With just one race remaining in the first ever UCI Women’s WorldTour Megan Guarnier has already locked up the championship. Guarnier won three times in a four race span between mid-May and mid-July including the multi-stage Tour of California and the multi-stage Giro d’Italia Internazionale Femminile to seize the lead and has never given it up since. Guarnier raced on the tour for the first time since her win in Italy as she placed fifth in the one day GP de Plouay-Bretagne on Saturday. Guarnier finished with the same time as the leader as did Carmen Small in seventh. Alexis Ryan was 44th, 6:04 back, while Tayler Wiles (61st) and Evelyn Stevens (63rd) also finished in the top 100. Stevens is now fifth in the overall standings and is planning to retire at the end of 2016. Ryan is ranked seventh among riders in the youth classification.
There’s just one more stage before the first day off in the 2016 Vuelta a Espana but it’s surely one that will challenge the riders over the final 117 miles before a rest. Monday’s tenth stage will feature a difficult climb to the finish at Lagos de Covadonga described by Cyclingnews.com as “widely rated as one of Spain’s most difficult single climbs”.
The fifth stage of the Vuelta a Espana didn’t change the overall standings much as a 106-mile “flat stage” allowed many of the riders to finish with the same time. There were crashes in the last few kilometers of the race that slowed some of the riders but also invoked the 3km that allowed them to escape a time loss due to those crashes. Kiel Reijnen was the first American across the line in 20th with Andrew Talansky in 38th, Larry Warbasse in 78th, and Tejay Van Garderen in 84th as it appears all took the same time as the stage winner. Yesterday’s third place finisher, Ben King, was not as lucky and finished 141st and over four minutes back.
Ben King had his best stage finish of 2016 on Tuesday when he placed third in the fourth stage of the Vuelta a Espana. King was part of a limited number of riders within thirty seconds of the stage winner, finishing 15 seconds behind Lilian Calmejane. King was not the only American near the front as Chad Haga was eighth, 37 seconds back, and Larry Warbasse was 11th, 42 seconds back. Andrew Talansky also placed in the top 50, 2:06 back in 32nd. Ian Boswell (68th) and Tejay Van Garderen (84th) also placed in the top 100.
Grabbing three golds and two bronze medals on Sunday the US wrapped up Rio with 46 gold medals and 121 total medals. The 46 golds matched the total from four years ago in London as the most at a summer games other than the exceptional 1908 and 1984 Olympics and the the 121 total medals are the third most behind 1908 and 1984. The US had never won more than 110 medals in any Olympics other than those two years so this was a major successful medal haul from the US. Individually speaking Sunday saw golds from heavy favorites (men’s basketball and Claressa Shields), a gold from a rising young wrestling star (Kyle Snyder), a newcomer to the marathon that took bronze in just his second ever marathon (Galen Rupp), and a comeback story bronze (both in Rio and in their match on Sunday) on the volleyball court.
A big medal haul of 11 on Saturday including five more golds, including a surprising track win, brought the US to 114 total, their best Olympics since Los Angeles in 1984 (174) and third all time behind 1904 St. Louis as well (239). Those two Olympics are very unique and will probably never be surpassed so the US total in Rio is noteworthy. The 43 golds the US has in Rio are within striking distance of Beijing’s 46 for second most all-time behind 1984 and 1904. The US should take gold in men’s basketball and women’s boxing on Sunday but the question is if they can find one more gold to take home from Rio in perhaps the marathon or wrestling.
Five more medals for the US on Friday pushed them to 105 total, passing their London total and now within five of their total from Beijing. The US medal winning was diverse with golds in a track relay, BMX, and water polo including great stories in track and BMX of gold medalists who thought their Olympic dreams might have been over.
Thursday was all about the track and field for the US where they won six medals including a 1-2 shot put finish and a 1-3 women’s 400m hurdles finish. The US also had Ashton Eaton claim the “World’s Greatest Athlete” title for the second straight Olympics and had their first ever women’s wrestling gold medalist in a huge upset.
A nine medal haul on Wednesday that had only two golds but five performances that were better than any non-Americans in the field as the US went 1-2 in women’s long jump and the women’s 100m hurdles. There was also the best US finish in the men’s 3000m steeplechase in 64 years and the US continue their streak of taking a beach volleyball in every Olympics it’s been contested at.
The US got back atop the medal stand Tuesday with two golds on a day where the US had an impressive four medal in gymnastics and went 1-2 in both the events they won gold. There was also the first sailing medal for the US since Beijing and the first EVER women’s 1500m medal in the 44 year history of the event for the US. The women’s basketball and volleyball teams also advanced but there was an upset in beach volleyball.
