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Our U.S. women’s Olympic dream team
- Updated: June 2, 2016
Home » Analysis » Our U.S. women’s Olympic dream team
Too much talent is a good problem to have, right? It’s an embarrassment of riches for American Olympic selectors right now. That makes the final selection extremely difficult. So we thought we’d help out a bit, and name our own Olympic dream team for the women’s road race and time trial.
USA Cycling can send four women to the Olympics. Two spots are available for the time trial and four spots for the road race. The two athletes selected for the time trial must also compete in the road race.
Team selection is slated to go public on June 24, but these selected athletes must come from the Olympic long list that was released last December.
Athletes gain automatic selection to the team by winning one of the Women’s WorldTour events or placing in the top three at the 2015 world championships in the road race or the time trial. Only Megan Guarnier did so, sealing the deal with a silver medal at the 2015 road world championship, but none of the other women nabbed an automatic selection. So we’re down to discretionary decisions for the remaining three Olympic spots.
Those spots will be filled based on results in the last year and theoretical medal capability. USAC has a long list of rules governing selection. We don’t, thankfully, but the end goal is the same: medals.
So, here’s what we think:
Close-but-no-cigar
• Shelley Olds (Gilroy, California/Ale-Cipollini) • Lauren Stephens (Dallas/TIBCO – SVB) • Tayler Wiles (Fairfax, California/Velocio – SRAM) • Amber Neben (Lake Forest, California/Visit Dallas)
These four athletes just don’t make the cut. The pool of U.S. women is so deep this time around that exceptional athletes will certainly be left off the list. We love watching Wiles race with her quiet, hard-working nature, but she doesn’t offer the same results and medal-capabilities as riders like Stevens and Guarnier. Olds suffered setbacks this spring after a nasty crash at Le Samyn and the Rio course isn’t ideal for this flat-out sprinter.
Neben is a time trial specialist who has a world championship title to her name and Olympic experience. A second-place finish at nationals this year is noteworthy and a decent argument for her spot on the team. But she doesn’t offer much for the road race, as Stevens does, and Neben doesn’t have two Olympic gold medals to back her up, like Armstrong. A win at Nationals this year possibly could have pushed her onto our list, but with Small, Armstrong, and Stevens all worthy time trial contenders, there isn’t room for Neben.
Lauren Stephens won the VeloNews domestic rider award in our annual awards issue. But her European racing experience is more limited, and Rio is essentially a European field.
The hell-yeses
• Megan Guarnier (Queensbury, New York/Boels – Dolmans) • Evelyn Stevens …
continue reading in source velonews.competitor.com
