Eagle Creek Traditional Crit

With over 35 riders in each of the race categories it was a competitive day of racing at Eagle Creek park in Indy this past Saturday. Leading off the day was the Citizens and Women’s race (they didn’t start together but on such a short circuit they soon came together). The powerful Alderfer Bergen squad had three members in attendance and Katie Weber got away in a break with two gentlemen from the Nebo Ridge team and took the victory. Bri Kovac and Louise Turner sprinted to 2nd and 3rd within the joint peloton. It was encouraging large Women’s field which will hopefully continue through the rest of the season!

In the Cat 3 event a powerful group of 8 riders got off the front after around 20min of racing and kept a 30sec lead to the very end. Man of the moment Eric Young (Morris Trucking) won the sprint going away with fellow Little 5ers Matt Kiel (Gray Goat- 2nd) and Clayton Feldman (Waste Management- 7th) also in the break. Young did mention that the ‘old dude’ in the break, Tom Saccone (Tortuga), almost snuck away late for the win but was hauled in to finish 5th.
Young taking the sprint... on his cyclocross bike!

The Masters race was dominated by the classy John Kelly (DB Bicycles) and Dave Stone (Verizon). They broke away early, held off the combined powers of four chasing ZIPP riders, lapped the field and then went into a full pursuit for the final laps to decide the winner. John Kelly came out on top- he doesn’t race much these days but when he does he races hard and smart!
Kelly and Stone- a class apart in the 40+ race.

The Cat 4 race was decided by a very rare occurrence- a solo breakaway. Kaleb Naegeli (IC3) went it along with 8 laps to go and some great determination saw him maintain a diminishing lead for the final few laps to savor a very satisfying victory!
Kaleb winning in the grand manner!

The Cat1/2/3 race was the Eric Hamilton (NUVO) show. Eric has been in great form recently and wasted no time attacking and going solo for the first few laps. After some reshuffling the break of the day formed with Hamilton joined by Greg Schrock (Texas Roadhouse) and Kenda Pro Chad Burdzilauskas. These three worked together seamlessly and Hamilton seemed the strongest of the day until he had a mechanical with a few laps to go. This allowed Schrock to attack Burdzilauskas on the final lap to take the win. Hamilton was joined on the final lap by NUVO team-mates Andrei Banaszkiewicz and David Caughlin to round out the top 5. As often happens Harry Clark (Alderfer Bergen) took the bunch sprint, his time handicapped by a softening rear tire! One day Harry will actually breath through his mouth during a race and then everyone else will be in trouble!
The break of the day.

Thanks to John Bennett for the pictures- http://n4xi.smugmug.com/
Thanks to the Indiana Hand center team for marshalling the course.