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The Presbyterian Hospital criterium in Charlotte was one that I had my sights set on winning. This 80km race was flat out from the gun and with this much money on the line everybody had their race wheels in. Unfortunately this was not a good day for the Jittery Joe’s boys. We some what missed the break of 9 riders that went up the road with 20 laps to go and we did not have the man power to bring it back. With this being said we re-focused on winning the bunch sprint until I got caught in a crash with one lap to go. This is the part of bike racing that I don’t like! So the team’s morale was a little down and we all needed to have a BIG dig at Hanes Park, which is another NRC race.

  
The criterium circuit at Hanes Park was undulating with fast, flowing corners. Attacks were going off the front every second of the race, but the pace was too fast. With around 7 laps to go the JJ’s boys were sitting right at the front waiting to lead me or Cody out for the sprint. I was moving up through the bunch behind Kirk O’bee (Health Net) who is the National Criterium Champion, and was hoping he would drop me off behind my team. But he had other ideas! He launched an attack with 5 laps to go and I followed his wheel. We got joined by Ted King  (Bissell) and we got a 20 second gap straight away. The 3 of us swapped off hard and with 3 laps to go we knew we were in good shape. Kirk, to my surprise got dropped and it was just the 2 of us left. King being the strong man of the bunch really had me in the red zone, but we managed to hold the bunch off by 5 seconds. Very unusual move from me, but this time it paid off and it feels good to utilize my other strengths rather than just leave it up to my sprint. My 2nd place finished the weekend off well and the team is happy.

Next race is Downers Grove for me and I hope the form is still there from a successful Superweek.

Cheers for the support.

Jonny Cantwell

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