Paris Berths For U.S. Cyclists All Come Down To This Weekend In Southern Cal

One final, hot race Sunday in the hills of Southern California will determine the summer of ’24 for more than 40 U.S. Para road cyclists.

Are they headed to Paris or going home?

The U.S. has clinched seven men slots and six women slots for the cycling portion of the Paralympic Games Paris 2024, and Sunday’s competition at the PossAbilities U.S. Paralympics Cycling Time Trial sponsored by IEHP will determine the roster spots for those competing in the Paris road events.

Fifty ranking points are up for grabs for the winners, who would virtually lock up Paralympic spots.

For the others, it’ll get sticky.

“What’s most exciting, things will come down to the end,” said Ian Lawless, director of U.S. Paralympics Cycling. “It really is about who will have the better races on Sunday. For us, it’s super exciting.”

The full team, road and track, will be announced at 10 a.m. PT Monday at the Mitten Building in Redlands, California.

Racing Sunday begins at 8 a.m. PT in Loma Linda, California, which is located about an hour east of Los Angeles.

Temperatures are expected to approach 100 degrees Sunday during a series of time trial races that are the final selection stop for racers hoping to make it to Paris in late August for the Paralympic Games.

“A lot of it will depend on athlete preparation and how they are prepared for the heat, how they will handle the heat,” Lawless said. “The heat will be a factor.”

Clara Brown, who lives and trains in Falmouth, Maine, believes she will be ready.

“My understanding is it’s going to be pretty hot and humid, I think, similar to Maine,” the 2020 Paralympian said.

Most of the racers will do two laps on a course that goes to an elevation of about 1,300 feet, totaling 14.8 kilometers. Tandem riders and men’s C4 and C5 riders will double that distance with four laps and 29.2 kilometers.[CM1] 

Following Sunday’s races, and a decision-making meeting Sunday night among Lawless and selection committee members, the Paralympic team of 13 will be determined. Eleven of those slots are decided through the selection races, three world cup road stops and the UCI Para-cycling Track World Championships. Another two — one man and one woman — will be discretionary selections by the committee.

The U.S., Great Britain and France will have the largest Para-cycling teams in Paris. The U.S. and Great Britain were the only countries to get six women’s slots. More slots may open up when the Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI) extends its final individual invitations July 10.

“We’re really proud of that fact,” Lawless said. “The team, as a whole, worked so hard to finish in that position in terms of the world rankings.

“That’s going to allow us to take a lot of athletes, really almost more than every other country except for the host country, which is France, and Great Britain. Other than those two, we will have the largest team at the Games. We’re really thrilled with that.”

Who to Watch

Entering Sunday’s competition, 17-time Paralympic medalist Oksana Masters, who won a pair of gold medals in Tokyo three years ago, and 2016 Paralympian and five-time world champion Samantha Bosco rank one-two in the women’s points standings with a 140 and 116 points, respectively. Masters, a handcyclist who competes in WH5, won three gold medals in four world cup races this year. Bosco, who missed the 2020 Paralympic Games due to a severe head injury, won three gold medals in WC4.

Also ranking high are Kate Brim, a two-time world champion in WH2, who is third with 112 points and unbeaten in world cup competition; Monica Sereda, a 2020 Paralympic tricyclist in WT2 who turns 57 next week and is ranked fourth; and fifth-ranked Shawn Morelli, a four-time Paralympic medalist who is trying to join Bosco in the WC4 class.

The WC3 competition features Jamie Whitmore, a two-time Paralympic medalist and 11-time world champion, and Brown, a 2020 Paralympian and 11-time world medalist.

Dennis Connors, a tricyclist in MT2 who won a pair of gold medals and a pair of silver medals in world cup races, leads the men’s standings with 120 points. The runner-up, MH2 racer Cody Wills, trails him by nearly 60 points. After that, it’s a race for valuable points awarded to the top eight finishers among many, including two-time Paralympian Freddie de Los Santos in the MH5 class, Jeremy Van Tress in MH2, Travis Gaertner in MH4 and newcomer Elouan Gardon in MC5.

“He’s an 18-year-old kid who just stormed onto the scene this year,” Lawless said of Gardon. “He’s got a great chance to make the team.”

The competition will heat up in the MH3 class, where 2020 Paralympian Ryan Pinney, two-time world medalist Brandon Lyons and Owen Daniels have yet to score a point.

“Our H3 men all know the math,” Lawless said. “They know if any of them are going to make the team, they have to win on Sunday.”

Bosco, who is the top-ranked woman on the U.S. track cycling rankings list, and Morelli are among those attempting to make the team in both road and track.

Aaron Keith, a 2020 Paralympic silver medalist, and Bryan Larsen, a three-time medal winner at the track world championships, are the top-ranked men.

Paul D. Bowker has been writing about Olympic and Paralympic sports since 1996, when he was an assistant bureau chief in Atlanta. He is a freelance contributor to USParaCycling.org on behalf of Red Line Editorial, Inc.