Joe Dombrowski made it four different top American finishers in four stages at the Giro d’Italia as he posted a 23rd place finish on Thursday, the second best stage finish by an American so far. Tim Wellens of Belgium ran away with the stage winning by 1:19 and Dombrowski was part of a group just 24 seconds behind second place. Dombrowski jumped into 56th overall. Nathan Brown made it two in the top 50 with a 49th place finish, 4:03 back, and is 53rd overall. Ian Boswell is still the top American overall, 10:53 back in 50th, and was 65th on Thursday. Chad Haga made it four Americans in the top 100 with a 76th place finish.
Friday will be a 131-mile hilly stage as the competition heads into its second weekend.
The top finishes are fading for the Americans as on Wednesday in stage five the best American was Joey Rosskopf who finished 88th and 58 seconds back. The only other one to finish in the top 100 was Nathan Brown who was 1:48 back in 99th. Despite failing to place in the top 100 on Wednesday Ian Boswell is still the top American overall in 68th, 6:26 behind the leader, while Brown is still in the top 100 at 95th overall, 9:57 back.
Thursday is back to a medium-mountain stage, though only a 98 mile one.
The Chad Haga top ten storyline came to an abrupt end on Tuesday as he finished more than six minutes off the pace in 105th and fell to 77th overall. Rising to the occasion was Ian Boswell who posted an American best 44th, just 43 seconds back, and climbed to a US-best 54th overall, 3:14 back. Nathan Brown and Joe Dombrowski went 57th-58th, 1:11 back, as Brown snuck back into the top 100 overall, 8:13 back in 97th.
Chad Haga was the only American who was able to stay in the 94-man peloton on Sunday and moved into ninth place for the overall standings as the Giro d’Italia wrapped up its three day start in the Netherlands. Haga was 87th, following up on a 147th finish in stage two, but showed that being in the peloton was the crucial thing in staying near the top after his strong time trial to begin the event. Haga is now 25 seconds behind the leader and the only American in the top 100.
After a rest day on Monday the competition resumes in Italy with a 124-mile medium-mountain stage on Tuesday as the field should start to separate.
Nine of the 32 finalists between the men’s and women’s events in Santiago and Manchester were Americans. That trend didn’t continue in Papendal where none of the 16 finalists were American and on the men’s side no one advanced past the quarterfinals. Nicholas Long was the first shocking departure as he was in position to overcome a DNF in his first run of the motos but suffered a DNF in his third run as well and missed out on advancing. Only Corben Sharrah and Jeffrey Upshaw advanced to the quarterfinals, both with strong moto finishes. Upshaw ended up off the pace in his heat and was more than seven seconds behind the qualifiers in seventh place. Sharrah was a lot closer to qualifying as he was in fifth in his heat and just 0.092 seconds behind the fourth place rider. His time was also fast enough to qualify him in any of the other heats and would have won one of the heats.
On the women’s side Alise Post and Brooke Crain went 1-2 in the same heat of the quarterfinals while Shealen Reno was off the pace in two of her three runs and eliminated. Post had a crash in her semifinal run and finished sixth but Crain was beaten to the line by 0.05 seconds to finish fifth in her heat in a time that would have been second in the other semifinal.
So perhaps some tough breaks that helped keep the US from sending anyone to the finals in Papendal. The next event on the BMX calendar is the World Championships in Medellin, Colombia May 28th and 29th.
All 95 riders wrapped up the Tour of Chongming Island by finishing in the peloton as Alison Tetrick and Erica Zaveta finished near the back of the large pack. Tetrick was in the top 80 as she finished 75th while Zaveta finished 93rd. Overall Tetrick finished 81st, 5:10 back, while Zaveta was 94th and 27:06 back.
The next women’s world tour event will surely feature many more Americans, the Armgen Tour of California will be held May 19th-22nd.
We expected a big peloton and that’s just what we got. The first 174 riders all crossed together and the Americans were a part of it on Saturday. Only Larry Warbasse was in the top 100, 86th, but Chad Haga moved up a spot to 11th and didn’t drop time and Joey Rosskopf rose five spots to 73rd.
Another 118 mile flat stage awaits on Sunday and likely another massive peloton at the front.
Day two of the Tour of Chongming Island was the end of the two Americans being theoretically in contention as both Alison Tetrick and Erica Zaveta failed to finish with the peloton. Both finished 5:51 behind the winner with Tetrick in 82nd and Zaveta in 87th and are now outside of the top 80 in the overall standings. The event wraps up with a 61.5 mile third stage on Sunday.
Ten of the 13 Americans in this weekends BMX Supercross World Cup event in Papendal, including all three of the US women, reached the Sunday knockout rounds after advancing from qualifying. All of the top riders advanced, though not all comfortably. Shealen Reno took a DNF in her first of three qualifying runs but overcame the slow start with back-to-back second place finishes to qualify in the 15th of 24 spots to advance to the quarterfinals. In the time trial portion Alise Post had the second best time in the field of eight.
The best men in qualifying were Barry Nobles and Jeffrey Upshaw who each won two of their three qualifying heats and qualified in 9th and 11th. Tanner Sebesta was the last American to qualify finishing 37th among the 48 qualifiers. Tyler Faoro missed out on qualifying after finishing fifth in his final qualifying run having won his second run. Corben Sharrah finished eighth of the 16 time trial participants.
The rest of the event will take place on Sunday with knockout rounds leading to the hotly contested finals. The US has taken at least one medal in each of the first two events of the year and placed multiple riders in the final in both men’s and women’s competition.
Things began well at the Giro d’Italia for Chad Haga. Coming off a season best finish in the Tour de Romandie Haga posted his best stage finish of the season when he was 12th in the opening time trial. Haga dropped just 16 seconds behind the leader and was the only American in the top 75. Joey Rosskopf, 78th place and 42 seconds back, and Larry Warbasse 47 seconds back in 100th, were the next two Americans to finish.
Things continue in the Netherlands Saturday with a 118 mile flat stage. In what you’d expect to be a stage with a big peloton it’s important for the riders to stay in the pack.