Joey Rosskopf (BMC Racing) put in a stunning ride at the USA Cycling Professional Road Championships on Saturday to win the time trial title for the first time in his career. His teammate Brent Bookwalter was a distant second at 57 seconds on the four-lap, 30.7km course in Knoxville, Tennessee, with Axeon Hagens Berman's Neilson Powless third at 1:14.
Rosskopf, 27, hasn't raced the national championships since his stand-out 2014 season when he won the Redlands Bicycle Classic and caught the eye of the WorldTour team. A seventh place that year was his previous best in the time trial. But now with three Grand Tours in his legs, and a spectacular fifth place in the final time trial of this year's Giro d'Italia, Rosskopf has clearly hit his stride.
"I've never done well at nationals, and I haven't given it a shot for a few years since it never goes very well," Rosskopf told Cyclingnews. "I have July off from racing so I was going to be back in the States anyhow. I feel like I've gotten a lot better since the last time I tried to win nationals, so I came back to give it a shot."
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In past years, the national championships have been in May or early June, but this year moved to coincide with the nationals around the globe. For Rosskopf, the timing was perfect.
"I did the Giro again like last year, and if it had been in May I wouldn't have been able to do it. I was happy to see they moved it to coincide with everyone else's nationals," he said.
The course itself, with four laps, multiple turns and plenty of short hills was suited the punchier riders over pure time trial specialists.
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