The ACC wraps up its fourth season in thrilling fashion

The American Criterium Cup came to a close at the end of August at the Bommarito Audi West County Gateway Cup in St. Louis with the famous Giro Della Montagna. Nevertheless, the season has been chock-full of exciting racing that began at the beginning of June at the St. Francis Tulsa Tough and the Blue Dome Criterium. 

Over the course of the summer, the racing has brought storylines and intrigue to the American racing scene with a season-long four-way battle for the men’s individual title, the emergence of international talent like Maurice Ballerstedt and Aline Seitz, who were the first European winners of the ACC, and the budding domination of Cadence Cyclery. 

Every race came with its own culture, its own flavor, and its own action which made it a thrilling competition to follow week in, week out — whether that was Luke Fetzer shocking the sprint field in Boise, Aline Seitz resisting the pull of big money primes to take a big win on Downer Avenue, or Richard Holec going back to back at the final two stops for the men. 

To celebrate the action, let’s dig into each race, the big winners, and where the ACC is hoping to go next: 

McNellie’s Blue Dome Criteriums: Kendall Ryan and Dario Rapps take wins in Tulsa on a thrilling night to kick off the ACC

Photo courtesy of St. Francis Tulsa Tough

If anything, starting the American Crit Cup with the opening night of the St. Francis Tulsa Tough is a bold endeavor. Tulsa is the biggest and baddest of the criterium series in the United States and increasingly is an international professional race. With the race coming at the halfway point of the cycling calendar, it could be a crescendo rather than a starting point. 

Nevertheless, this season, the race had enough energy to reset the tone of the season rather than just signifying the beginning of the end.

Read more:

A big reason for that energy came emanating off of Dario Rapps and the German’s victory celebration that was as extraordinary as his winning sprint. Rapps was perfectly placed all night, had a strong team around him, and launched a perfectly timed sprint into the final two bends. It was one part criterium racing poetry, and one part brute force. While Rapps was only around for one ACC race, he made his mark early and surely will be heard from again. 

The women’s race, on the other hand, came down to a dramatic final lap chase before Kendall Ryan launched an undeniable sprint to take the win. Bryony Botha (Fearless Femme Racing) and Grace Arlandson (Automatic-Abus Racing) were the two riders who sought to upset the apple cart with an early two-women breakaway less than 30 minutes to go, and that held all the way to the final couple of laps as Arlandson in particular kept the power down and the peloton at arm’s length. 

Ultimately, it took every bit of strength from Laurel Rathbun and Holly Breck to bring the two escapees close enough for their teammate Ryan to pull them back in the last lap and close the deal with a massive sprint win. 

LHM | CC Utah Crits — Lucas Bourgoyne and Kendall Ryan sprint to wins in Sandy

Credit: @veloimages

It was a quick turnaround from Tulsa to the shadow of the Wasatch Mountains for the next stop of the ACC at the Utah Crits in Sandy, Utah. The race has been tinkering with its courses over the past three years, and this year found a home with two unique courses in the suburb south of Salt Lake. Back is the stadium course that was the home for the ACC race last year, but this go around, it was a new park-centered L-shaped course for the sprinters that was the ACC location.

Read more:

While much changed between the first two ACC races, one thing that remained the same was Kendall Ryan crushing the sprint. For Ryan, Utah was lacking the drama that she faced in Tulsa, with the late-race breakaway not posing the same kind of threat as the week prior. She still had to navigate the race without teammates, which was an additional hurdle, but she had plenty left in the tank at the end to dispatch her rivals in the last 200-meter dash to the line. 

The men’s race saw a new winner as Lucas Bourgoyne followed Ryan’s lead with a sprint win in the Stars and Stripes jersey. Bourgoyne had a poor showing in Tulsa with sickness and a broken-down team van taking his focus away from racing. Nevertheless, you would never have guessed that if you just saw the way he and his Cadence Cyclery team executed the final lap in Utah. Richard Holec sparked the action, managing to do a long lead-out through the bell and taking the peloton through the first few turns of the lap before Bourgoyne cut through the mayhem and delivered a winning sprint through the line. 

Behind Bourgoyne, Danny Summerhill and Maurice Ballerstedt fought through the fray for podium finishes. While they were searching for the win, those results were where their season-long battle for the ACC overall got underway in earnest. 

Cafe Hollander Otto Wenz Downer Classic: Aline Seitz and Ben Oliver deliver sprint wins as primes shake up the action

Courtesy of Tour of America’s Dairyland

After a weekend off, the American Crit Cup returned to action in Milwaukee and the Tour of America’s Dairyland and the historic Downer Avenue Classic. The race is one of the oldest criteriums in the country and posed a very interesting proposition to the peloton as thousands of dollars in primes were awarded on the night. For many, it was a choice between going after some cash or going for glory.

Read more:

In the women’s race, that was certainly the choice that Aline Seitz (UTC Butcherbox) had to make before the race and with her ACC points from top tens in Tulsa and Utah, she picked going for glory. That choice turned out to be the right one as the Swiss sped to a massive win on Downer as the two favorites, Skylar Schneider and Marlies Mejias, went for the money. 

For the men, the big new addition to the peloton was Mito-Q New Zealand Cycling Project. The Kiwi team always comes for a summer season in the United States and has made a habit of dominating the Tour of America’s Dairyland. This year, they faced stern competition, especially from the likes of Maurice Ballerstedt and Lucas Bourgoyne, but Ben Oliver led the team to a neat collection of wins, including the sprint victory on Downer Ave in a close-fought battle with Brody McDonald (Golden State Blazers), who leapt to the top of the ACC standings as a result of his second place. 

Bailey & Glasser LLP Boise Twilight: Sofia Arreola and Luke Fetzer take spectacular solo wins

Photo courtesy of Bailey & Glasser LLP Boise Twilight

Boise Twilight is supposed to be one for the sprinters. With a short flat course, lots of room for maneuvering along the two long straights, and fast conditions in the dry heat of Idaho. Yet, as the saying goes, racers make the race, and both winners in Boise ended up coming from late race solo breakaways.

Read more:

In the men’s race, Luke Fetzer took a chance with under ten laps to go to launch from the peloton to chase down Andrew Frank of Empyr Cycling, who had managed to carve out a big gap with his own solo attack with 20 minutes left to race. Fetzer chased down Frank, dropped him, and cruised to a spectacular win that announced the Californian as not just Bourgoyne’s lead-out man, but also a true race winner himself. 

The women’s race finished similarly, with Sofia Arreola (Virginia’s BlueRidge Twenty28) using her team’s strength to send a flyer with just a couple of laps remaining. Her team had dominated the race all day, taking all the primes, and no one was ready to take up the impetus and bring the Mexican back into the fold. That hesitation was all she needed to power to the line as her teammate, Marlies Mejias, cleaned up the sprint for second behind with the duo going one-two in front of the Idaho State Capitol. 

Chicago Grit presented by SRAM Fulton Market Grand Prix: Kendall Ryan and Richard Holec take big wins in downtown Chicago

Courtesy of Chicago Grit – Fulton Market Grand Prix

It was a quick turnaround from Boise to Chicago as the ACC rolled on towards its climax. Nevertheless, the back to back between Boise and Grit cemented who would be fighting for the final ACC titles in St. Louis at the end of the season, even if the racing in Chicago also had its own storylines with SRAM athletes eager to win in front of their sponsor’s HQ and those fighting for the Grit series overall hoping to put a bow on their week in Chicagoland.

Read more:

This was especially impactful on the women’s race as Kendall Ryan was back on the ACC circuit to try and score a big win in front of her sponsor’s HQ. As she did in Tulsa and Utah, Ryan delivered in spades with a stunning come-from-behind sprint, passing a half dozen riders in a massive burst to the line. That win made Ryan three for three on the ACC races she started and demonstrated that if there is a sprint, she is the favorite no matter what or where the race is. 

The men’s race was likewise dictated by the Chicago Grit overall chase as much as it was influenced by the ACC standings. Richard Holec (Cadence Cyclery) was dominant throughout the ten days of Grit, and the finale was no different, with Holec sprinting to a massive win ahead of Ballersted, Summerhill, and McDonald, all of whom were the class of the ACC all season long. The win was also significant as it was Cadence Cyclery’s third ACC win of the season with three different riders.  

Bommarito Audi West County Gateway Cup: Josephine Peloquin and Richard Holec close the ACC season with wins on The Hill

Photo by Richard Jefferson III

As is tradition, the ACC came down to a grand finale on the third day of the Bommarito Audi West County Gateway Cup in The Hill neighborhood. The Hill is an area of St. Louis that is soaked in Italian American heritage, and the atmosphere delivers a unique feeling that always brings out the best of the competition.

Read more:

In St. Louis, there was a continuation of the late-season surge from Cadence Cyclery that put Richard Holec in the position to take his second straight ACC win. Holec took to the front of the field at the start of the hill on the backside of the course and simply rode away from everyone as Lucas Bourgoyne let the wheel go, and no one reacted quickly enough to weld the race back together. 

The women’s race played out in the opposite direction, with a breakaway defining the action. For half the race, it was a back-and-forth affair with Virginia’s Blue Ridge controlling the action for their sprinter Marlies Mejias. In the fray of the mid-race green jersey sprint, however, a strong trio got away from the peloton and would make it all the way to the finish. 

Josephine Peloquin (LA Sweat), the Canadian national champion, was the main instigator, and with the help of Shannon Koch (Kingdom Elite) and Alexandrine Obrand (Golden State Blazers) the trio broke the will of Virginia’s Blue Ridge and fought for the victory amongst themselves. Peloquin took the win with a long sprint, cementing her status as one of the top riders on the criterium scene. 

Europeans sweep the individual titles

Photo courtesy of Marcus Janzow

After last year’s domination by Reign Storm Racing in the men’s race, there was an open invitation for a strong individual rider to swoop in and try to take command of the series. Maurice Ballerstedt took that opportunity with both hands. 

The German dedicated his season to American criterium racing, coming across the pond for an extended stretch of racing across the country. Without a team to work with, the odds were against him, but he managed to stay incredibly consistent throughout the six ACC races and took the title after never finishing outside of the top ten. 

Ballerstedt surely would have liked to win one of the races, and came very close in the final sprint in St. Louis, but taking the American Crit Cup crown is hardly settling for less. 

The women’s competition saw Aline Seitz (UTC Butcherbox) burst onto the criterium scene, using her experience as a track racer to find her stride in American bunch sprints. Seitz took hold of the ACC jersey in Milwaukee and never looked back, making all the right splits and straying too far down the leaderboard to ensure she locked up the title come Gateway. 

Andrea Cyr gave it a good go, also posting remarkably consistent results throughout the series, but came in second in the final tally. The same could be said for Brody McDonald on the men’s side who similarly never made the top step of the podium but was often one or two steps down. 

The tale of two team classifications 

Photo by Richard Jefferson III

The team’s classification was very much two contrasting outcomes. For the women, the battle was close between two teams, swapping the lead back and forth over the last few races. For the men, there was one team that was head and shoulders above the rest. 

In the women’s field, it was UTC Butcherbox led by the exploits of Aline Seitz versus the collective strength of Virginia’s Blue Ridge Twenty28. Virginia’s Blue Ridge, with the likes of Rylee McMullen, Sofia Arreola, and Marlies Mejias, were simply too much for UTC Butcherbox to handle in the end with the trio racking up enough points in the final race to leapfrog into the lead at the last moment. Fount Cycling Guild rounded out the team podium. 

On the men’s side, once Cadence Cyclery won their second race with their second rider, the competition looked like it was theirs for the taking. When Richard Holec won the team’s third race with their third rider in Chicago, the team clinched the win. When Holec made it four wins for the team out of six in St. Louis, domination was the only way to describe it. 

Looking forward

With the 2025 criterium season coming to a close, we are looking ahead to another fantastic season of racing in 2026! The exact dates and lineup of races are yet to be determined, however, what we do know is that the series will be back and better than ever, building on the momentum of the past half-decade. 

Our goal has been, and will continue to be, to build a sustainable, digestible criterium series that provides American racing with a framework to create the storylines and competition it deserves. We are proud of meeting our goals for 2025, and we hope to see you all in 2026.