Thursday, August 06, 2009
Team Type 1's Ilesic Makes It Two Straight At Crossroads Classic
Concord, N.C. – Team Type 1’s Aldo Ino Ilesic notched his fifth victory of the season – and won his second race in two nights – Wednesday at the Cabarrus Creamery Criterium in Concord, N.C.
Ilesic beat Eric Barlevav (Team Mountain Khakis) and Neil Bezdek (GS Mengoni) to the line at the end of the hour-long race. The criterium was the second in a series of five races this week that make up the ninth annual Giordana Crossroads Classic.
Tuesday night, Ilesic won a three-up sprint from a breakaway at the Mocksville Criterium in Mocksville, N.C. His victories are the 48th and 49th of the season for the Team Type 1 men’s professional squad.
Ilesic said his confidence is riding high heading into Saturday’s Presbyterian Hospital Invitational Criterium in Charlotte. The event is one of the richest one-day races in the country, with a $12,500 prize to the winner of the men’s race.
“I’ve had to do a lot of work the past two nights – beating quality competition with no help because I was racing without teammates here,” he said. “Tonight, the Mountain Khakis team was attacking me all the time with six or seven guys. I was having to pull things back all the time on my own.”
Despite donning the yellow jersey of overall leader of the Crossroads Classic, Ilesic said he will not participate in the remaining three races on Thursday, Friday and Saturday. Instead, the 24-year-old Slovenian said he would like nothing more than to score the team’s 50th win in Charlotte, his adopted hometown.
“I didn’t plan to do the whole series. I just wanted to do them as a warm-up for Saturday,” he said. “Now I have two rest days coming up. I’m really focused on the race in Charlotte because it’s where I live. I would love to win it.”
Joining Ilesic in Saturday’s 50-mile (80 km) race will be teammates Joe Eldridge, Ken Hanson, Daniel Holt, Valeriy Kobzarenko and Shawn Milne. Hanson is the reigning USA Cycling Elite criterium champion while Milne won the 2006 edition of the race. Eldridge is one of four riders on the Team Type 1 men’s pro team who has Type 1 diabetes.
The Team Type 1 women will be led in Charlotte by newly-crowned USA Cycling Under 23 criterium champion Samantha Schneider. She will be joined by Jacquelyn Crowell, Jen McRae, Morgan Patton, Alison Powers and Kori Seehafer. Patton is one of two riders on the women’s pro squad who has Type 1 diabetes.
Photos: Courtesy Jon Safka Photography
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