The lions of L39ion of Los Angeles swept the podium at the Women's Pro Criterium Nationals on day two of the 2022 USA Cycling Pro Road Championships on Friday, proving their dominance in this year's one-day race. No other team, women's or men's, has accomplished this feat in the past 15 years.

The 70-minute race, held in the twilight of downtown Knoxville, Tennessee, saw Kendall Ryan take her second consecutive criterium crown, followed by Skylar Schneider in second and Alexis Ryan in third. Dating back to the archives of the U.S. Women's Elite and Pro Criterium, the L39ON in Los Angeles achieved a unique triple on Friday, at least since records were checked from 2007.

Taking advantage of a teammate's leadout with 500 meters remaining on the tight, punchy climb from State Street to Clinch Avenue, Ryan duplicated his victory from a year ago.

"The game plan was to repeat where I made my move last year, which was to fight right around the last two corners. That's the sweet spot of this track. It's tight and fast, so it's really hard to pass once you get into the right corner. [After the race, Kendall Ryan told Cycling News about this planned attack.

"I know the sweet spot of this course. They made it an easy race. Honestly, I hope they can win the national championship jersey with us."

Samantha Schneider and Shayna Powles were the second pair of sisters in the criterium. Colin Labecki (Jumbo-Visma), Debbie Milne (SupraBars.com), EF Education-TIBCO-SVB duo Lauren Stevens and Emily Newsom, Lux-CTS p/b Specialized, and DNA Pro Cycling, L39ON went into counterattack mode throughout the race, with strong sprinters such as Human Powered Health attacking. But the plan was "wait, wait, wait."

"There were people trying to get on L39ION's train, repeatedly fighting for their teammates' wheels. Colin is smart and knows who to mark and who to challenge. I led her for most of the race, but not when it mattered. She knows when to fight for the wheel and when to use her energy," Kendall Ryan said.

"I held back as long as I could and didn't give in the last couple of laps. It's my teammate's wheel and it's my wheel. I wasn't going to take it."

"I didn't want to take it.

The first pro criterium title in 2015 and a new three-time pro criterium champion explained how her team prevented Labecki from slipping through their ranks on the final corner. 2018 national road race champion, 2017 Tour of Flanders champion, Labecki finished fourth on Friday, two seconds back.

"I was sitting on three wheels and Shanya [Powles] pulled to the left, we were on the barrier and Colin was on my left. When Shanya went backwards, Colin had to go around her. I think that slowed her down and the wind was blowing pretty hard from the left so she slowed down a lot and went around Shanya. Alexis accelerated and I made a slingshot in the right corner."

"Then Sky swept me and the three of us pulled the string together in that turn and were able to hold on to the line. It's not as easy as it looks, it's scary and you have to stay calm and trust your teammates. I have a lot of faith in our team and we ran better than planned. You have to trust your teammate's handlebars.

The L39LION women's trio of Alexis, Skyler, and Kendall swept the podium at the Birmingham Hammerfest in March, with Samantha Schneider finishing fourth.

Skyler Schneider opened the American Criterium Cup Series with a win at the Sunny King Criterium, and in the seven-race SpeedWeek in late April, Kendall Ryan won four races and Skyler Schneider two, Alexis Ryan took four second-place finishes, and L39LION of Los Angeles took team honors.

More recently, Skyler won all three days of the Saint Francis Tulsa Tough to take the omnium title, and won the local Mt. Pleasant criterium at the Tour of the Americas Dairyland three days before heading to Knoxville.

On day three of the Tulsa Tough, the famed Cry Baby Hill threatened a string of successes: after finishing 35th and finishing her work for Skylar, Kendall collapsed and fainted. Her sister took her to a local hospital where she was treated for heat exhaustion; a week later she placed third in the Harlem Skyscraper Classic, but took more rest in Knoxville.

"This has been quite a winning year for the team. They made my job super easy today."

In 2018, the second year that Knoxville has hosted the USA Cycling Pro Road National Championships, a pro criterium race that had previously been held in conjunction with the U.S. Amateur Road National Championships for many years was added to the lineup. The elite women's road title dates back to 1985, and the women's pro has been included in the event since 2013.

Contributions to this article were made by Joe Fritz.