Breakdown of the Men's Race at Blue Dome
Tulsa Tough provides a glimpse into what legitimate professional criterium racing can look like in the U.S.
Tulsa Tough is now 19 years old, and it has firmly arrived at its “mythical era.” A win by a rider at one of these three days of racing can cement a season, and possibly open doors to next level contracts. In this year’s men’s field you can see former World Tour and Pro Road riders, multiple non-US national champions, and aspiring phenoms, all in one place. When I arrived at my first Tulsa Tough in 2009, the scene looked ever so different. We were a decade away from the Tulsa “renaissance” that the city is currently experiencing. The backside of the first night’s course was a dirt parking lot, and only a couple dusty bars were there joined by the eponymous “blue dome” on the corner. Oh how things have changed.
Even back in 2009 you knew you were at something special, you just didn’t know why. Each day of racing was unique, and played towards different styles of racing and riders. Everyone knew Blue Dome was for the sprinters, Cry Baby Hill was for the hard men, and The Arts District was anyone’s guess. Not much has changed when it comes to those basic definitions; however, the way teams attack the race has definitely progressed. Just ask Stefan Rothe, who is the only rider to race all 19 editions.
A big change was made at Blue Dome when they turned the course around to its present clockwise direction, and then again when they stretched out the distance between corners 2 and 3 by over a block. That has made the classic figure-8 course a full kilometer in length; but also provided an additional launching pad for riders in between two block-long downhill sections. With a road that at times if 4-5 lanes across there’s plenty of room to move up; however, you need the horsepower to do so.
We’ve seen teams take up the lead early at Blue Dome, and impose their control throughout the race. Most auspiciously that was what the 2021 Legion of Los Angeles squad did to perfection. So when DCC came to the front in the first lap of a 70-minute race it almost felt like the old days. However, their grasp on the front would be short lived. While they were riding hard, the pace they chose just didn’t discourage people enough and attacks took over.
The first notable move was made by the likes of Robin Carpenter and Eric Brunner. Carpenter has been Legion’s long distance threat for the last few years. He’s also played the unsung role of helping his team figure out what other teams are there to play and who is eager to make the racing aggressive. It is frankly not clear who Legion is racing for this year, or what their go to strategy is as well. In the past the mission was clear— clear the path for Justin Williams and he will bring the squad a victory. Since the pandemic, Williams has won Blue Dome twice. First in 2021 behind a jaw dropping display of team power, and then again in 2023 in a legacy-defining manner in which he free lanced his way to victory late.
In between Williams’s victories was his teammate Ty Magner’s signature win in 2022. It was only the likes of World Tour talent Luke Lamperti in 2024, who was able to break Legion’s stranglehold on the race that takes place in the Greenwood neighborhood of Tulsa. A neighborhood made infamous by the terrible tragedy of the Tulsa Race Massacre in 1921 which decimated a vibrant African-American community.
When Carpenter went off the front it wasn’t clear whether this was a real test, or just a case of opening the legs up. What happened when they were reeled back in really shook things up. There were 140 men lined up at Blue Dome in the P/1 race. Some of those riders have a legit shot at winning, some are there to ably play a roll, and then there are the others who are hanging on for dear life.
I think what makes Tulsa special among all of the races on the calendar is not that it can be likened to the “Super Bowl,” but that it is a glimpse into what could be in America. Tulsa is the closest we have (in men’s racing) to legitimate professional criterium racing. My best guess is that, that feeling comes from the fact that Tulsa features both a P/1 and 1/2 race for the men, which permits local and aspiring riders to self-select away from the “elite-er” race which helps raise the parity of the P/1 field to just those at the tip top end. It also draws a deeper contingent of international and UCI riders than other races. And to top it off the live stream, first it exists, and then also it is of legitimate broadcast quality making it feel like a truly professional experience.
However, I digress. Blue Dome is not known for extreme attrition, unlike Cry Baby Hill; however, it’s not uncommon for gaps and splits to form and riders to be uninvited from America’s biggest bike racing party. This year an estimated 20,000 fans lining the course got to see something special happen. What they witnessed was the race get absolutely pulled apart. It wasn’t a series of attacks but rather just a set of hard, hard, hard pulls that sheered the field about 30 riders back around 30 minutes into the race.
This caught out a lot of riders including national champions Lucas Bourgoyne and Luke Fetzer of Cadence Cyclery and Clever Martinez of Foundation. It also set off every alarm bell in Tulsa. While the split would be welded back together, those were matches burned that would not come back. Once things settled again, the moves flowed a lot more dangerously and freely, including with 20 laps to go when noted privateer and always dangerous rider Michael Garrison got off the front with his old nemesis Alec Cowan of Legion, Olivier LeRoy, champion of Le Reunion (a former French colony) from DCC and another rider from Tekkerz.
Bringing that move back would take a very potent and prolonged pull by Fetzer. Cowan would out survive his breakaway mates and ride solo for a while, dangling just off the front. Fetzer would go on to break his bike a few laps later which would force him to finish on a spare bike. There’s no telling how much that would alter the final leadout for his teammate Bourgoyne.
With 12 laps to go, we saw the classic Legion train forming near the front with 4 riders in a line, and Danny Summerhill guarding Williams’s position. Behind the Legion set up were Tekkerz, Bikerz and DCC, all poised to jump in the moment an opening formed. Williams would come off the back of the Legion train with 7 laps to go as other riders forced their way in between. That would unfortunately mark the end of Williams’s ability to remain in direct contact with his leadout riders. Among those who would squeeze in between was Bourgoyne who looked comfortable but was isolated without his righthand man Fetzer.
With five to go Garrison’s signature white bibs appeared again just behind the front. He would pull up right alongside Dario Rapps of DCC who was resplendent in this German national champion kit. This would coincide shortly with a big change in pace with four to go when Carpenter came to the front. As he pushed forward you could see the group stretch out behind him. It was at this point that positions in the field really became set, and anyone further than twenty spots back were likely to stay outside of serious contention.
As positions started to get locked in Garrison would find himself on Rapp’s wheel with two Tekkerz riders— Ollie Wood and Matt Bostock— in front of him. Bourgoyne was still in the mix with three to go but Legion ran out of leadout riders and things were about to get a little strange. Rather than let the two Tekkerz riders lead it out for the final two laps Garrison came over the top of them. However, Garrison didn’t attack, he just continued to ride hard. Garrison would bobble a bit in turn two when it appeared he lost his rear wheel. Garrison would keep his bike upright, and Ollie Wood and Matt Bostock of Tekkerz were unphased by it. Garrison continued on. It’s entirely possible that this bobble upset Garrison’s plans.
Going into one to go Bourgoyne and Williams were both in the lead group but too far out of position to play a role in the sprint unless they made dramatic moves. Garrison was still on the front, and Rapps was right behind the two British riders. Garrison was swarmed going through turn one and would never see the front again. A sizeable gap opened between Rapps in third wheel and fourth wheel going through turn five and the center of the figure eight. Bikerz would slide into that gap.
Rapps seized the moment going into turn seven, and attacked the Tekkerz train. Jordan Parra of Bikerz would follow the jump and get onto Rapp’s wheel going into the final turn; but there simply wasn’t enough space between the exit of that turn and the finish for positions to change. Rapps and Parra would come in first and second, followed by a small gap to Wood in third.
To say that Rapps was excited by this win would be a huge understatement. His celebration lasted for the full warm down lap. In fact his excitement would build as his legs warmed down, and when he rounded back to the finish line he would let out a yell and thank the crowd for the opportunity to race in Tulsa.
The opening night of the American Criterium Cup and Tulsa Tough was exactly what we needed. It was a pronouncement that criterium racing is clearly on the upswing and that after a prolonged and at times temperate stage race season we are about to see the heat.
Photos by Kai Caddy. Logan Jones Wilkins contributed to this story.