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TWENTY20's Valente Wins Gold At U.S. Track National Championships
TWENTY20's Valente Wins Gold At U.S. Track National Championships
August 10, 2018
Jennifer Valente of TWENTY20 earned four gold medals at the 2018 USA Cycling Elite Track National Championships, adding to her already impressive national and world jersey collection. Valente was victorious in Points Race, Scratch Race and Madison (with Christina Birch) in addition to defending her 2017 title in the International Omnium event. Valente has her eyes focused on the 2020 Olympiad in Tokyo and uses the road racing to hold consistent her fitness level for the track.
“It’s never easy to win races and I came into this Elite Nationals very prepared. It was great to see such a big field for a National Championships. My focus now shifts to the Colorado Classic, which will be my final road race of the year and prep starts for the UCI Track World Cup season. This is such a big stepping stone in the lead up to Tokyo,” said Valente on the championship wins and her long-term plan for Tokyo.
Valente currently sits atop the UCI Omnium event rankings and is the 4th position in the points race rankings.
“Jennifer continues to impress and improve as the season progresses. Her confidence continues to grow and with a recent successful trip to Japan with the National team she came to Elite Track Nationals head and shoulders above the competition. She truly is a world-class athlete. Jennifer continues to dig deep on the road endurance side and with only two years until Tokyo this is only going to help her on the world stage this winter in the UCI World Cups, where she will be facing off against the current World Champion and newly crowned European omnium champ Kirsten Wild (NED) and Katie Archibald (GB) to name a few,” said Nicola Cranmer, General Manager, TWENTY20 Pro Cycling
Young Sawyer Taylor, an 18-year-old development team addition, raced a strong championship performance with a 6th in the omnium and a silver medal in the team pursuit.
Juniors Zoe Ta Perez and Megan Jastrab raced to a silver medal in the omnium. Valente and Birch took the gold in an exhilarating event Tuesday evening.
Elite Omnium
- Jennifer Valente (USA) TWENTY20 Pro Cycling
- Kim Geist (USA) The Velo Shop
- Christina Birch (USA) Unattached
- Sawyer Taylor (USA) TWENTY20 Development
Points Race
- Jennifer Valente (USA) TWENTY20 Pro
- Christina Birch (USA) Unattached
- Megan Jastrab (USA) iCademy
- Sawyer Taylor (USA) TWENTY20 Development Team
Scratch Race
- Jennifer Valente (USA) TWENTY20 Pro Cycling
- Kendall Ryan (USA) Tibco SVB
- Colleen Gulick (USA) Pickle Juice Pro
Team Pursuit
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Sawyer Taylor (USA) TWENTY20 Development Team
Madison
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Jennifer Valente (USA) TWENTY20 Pro & Christina Birch (USA) Unattached
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Zoe Ta Perez (USA) TWENTY20 Development & Megan Jastrab iCademy)
- Kendall Ryan (USA) Tibco SVB & Colleen Gulick Pickle Juice Pro Cycling
ABOUT TWENTY20
When the team was formed in 2005, TWENTY12 had a definite goal of taking athletes to the 2012 London Olympics. London resulted in two Olympic medals; gold and silver, the only U.S based road program to achieve this. The team replicated its success with a gold and silver in the Rio 2016 Olympics. Youth cycling is an important component to the program, supporting 14 of the top juniors in the nation ranging in ages 11-18. These young women learn essential skills such as teamwork, sacrifice and commitment, which they can carry over to the workplace if a professional athletic career is not pursued. In 2011, TWENTY16 was the first American team to recruit a Para-Cycling athlete to the roster of a professional squad and is the only professional team to have an integrated junior program. After the success of TWENTY16 in Rio, the team is now focused on Tokyo 2020 with TWENTY20.
Learn more at the team's website.
