Round 12 of Superweek rolled into South Milwaukee for the first time the 42 year history of the event and it was Jonathan Cantwell (FlyV) who kept the foreign invasion in full effect as he rode again with the win. Only James Stemper (Kenda p/d Geargrinder) last Saturday at Schlitz Park and Cole House (BMC) at Whitnall Park have taken US victories during the superweek but sadly for the decent local crowd Cantwells win was never in doubt as he kicked hard away from his breakaway companions.
A thankfully cooler than usual day greeted a field of around 80 riders in the Bucyrus South Milwaukee Pro/1/2 race yet throughout the early exchanges nothing could get away from an attentive field. After six of the 20 allotted laps in these classically oh-so-long Superweek circuit races/crits a group of 10 riders slipped away and immediately built a solid gap on the relaxing field. Chris Uberti (Team Panther) and Eric Young (NUVO) then bridged across to the break that included Stefan Rothe, Heath Blackgrove (Hotel San Jose), Eric Hamilton (NUVO), Logan Loader (Lucemie Espoir Quimper), Lisban Quintero (CRCA Foundation), Brian McVey (Recycling p/b Ascension), Cantwell and the requisite dual visiting Germans Sebastian Frey (Team Beier) and Bastian Faltin (Stevens Racing). The break rolled together well and extended their lead to an insurmountable minute advantage with 8 laps to ride even though the peloton rode aggressively with splinter groups attempting to gain an upper hand throughout. During the penultimate lap and knowing he wouldn’t be winning any final sprint Blackgrove attacked went solo in search of victory. Sadly for the Kiwi it wasn’t to be and the group rolled through intact to take the bell. Hamilton put in a speculative attack on the first of two short climbs that made this circuit a challenging test. That too came to naught and Cantwell judged the long finishing straight to perfection, handily beating Loader and a fast finishing Young.
Despite being twice a winner in the past 3 days Cantwell expressed his relief on the podium at having secured another victory. Race announcer Eddy Van Guyse was very excited to introduce Eric Young in third position given their mutual affiliation with the famous Cutters dynasty of Little 500 bike racers at Indiana University. Over the past few days Aureloin Passeron (Garneau Club Chaussure) has clearly lost a little impetus but his early form allowed him to maintain the yellow jersey of overall leader and even slightly extend his advantage over Rene Birkenfeld (Stevens Racing).
1 comment:
Sweet photo placement to get a tattoo parlor in the background of Hamilton.
Post a Comment