San Dimas, Calif. – Team Type 1's Emile Abraham won the field sprint Sunday for third place as the San Dimas Stage Race wrapped up with the Cannondale Incycle Old Town Classic Criterium.Abraham improved on his fourth-place finish in Saturday’s Stage 2 San Dimas Hospital Road Race with an impressive sprint from the final corner that left him a bike length ahead of the hard-charging field by the finish line.
“I got the perfect lead-out,” Abraham said. “The guys are really motivated and we know the team is strong and we can get results. It’s just a matter of us meshing together and we’ll be able to win some of the best races in America.”
Ahead of Abraham, Luis Amaran (Colavita-Sutter Home) won the stage while runner-up finisher Cameron Evans (Symmetrics Cycling Team) captured the race overall. The pair originally broke away with Team Type 1’s Chris Jones 30 minutes into the 90-minute event.
“Unfortunately, Chris got gapped off when Amaran attacked with about five laps to go,” Team Type 1 Sport Director Ed Beamon said. “At that point, we told him to go back to the field so he could hang onto his place overall.”
That set the stage for the spectacular lead-out that delivered Abraham to his second top three finish of the season. Ben Brooks and Shawn Milne looked after the multi-time Trinidad and Tabago national champion as the pace quickened in the final laps around the six-corner course through San Dimas’ city center.
“Ben and Shawn did an awesome job to keep me up at the front,” Abraham said. On the final lap, Shawn and I got together and we were right behind the train of Alex Candelario of Kelly Benefit Strategies-Medifast). When we hit the final stretch before the last turn, Shawn just drilled it and we were 1-2 going into the final corner. I knew once I came off the turn, I had to go.
“It was all headwind the last 300 meters, but I was strong enough to hold off the field.”
So fast was Milne’s lead-out, Beamon said, that the field closed what had been a 45-second lead with one lap to go down to only 21 seconds by the finish. The result nearly allowed Oscar Sevilla (Rock Racing) to hold onto the lead he had held since Friday’s opening time trial. Instead, Evans won the race overall by one second.
Jones led five Team Type 1 racers in the top 30 with his 13th place overall, 41 seconds behind Evans. Teammate Ian MacGregor was 20th, 57 seconds back, Moises Aldape was 22nd, 59 seconds behind, Milne was 24th, 1:04 behind and Brooks was 29th, 1:08 back. Abraham finished 56th overall, 2:18 behind.
Next up for the squad is the Redlands Classic, a four-day National Race Calendar event in Redlands, Calif.
Photo: Courtesy of Team Type 1 [Team Type 1's Emile Abraham (right) on the podium at San Dimas with Stage 3 winner Luis Amaran of Colavita-Sutter Home (center) and runner-up Cameron Evans of the Symmetrics Cycling Team].
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