USA Crits 2026 – 6 – Anniston [FULL RACE]

May 2, 2026

USA Crits 2026 🇺🇸 #6 – High Line Criterium – All categories – Suwanee, Georgia, USA

USA Crits is a national criterium series that transforms urban streets, suburban circuits, and repurposed industrial zones into high-speed battlegrounds, where the roads loop tightly through city centers, their surfaces a mix of smooth asphalt, rough pavement, and occasional manhole covers that demand constant vigilance. The terrain is flat but far from simple—short, technical courses with sharp turns, tight chicanes, and sudden accelerations out of every corner, forcing riders to surge, brake, and surge again in a relentless rhythm. The laps are typically under a mile, their short straights and abrupt bends creating a dynamic where positioning is everything, the peloton strung out in a long, nervous line as riders jostle for space at the front. The race unfolds at a blistering pace from the start, the peloton stretched thin as attacks fly off the front, only to be swallowed by the pack moments later, the ebb and flow of the race dictated by the course’s technical demands. Wind is rarely a factor, but the draft is everything, the slipstream of the group pulling riders along before the next corner forces another acceleration, the elastic of the race stretching and snapping with every lap. The finish often arrives after a final, all-out sprint, the lead-out trains forming in the last two laps as riders fight for the best position, the crowd roaring as the front of the pack explodes toward the line in a blur of speed. Alternatively, a late breakaway might slip away on a technical section, holding off the charging peloton by a bike length or less, the outcome hanging in the balance until the final meters.

Elizabeth Castaño (One Hart Racing – Nashville Local Cycling) and Lucas Bourgoyne (Team Cadence Cyclery pb Waldo Racing) powered to sprint victories at the High Line Criterium on Saturday. The second-year races in Suwanee, Georgia were the sixth round of eight events in USA CRITS.

The women’s race came down to a drag race, with a trio of track riders taking podium spots. Kingdom Elite and Team Winston Salem-FLOW had multiple riders in the front group of 15 on the final lap, but could not hold back the best sprinters on the night.

Once through the final sweeping right-hand bend and into a headwind, Andrea Cyr (HigherDOSE – Renova) accelerated up the middle to the front. However, her effort was negated by the trio who swarmed past in the final 100 metres, led by Castaño on the inside line. Alexi Ramirez (L39ION of Los Angeles) took second and Flor Espiritusanto (1kFlips Racing) took third, leaving Cyr one spot off the podium.

Castaño used her top result to move from fifth to third in the women’s individual USA CRITS standings. She was last on the podium at LaGrange Cycling Classic in mid-April. The Kingdom Elite duo of Liza Ray and Elizabeth Harden remain one-two in the standings.

Foundation New York has dominated the men’s division across the first five races, Marcos Mendez winning three races and Jordan Parra on the top step in Spartanburg, South Carolina one night before. On Saturday, Foundation controlled the final laps with five riders massed at the front.

With two laps to go, Danny Summerhill (Team Cadence Cyclery pb Waldo Racing) went to the front of the line of Foundation riders and drove the pace. On the final lap, Bourgoyne worked his way through the Foundation line and came off the final corners on the inside of Gomez.

The USPro Criterium national champion exploded across the line for his second win of the series, adding to the victory he took at Athens Twilight Criterium. Preston Eye (Clif Family Drifters) punched past Gomez for second.

The men’s individual standings remained unchanged, as leader Leonel Rodriguez (The Paceline Project) and Mendez both finished in the top 10. Eye retains third overall.

The High Line Criterium completed three consecutive days of racing for USA CRITS. The final two races to decide series winners will take place in Winston-Salem, North Carolina on May 22 at Streets of Fire Criterium and May 23 at Winston-Salem Classic, which this year will start and end on the Vine Street hill near Bailey Park.

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