19/05/2026
Another block of racing completed with USA Cycling, this time with the Elite Women's, and a 2 day excursion with the USA Paracycling team.
Starting out at the UCI Paracycling World Cup in Oostende, Belgium, I supported the team with the very busy TT schedule. A great opportunity to work with adapted bikes, and the athletes who ride them. A very successful 2 days, with riders on the podium across all categories.
Next I joined the Elite women, where we travelled to Luxembourg 🇱🇺 and Czechia 🇨🇿 for the Elsy Jacobs Festival (2 x UCI 1.1s) and Tour de Feminine (UCI 2.2)
The riders pulled out some great results against World Tour teams in Luxembourg, with Kat Sarkisov 8th on day 1, and Lidia Cusack 7th on day 2.
In between the races some of the team took part in Belgian Kermesses. The highlights of whoch were Kat Ruschs 1st and 4th places, in Hoeleden and Lutlommel respectively.
Finally we took a trip to Czechia where the riders were joined by Kate Courtney (current World champion in the MTB Marathon) who was competing in road race for the first time. The race started with a TTT (rare nowadays) followed by 3 grippy road stages (5000m + climbing over the 4 days)
TTT day went well with a time that would have won in 2025. It was good enough for 6th on the day behind the winning Belgian team who went 50s quicker than the previous year. The riders settled into the race on day 2, but it was stage 3 and 4 where we had our best success.
Stage 3 was dominated by a breakaway group including Kat Sarkisov. She managed 5th on the day behind the Norwegian winner. The cream rose to the top on the final day, with Kate Courtney taking the win from a 3 rider breakaway. followed by Kat S, taking her successive 5th place in 2 days, and moving her upto 9th on GC after 4 of the most difficult stages of women's racing I've seen.
