USA Crits 2026 – 7 – Winston-Salem [FULL RACE]

May 22, 2026

USA Crits 2026 🇺🇸 #7 – Streets of Fire Criterium – All categories – Winston-Salem, North Carolina, 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.

Marlies Mejias (Virginia’s Blue Ridge TWENTY28) and Bryan Gomez (Foundation Cycling New York) each sprinted to their first USA Crits victories of the season Friday evening at the Streets of Fire Criterium in Winston-Salem, the seventh stop on the eight-event series calendar.

Cuban-born Mejias had time to celebrate her win, taking a quick look behind her before raising her arm as she crossed the line. Laurel Rathburn (Caldera Medical x Aurea Racing) was second and Elizabeth Castaño (One Hart Racing-Nashville Local Cycling) rounded out the podium.

Series leader Liza Ray (Kingdom Elite Racing) finished sixth and remained at the top of the leaderboard with 1621 points, a lead of 228 points on her teammate Elizabeth Harden. Castaño solidified her third place overall, trailing second place by only 27 points. With a slim 50-point spread between second through fourth, the final podium is still up for grabs.

In the men’s contest, Gomez claimed the win ahead of his teammate Marcos Mendez with Maddox Simmons (Chaney Windows and Doors Big Shark pb Pastaria) taking third.

The win lifted Gomez into second place overall, trailing Leonel Rodriguez (MC Cycling Team) by 48 points. Mendez, who was tied with Gomez, is now in third overall, only 5 points behind second place, and Preston Eye (Clif Family Drifters Cycling) trails a further 32 points in fourth place.

Opening the final weekend of racing in Winston-Salem, the Streets of Fire Criterium featured a fast, technical six-turn downtown course around Merschel Plaza before the finale Gears & Guitars Criterium crowns the 2026 USA CRITS champions.

Results :