Junior Women Worlds Qualifier-Kendall Ryan's Race Report

Hey Team,

This weekend was really exciting for me. I raced the Soto Classic which was the Junior World Championships Trials. Saturday was the TT, I placed 3rd, and Sunday was the Road Race. So here's the blow by blow of the Road Race:

The race starts. It's 11:15am, it's 85 degrees, and it's REALLY humid. The race starts out like a Sunday morning tootle, all 13 girls chatting away, for our Junior Worlds Qualifier. I was just thinking to myself how ridiculously slow we were going and then my little sister, Alexis, who's a 15-16 and had to race with us because she was the only one in her age group, gets on the front of the group and starts picking up the pace. Finally everyone gets motivated to start racing.

We are 8 miles into the race, when we hit a climb and Coryn Rivera attacks the group up the hill and keeps on the hammer all the way down the following decent. When we hit the bottom she sits up and so does everyone else.... BUT me. I saw the window of opportunity and I went for it! I attacked the group with the momentum I still had from the down hill and launched off the front gaining 20 seconds almost instantly. It was definitely a NOW moment.

I kept looking back and no one was chasing me or even attempting to chase. I heard from Coryn later that they were all looking at her to chase me down. BIG MISTAKE. She had won the TT the day before, and was automatically qualified for worlds already. By that time I was coming through the feed zone going 25mph, grabbing a musette bag full of water bottles, and then put my head down and kept going. My dad said everyone was shocked to only see me come through, and they were all ready, expecting the other riders to come through, but 2 minutes passed and finally Jessica Prinner and Kaitie Antonneau came through "gased", as my dad says. Then 30 seconds later Coryn Rivera, Jackie Kurth, and Anna Young come through. By the second, and final, lap I had gained 4 minutes on Coryn and Jessica Prinner who were together at that point. During the whole second lap Ben Sharp (USA Cycling Junior Endurance Manager) was driving behind me in his car. He would come up next to me and ask me if i needed water, gave me advice, and was mostly cheering me on. If he had not been there to feed me all those water bottles, I would have cracked. So I made sure to thank him after the race.

The last few miles of the race was the hardest part, it was all uphill. But I made it up the last climb with a bunch of people to cheer me on at the top. I zipped up my jersey and raised my hands! Ben Sharp literally jumped out of his car to congradulate me with a hug. He was truelly amazed. I had soloed almost 50 miles by myself, gaining almost 7 minutes on Coryn and Jessica. And boy did it feel good to stop! Oh Ya, going to Moscow, Russia to race the Junior World Road Race Championships !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I am going to submit a
coaches discretionary application to see if I can do the TT also. My focus for the next month is to hone my track skills and try and qualify for junior track worlds in Moscow also.

Thank you all for your support. I am truelly blessed with all the great people from NOW.

Sincerely,

Kendall Ryan