UHC Men, Women Win All Gateway Cup Races; UHC Women Sweep Benton Park Classic Podium

Team UnitedHealthcare concluded a week of double-victories at the Benton Park Classic, with Hannah Barnes leading UHC’s first-ever sweep of the women’s podium. Barnes’ Benton Park victory, along with that of UHC men’s Ken Hanson, capped both team’s sweep of first place in every race of the four-day Gateway Cup. The Benton Park Classic, the final event of both the Gateway Cup and the USA CRITS season, was held September 1 in St. Louis, Missouri. 

Luke Keough won the first men’s race, and Hanson topped the podium in the next three. The situation was reversed with the women’s team, with Coryn Rivera taking the first three victories and Barnes winning the final race. 

The first races, the Tour de Lafayette, offered a strong hint of the days to come when the UHC men’s team fended off repeated attacks to put Keough across the finish line first and Hanson in third place. The women’s team grabbed victory with a late-race sprint led by Rivera, who won by a comfortable margin. A fellow Maxxis rider, Team TIBCO’s Samantha Schneider, took second place. 

Despite aggressive attacks by other teams throughout the next day’s Tour de Francis Park, Rivera and Schneider were again 1-2 in the women’s race. Similar tactics in the men’s race were unsuccessful, as UHC began a lead-out three laps from the finish. Hanson took the victory, with Keough in third place. 

UHC again dominated at Sunday’s Giro della Montagna, with a win for Hanson and second place for Keough. Maxxis-sponsored riders earned all three women’s podium spots, as Rivera took another decisive victory with Schneider in second place and Barnes in third. 

The final day saw UHC women’s team engaging in repeated attacks to give Rivera a 15-seond lead as the Benton Park Classic entered its final stretch. After a sprint to the finish line, Barnes took the win with Rivera in second and the team’s Cari Higgins in third. Hanson and Keough were again 1-2 in the men’s race, winning with a sprint in the last lap. 

Maxxis congratulates Ken Hanson, Coryn Rivera, Hannah Barnes, Luke Keough and all of their teammates on a week of outstanding teamwork and thanks them for an exciting USA CRITS season.