Rivera, Armstrong and Van Garderen score European wins

Colorado Springs, Colo. (May 11, 2009)—A full slate of racing over the weekend for Americans abroad yielded a variety of results across several disciplines and levels of competitive cycling. Led by victories by Coryn Rivera, Kristin Armstrong and Tejay Van Garderen, Americans put up the following results:

 

·         Racing with USA Cycling’s Junior National Team program, Coryn Rivera (Tustin, Calif./Proman) scored her first European victory on Saturday, winning the Marieke-Bornem kermesse in Belgium. Rivera, 16 attacked on the final lap of the 9-lap, 59-kilometer race and soloed to the milestone win.

 

·         Olympic gold medalist Kristin Armstrong (Boise, Idaho/Cervelo Test Team) won the Tour de Berne world cup race in Switzerland, outsprinting former road, track and cyclo-cross world champion Marianne Vos (NED) at the line to claim her first career world cup victory.

 

·         Former USA Cycling National Development Team standout Tejay Van Garderen (Fort Collins, Colo./Rabobank) won the overall classification at the Tour du Haut Anjou, a 2.2-ranked U23 stage race in France. Van Garderen opened the contest with a second-place finish in the opening stage, finished third in the stage-two time trial, and 36th in the third and final stage. His overall time was 6 hours, 40 minutes and 24 seconds, finishing 4 seconds ahead of runner-up Julien Vermote (BEL).

 

·         American BMXers also tackled the UCI BMX Supercross World Cup in Copenhagen, but failed to qualify any of its riders for either the men’s or women’s mains.

 

·         The USA Cycling National Development Team also took part in the Swiss Cup mountain bike race in Solothurn on Saturday. Tad Elliott (Durango, Colo.) was the top finisher, placing 27th in the world cup-like atmosphere. On Sunday, the team also raced in a local Swiss race as Elliott took a victory and teammate Rob Squire (Sandy, Utah) was second.

 

·         Ten Americans also kicked off the Giro d’Italia on Saturday as Tyler Farrar (Wenatchee, Wash./Garmin-Slipstream) finished fifth in stage 2 and the American team Columbia-Highroad won the stage 1 team time trial.