Ecuador was able to pull off a close win in the men’s road race at the 2015 Pan American Championships held in Leon, Mexico from May 5th to May 10th 2015. Only the men’s race provided quotas where the top 2 nations qualified to the Olympics, the women’s qualification race is expected to happen in 2016.
The men’s race was initially a close race where a small group of cyclists led by Ecuador’s Bayron Guama de la Cruz broke away from the peloton. Slowly riders began to drop off from the lead pack until only Guama remained and won the race with a time of 4:12:46. Seven seconds later Josue Gonzalez of Costa Rica finished in second and grabbed the second Olympic quota. Third place went to Mexico’s Juan Pablo Magallanes Aranda.
Like in all cycling events the Olympic quotas are not set in stone because Olympic qualification has the world and continental rankings with a higher priority over the continental championships. Therefore, if any nation qualifies through the rankings the next highest ranked nation at the continental championship will take the continental spot. Looking at the 2014 and current rankings both Ecuador and Costa Rica could qualify so we could possibly see a reallocation of quotas. For reallocation purposes the next best ranked nations are Mexico, Brazil, Canada, Guatemala, Chile and Dominican Republic.
Quotas by Nation
- Costa Rica – 1
- Ecuador – 1
References
UCI. 2015 Pan American Championships Men’s Road Race Results. Access on May 11 2015.
Road to the Olympics 