Bend, Ore. – The Team Type 1 women’s professional squad has its sights set on challenging for a national title or two at this week’s USA Cycling Elite National Championships in Bend, Ore.

 

The first-year team’s best chances to put riders on the podium come in Thursday’s road race, the Elite and Under 23 individual time trials on Friday and Sunday’s Under 23 criterium.

 

Team Type 1’s Alison Powers is favored to successfully defend her national title in the 21-mile (35 km) elite time trial. Teammates Kori Seehafer and Jacquelyn Crowell will also race against the clock over nearly the same course that they did in last week’s Bend Memorial Clinic Cascade Cycling Classic.

 

Team Type 1 Director Jack Seehafer said that is one factor playing into his riders’ favor.

 

“Also, with it being a longer course, it definitely suits Alison and Kori,” he said. “In a sense, it’s good that Alison lost the time trial during Cacade because she’s focused and fired up to get the job done.”

 

Last year, on a hilly course that ran through Santiago Canyon in Irvine, Calif., Powers beat Mara Abbott (Team Columbia-HTC) in the time trial by 99 seconds.

 

In Thursday morning’s 67-mile (107.5 km) Awbrey Butte Circuit Race – another course used in last week’s Cascade Classic – Kori Seehafer will be Team Type 1’s protected rider. Each of the four laps of the 17-mile (27 km) circuit feature more than 1,000 feet of climbing. Brooke Miller (Team TIBCO) is the defending champion.

 

“Because of the climbing, it’s definitely going to eliminate a lot of the sprinter-type riders,” Jack Seehafer said. “It is definitely going to favor more of an all-around rider. Hopefully, we can get Jen (McRae) up and over the climb because we need her at the end. Depending on how the race is going, we might have Alison (Powers) shut it down early, just to make sure she’s good and ready for the time trial the next day.”

 

Weather may play also play a factor in the ultimate selection, Jack Seehafer said.

 

“It’ll be a cool morning start and in the 90s by the time they finish,” he said. “It won’t be as bad as it was for some of the road races during Cascade. That might make for more aggressive racing.”

Following a day off, Crowell, Morgan Patton and Samantha Schneider look to reach the podium for Team Type 1 in the 21-mile (35 km) Under 23 criterium. Last year’s race came down to a field sprint for the stars-and-stripes jersey, with Beatriz Rodriguez beating Kacey Manderfield and Amara Boursaw.

 

“We’ll look for Jackie to get in a breakaway because she has the motor and that’s her style of racing,” Jack Seehafer said. “If it comes down to a field sprint, we’ll be looking at Sam or Morgan.”

 

Patton is one of two riders with Type 1 diabetes on the Team Type 1 women’s professional team. She must carefully monitor her blood sugar level during competition because her body does not naturally produce insulin.

 

Team Type 1 Elite Team member Jeff Bannink, who also has Type 1 diabetes, is competing in the elite men’s 21-mile (35 km) individual time trial on Friday. Last month, the 38-year-old Beaverton, Ore., resident was a member of the Team Type 1 squad that bettered the Race Across America (RAAM) record on its way to winning the 3,012-mile (4,861 km) transcontinental race.

 

— TT1 —