The USA’s Lauren Stephens and Jhonatan Narváez of Ecuador won the road race titles at the 2023 Pan American Games in Santiago, Chile, the American finishing alone after a solo attack, while the Ineos Grenadiers rider beat a small group of six rivals.
Both races covered 17.5km circuits around the Parque Metropolitano de Santiago, the largest urban park in Latin America. The women’s race was reduced from seven laps to six due to morning rain, while the men raced for nine laps covering 157.5km.
Stephens escaped alone on the final lap to win the women’s race, with Miryam Maritza Nunez of Ecuador taking the silver medal at 1:13 and Agua Marina Espinola of Paraguay the bronze.
Stephens recently finished sixth at the UCI Gravel World Championships and was fourth in the Pan-Am Games time trial.
Stephens has ridden for EF Education-TIBCO-SVB team for he last two seasons but will join the France-based Cynisca Cycling for 2024 as she hopes to ride the Paris Olympics.
“I’ve been riding for 15 years, and I’m near the end of my career, but I’m still racing, certainly for another year to try to make it to the Olympics and show the United States that I’m capable of winning this race,” she said.
“I know that what I did today shows me that I’m making the right decision to stay for another year.”
Narváez is known for his love for hard racing and survived the windy conditions to win gold with a sprint finish.
The Ecuadorian joined forces with Richard Carapaz in the select group that emerged in the final kilometres and then beat Argentina’s Eduardo Sepúlveda and Uruguay’s Eric Fagúndez in the sprint finish.Carapaz, who won silver in the time trial last week, finished seventh.
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