Dawson Wins To Protect Rock Racing’s Lead

Shorewood, Wis. — Peter Dawson continued Rock Racing’s dominance at the Point Premium Root Beer International Cycling Classic Thursday night in Shorewood, Wis.

Dawson scored Rock Racing’s fourth victory in seven races of the “SuperWeek” series by out-sprinting Jairo Perez Suarez (Colombian National Team) in The Shorewood Foundation presents The Tim Hart D.D.S./Rainbow Jersey Shorewood Criterium.

Rock Racing’s Sterling Magnell remains in the yellow jersey with a three-point lead over teammate Rahsaan Bahati, who wears the red jersey as leader of the Bianchi Sprints competition.

Dawson’s victory was his second of the year (he also won the Sandy Springs Cycling Challenge in May) and Rock Racing’s 26th overall. It was at the International Cycling Classic last year that the 26-year-old Australian track racing specialist drew the attention of the team by winning two races and finishing second in two others.

“I hadn’t won a race for awhile, so it was good for me personally and for the team,” Dawson said. “(Rock Racing Team Owner) Michael Ball has given me a lot of leeway this year and the best thing for me to do was to give him a win.”

Dawson and two other Aussies joined Suarez in a breakaway late in Thursday’s 62-mile (100 km), 48-lap criterium around a 1.3-mile (2.1 km) course. With a little more than a lap to go, the escape was down to three: Dawson, Suarez and Bernard Sulzberger (Virgin Blue Cycling Team). Suarez attacked and only Dawson could respond.

“I knew I had to get to him (Suarez) before he had too much of a gap because a couple nights ago, he lapped the field by himself,” Dawson said.

In the furious sprint to the finish, it was Dawson – a four-time world champion in the team pursuit and Olympic gold medalist for Australia in Athens in 2004 – against the Colombian, who is headed to Beijing to represent his country in the Summer Olympics next month.

“I’ve been doing a lot of leadouts and covering a lot of moves for the GC (general classification) guys, so it was nice to get the win,” Dawson said. “Over the course of the next five or six days, we’re hoping to put the GC out of reach so it’s only going to get tougher.”