Carmen Small (Cervelo-Bigla) has hit back at USA Cycling over being excluded from the four-woman team chosen by the federation's Selection Committee to compete in the Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro in August. Small has decided to take the decision to arbitration to fight for her place on the team because she believes that she met the criteria to compete in Rio, over other athletes who were chosen.
"I beat the best and I beat them by a large margin," says Small, who won the US time trial championship in Winston-Salem in May. She established herself as a prime contender for Olympic selection by winning the national event by 23 seconds over Amber Neben (BePink). Kristin Armstrong was third at 1:08 behind Small, and Evelyn Stevens finished in sixth, two minutes back.
The Selection Committee had chosen Megan Guarnier, who was automatically selected after placing third at the World Championships last year, and Mara Abbott for the road race. Stevens and Armstrong where chosen to compete in both the road race and the time trial.
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Although Small said in an interview with ESPN that she is not attempting to replace one specific rider, it is clear in her recent blog that she is upset that the Selection Committee chose Armstrong.
Armstrong has represented the US in three Olympic Games and won gold medals in the time trial in 2008 in Beijing and 2012 in London, and the world titles in the same discipline in 2006 in Austria and 2009 in Italy. But she retired from professional bike racing, returning last year with her sights set almost solely on winning a third gold medal at the Olympic Games in Rio.
Though she has not raced outside of the US since 2012, she was second overall at the Tour of the Gila (UCI 2.2), won the Pro Road Tour’s Redlands Bicycle Classic and was second overall at the Tour of California, a Women’s WorldTour stage race. All while racing for her domestic team Twenty16-Ridebiker. Following her third place in the US time trial championships, she said she was affected by the hot weather conditions that day and that she was fatigued from travelling from the Tour of California directly to Winston-Salem. But she expressed optimism about her chances of making the Olympic team.
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