Cox Charities Criterium

This past Saturday was the Cox Charities Criterium up in Providence, RI. This year there was a 2/3 and a P/1 race but on the NRC calendar; meaning big money and big teams. Very exciting.

The 2/3 race had Adam, Will, Josh and Dave in a 125 person field racing a 1+ mile loop with a nice headwind section, a steep hill, and lots of corners. Adam Bomb and his friend Gabe made short order of the race by attacking about 9 laps in and making a huge gap. Then 4 really good sprinters bridged up. None of them on TARGETRAINING. BFD blocked like hell and the break was gone. Up front, Adam (who is running for Mayor of Providence, FYI) was a crowd favorite and tired to drop his companions on the hill on each of the last 3 laps, but nothing stuck. He got beat in the sprint and took 4th, but is definitely coming on to form for Fitchburg later this week. Good stuff. Next time guys, don't let the 3 fastest cat 2 sprinters in New England bridge to your teammate!!

Then, there was the Pro/1 race. This was interesting. More interesting however, was the look on Matt Baldwin's face everytime Richard Friese announced a different call up to the front line: Ivan Stebic (UCI B world champion); Henk Vogels (didn't he used to lead out Robbie McKuen?); Davide Frattini (U-25 Giro D'italia, whatever); Kyle Wamsley (Sommervile x2), Jon Page (cross worlds silver medal), Mark McCormack (USPro Champ), blah blah, blah. Some of these guys have ridden the Tour de France. Is that a big race?

Oh yeah: we had Eneas Freyre, Craig Luekens, Ben Zawacki, Matt Baldwin and Justin Lindine. Either good champions or sunglass wearers each of them.

The race started off fast and Justin and Eneas were super active. A large break got up the road and then when Stevic bridged 45 seconds in about a half a lap (wow!) the break exploded and Wamsley beat two others at the finish.

However, the other pro teams were nervous about Justin Wolverine Lindine and decided that he had to carry an extra bike with him for the last two laps.

Yes, that is Sebe Haedo on the ground and yes, that is his bicycle hanging off of Justin's handlebars. Ouch. Neither Justin, nor his two bikes were able to finish.

Matt and Craig rode strong despite the fast 50 mile race and finished safe and sound. Ben admitted that he should have actually ridden his bike during his training sessions and promised to do better next time. I completely understand. In the resulting sprint, Eneas was able to avoid some of the chaos and finished a strong 15th. Nice job against a stupid fast field. These guys can move!

Next up, Unionvale RR for some and Heartbreak Hill CR for others. Stay tuned!

Kyle WolfeManager, TARGETRAINING Racing Teams
http://www.targetraining.com/