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The US Pro Criterium Championships in Downer’s Grove, just outside Chicago was a much cleaner affair than last year.  Sunny skies and pleasant temperatures made for a nice weekend of racing.  With our team split between the Tour of Utah and Downer’s, we had only five riders on hand.  The team this weekend consisted of the Americans Evan Elkin, Chad Hartley, and myself along with the Australians Cody Stephenson and Jonathan Cantwell. 
 

The Downer’s Grove course consists of a fast mile long eight-turn course that favors a field sprint.  Saturday’s race was a 50k pro/am race that most view as something to survive on the way to Sunday.  Being my 26th birthday, I was hoping for a good ride.  The race started out fast, with several good looking moves getting away.  The team each took turns covering moves, and even got a few prime sprints in the process.  With ten laps to go, a field sprint was obviously the way this race would end.  The team lined up and slowly moved toward the front.  The pace picked up a little bit each lap and the last few passed surprisingly quick.  On the last lap, the leadout was cut off by a few riders intent on taking the inside line through the last couple turns.  Experience helped Jonno Cantwell stay calm and finish in a strong 3rd place.  I was happy to have kept all my skin and made some money.

The Sunday National Crit Championship race was run over 100k on the same course as the Saturday race.  Most teams were racing at the Tour of Utah and Downer’s, so there were only two or three teams with full squads and a small field of just under 75.  The race started out slow and stayed that way for at least ten laps.  Finally the race got underway with a few attacks.  Since we had only five riders, we had to be choosy about which moves to cover.  As I was moving to the front to take my turn, I hit the deck in turn 5, probably the fastest turn on the course.  Around ten riders went down and I was skinned up pretty good.  The crash was so hard that my helmet was broken and came off my head.  My glasses were also smashed and my heart rate monitor broke and fell off.  There is a great picture of me sitting in the gutter on VeloNews here: http://www.velonews.com/photo/82045.  After getting my bike fixed, I got pushed back in.  With all the adrenaline I had pumping, I went straight to the front and covered several moves.  Nothing stuck and after several laps up front the pain of my road rash started to settle in.  I drifted to the back and sat in for the next half hour or so trying to get motivated.  My teammates raced well in the mean time, and Jonno even got up the road in the most promising break of the race and narrowly missed the mid-race prime. 

As the laps wound down I started to move back up.  Tour de France rider Christian Vande Velde took his turn riding solo off the front and collected a nice prime before getting chased down.  Once again with ten laps to go the team lined up and moved toward the front.  Chad and Evan were our sprinters for this race since a national championship jersey was up for grabs.  The pace was definitely harder than Saturday and I did my best to sweep Evan’s wheel.  Guys were moving all over the place and it was difficult to stay lined up and everyone was separated several times.  The last few laps, a Kelly Benefits rider took a solo flier and got reeled in with two to go.  Still, no team took control of the race and the pack was chaos, spread across the road.  Over the top of the hill on the last lap we were single file and flying.  I came around the second to last turn and saw one rider on the ground and Evan sitting up and banging his hands on the bars in frustration.  Dang, there goes one of our chances for a jersey; then I catch up to Chad and our only other chance.  The lead-out man Jonno sprinted in for 7th, with Chad and I behind in 19th and 20th.  Evan had to hit his brakes to avoid crashing in the last two turns and that was it.  Unfortunately, that is bike racing.  We’ll be back next year to try again.

- Tim

(photo by Greg Descantes)

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