Holloway and Pic win in Spartanburg

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Dan “Hollywood” Holloway (Alto Velo-Seasucker) and Tina Pic (Pepper Palace Pro Cycling) capped off a week of intense crit competition at the Spartanburg Regional Healthcare System Criterium by securing top honours at the 2015 USA CRITS Speed Week Series. Both riders never once surrendered the series lead since racing began at the Athens Orthopedic Clinic Twilight Criterium last week.

When Pic rolled from the line she was just 31 points ahead of Lauretta Hanson (Fearless Femme p/b Haute Wheels), so there was a fair chance that the veteran could see her lead vanish before the event was over.

With laps clocking in at just over a minute, both Hanson and Pic’s team were dominating the front of the field. Additionally, Sarah Tussey of the Mellow Mushroom squad was hovering up points early to ensure that her hold on the series lap leader’s prize would not be challenged. Vanessa Drigo (Argon 18 Racing) made the first serious attempt an escape, but she was reeled in by Jamie Gilgen (Rise Racing) who went over the top of Drigo to go off on her own. With that move neutralized Irish National Road Champion Fiona Meade (Fearless Femme) took some turns at the front of the field. Meanwhile Pic held a vigilant position closer to 10th place throughout the race.

But as it was with all the other Speed Week events this week, a field sprint would eventually rule the day. breakaway were neutralized throughout the evening’s racing over the perfectly rectangular 1km course. With just one lap remaining, Hanson gave it her all along the backstretch and lead coming out of the final turn. But that final effort was perhaps launched a little too soon because Pic, perfectly placed five wheels back, had enough firepower left in her legs to easily overtake the challenge from the Fearless Femme rider. Hanson’s teammate Christy Keely was able to salvage second, while Meade closed out the final podium in third.

Lauretta Hanson got second for the series overall and Van Gilder took the final spot behind her in third.

Holloway wins men's Spartanburg Regional Classic Criterium

On the men’s side of the series, Holloway’s advantage over Southern Crescent Cycling’s Hector Aguilar mirrored the 31 points that stood between the top women’s competitors when the pair took off for 70 laps around the course.

Under cover of night, riders began clocking in 30mph laps. After some initial jockeying Holloway’s right hand man Marco Aledia (Alto Velo-Seasucker) took a tumble that briefly took him out of the proceedings. In an effort to begin to recoup some of the esteem they came into the series with the Maloja/Pushbikers squad sent German track specialist Stefan Schafer up the road. He was eventually joined by Matt Moosa of Team Finish Strong Elite Cycling. The pair quickly built up about 10 seconds on the field, and then Holloway took it upon himself to lead the charge to bring them back. Four laps later though, their lack of organization cost them their advantage.

With the field having reset things on the road, the pace dropped off momentarily as they approached the midpoint of the race. Ben Renkema (Team Finish Strong) did his best to take advantage of the lack of control being exerted by any one team and walked away with top points in the battle for the midrace prime.

Not long afterwards, Holloway had to head into the wheel pit with a broken bolt somewhere on his ride. With 19 laps left to go Blake Anton (TEAM Clif Bar) tried to go away with Czech rider Martin Hacecky (Maloja/Pushbikers). That effort was also not to be and Alto Velo-Seasucker began to start organizing towards Holloway’s bid for another win. Aledia, heroically returned to the front of the pack with his torn and bloodied kit, but it wasn’t until four laps to go when the entire Maloja/Pushbikers squad went to the front of the race to seize control. Elbows were clearly being thrown coming into the final turn, but as he did most nights during Speed Week, Holloway erupted from the scrum to launch himself to victory. Holloway gave all the glory back to the men who carried him throughout the week.

“My guys will evidently lay themselves on the ground for me and fight fight fight,” Holloway said while wearing his National Criterium Champion’s skinsuit. “This is amazing (to have won this series) two years in a row. A lot of hard work went into this last year and this year.”

Aguilar held on for second overall and Frank Travieso (UnitedHealthcare/The 706 Project) took third.

The next stop on the main USA CRITS calendar will be the Glencoe Grand Prix, which takes place on May 30th in Glencoe, Illinois.

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