Racing in 95-degree heat on a day when the mercury reached a record 106 degrees earlier, Hanson scored his third victory and eighth podium finish of the year. It was the 21st win on the road for Team Type 1 and the second in a National Racing Calendar (NRC) event.
Lucas Sebastian Haedo (Colavita-Sutter Home presented by Cooking Light) finished third.
Last week, Hanson raced without any teammates and won the San Rafael (Calif.) Twilight Criterium ahead of U.S. national criterium champion Rahsaan Bahati (Rock Racing). Hanson is the reigning U.S. elite criterium champion.
“The team was great," Hanson said. "It was awesome. It couldn't have been more perfect from a team standpoint."
A feverish chase by all five of Team Type 1’s riders closed what looked to be an insurmountable gap to a pair of breakaway riders with one lap remaining in the one hour-plus-five-laps race on the 0.6-mile (1 km), four-corner course through Downtown Boise.
“With five laps to go, the gap was 15 seconds and with one lap to go, it was five seconds,” Team Type 1 Director Sportif Vassili Davidenko said. “On the backstretch with half a lap to go, it was still four seconds. But our guys were going full gas and Aldo and Ken came out of the last corner with a 20-meter gap.”
Team Type 1 co-founder Joe Eldridge, the only rider in the race with Type 1 diabetes, was instrumental in driving the pursuit, along with teammates Michael Creed and Dan Holt. Eldridge was active throughout the race, earning two primes as fellow Team Type 1 co-founder and second-year professional Phil Southerland watched from the announcer’s stand.
Davidenko said the electrifying finish was easily the highlight of the season to date, particularly considering it came against the top two teams in the NRC standings, Colavita-Sutter Home and Bissell Pro Cycling, which each fielded full eight-rider rosters.
“All of our guys were just flying at the end,” Davidenko said. “It was unbelievable how they were drilling it. This race is a reflection of the huge progress Team Type 1 has made since January when it comes to sprinting and criteriums. It was a total team effort tonight.”
Saturday’s race was the second straight year the Boise Twilight Criterium has featured a 1-2 finish by riders from the same team. Last year, Hilton Clarke and Dominique Rollin of the Toyota-United Pro Cycling Team were the first two riders across the line.
Kristin Armstrong Wins Final Race on US Soil
There was some question as to whether Kristin Armstrong (Cervelo Test Team) would participate in her home town race, Wells Fargo Twilight Criterium, but a last minute decision payed off handsomely with her third victory in four years in Boise."It was a special night," Armstrong would later tell the Idaho Statesman. "In fact, (Friday) night, when I had dinner downtown, I decided I just really wanted to race my last race in front of this fan base. I just imagined myself watching, and I was like, 'I can't, I can't watch. Are you kidding me?' "
Liza Rachetto (SugarCRM) and Tiffany Pezzulo (DFT presented by Treads) would finish second and third, respectively.
In her final season, the 35-year-old Armstrong will most likely cap her season and career when she competes in September's World Championships in Switzerland.
No comments:
Post a Comment