recommendation of the USA Cycling medical team, Chloé Dygert has decided not to start the Elite Women’s Road Race."
Stephens noted Dygert's illness and said she hoped she would get better.
"It was clear that she's still pushing strong," Stephens said, adding the team were ready to rally around her.
They go into the race with riders steeped in the specialised discipline of criterium racing, which favours riders who can hold position and handle tight turns in any weather condition.
Stephens said she started her professional career after winning a big-money criterium in Charlotte, North Carolina and is going to keep that in mind when the team gets to the six circuits that make up the final half of the 154.1-kilometre road race.
Megan Jastrab is the current Collegiate Criterium Champion, Heidi Franz is more of a stage racer but has finished well in some high-profile criterium stages. Team pursuiter Lily Williams was runner-up in the US Pro Criterium Championships in 2019.
"Coming from America, we grow up crit racing. So everyone keeps telling us it's a race for us. I am trying to thrive off that and remind myself that we have the current US criterium champion [Coryn Labecki], we have Skylar [Schneider], who clearly can race crits very well. And so I think, you know, being on a tight course is a good place for us to be."
"Like you saw the men's road race, once you get onto the circuits, it's just about racing the race from the front. That's going to be our goal."
The team has another goal in the race, and that's getting enough points to qualify another spot for the Olympic Games road race. Currently sitting in 11th before the time trial factored into the rankings, the USA is expected to have moved ahead of Denmark, who have outside favourites in Amalie Dideriksen and Emma Norsgaard.
"Currrent my points aren't counting towards the rankings, five Americans count towards the spot. The time trial could have like popped me into those positions. Every point matters while we're here and we're really pushing to move into that top 10 to qualify more spots for Paris."
