Howe wins Sunny King crit
Alzate beats Wamsley for second place
Kenda/5-Hour Energy put their stamp on the NCC's 2012 Sunny King Criterium men's pro race in downtown Anniston, Alabama, delivering Issac Howe to the sprint victory over Exergy's Carlos Alzate and Kyle Walmsley (Jamis/Sutter Home).
Phil Gaimon from Kenda leapt into an early break with Ben Chaddock of Team Exergy. The pair built a 30 second lead early in the 60-lap race. But eventually Gaimon’s pace proved too much for Chaddock and the Kenda rider rode solo for several more laps.
A chase by the remaining teams eventually whittled down Gaimon’s lead and the field swallowed him up after nabbing several primes. As soon as Gaimon was caught, the counter attacks began, adding to the excitement with virtually every team attempting to get separation.
As the attacks increased in frequency and intensity and the pace became unbearable, the field slowly began shedding riders. As the lap counter showed eight laps to go, the field calmed down a bit, allowing Team Mountain Khakis/Smart Stop along with Team Exergy and Kenda/5-Hour Energy to take control and begin setting up their leadouts. As each team tried to ramp up the pace and take control, no one team was able to maintain a lead. Coming into the last windy uphill finish straight it was Kenda/5- Hour Energy who was able to lead out sprinter Isaac Howe to the finish line for a win by a bike length.
Howe was first across the line, followed by Carlos Alzate of Team Exergy in second, with Kyle Wamsley of Jamis/Sutter Home in third.
"We had Phil( Gaimon) off the front. We wanted him to wrap it up solo and worst case every other team chases him down and we get to sit and just take it easy. He did a great job doing that and it came back. In the end fortunately I was able to come through for everyone. This is my fourth year doing this race and I love it. We had a great crowd and the live streaming was so great for our families and friends to be able to watch us race," said Howe.
Full Results
# | Rider Name (Country) Team |
---|---|
1 | Issac Howe (Kenda/5-Hour Energy Pro Cycling) |
2 | Carlos Alzate (Team Exergy) |
3 | Kyle Wamsley (Jamis/Sutter Home) |
4 | Andrew Dahlheim (Bissell Pro Cycling) |
5 | Luke Keough (Team Mountain Khakis/SmartStop) |
6 | Demis Aleman (Jamis Sutter Home) |
7 | Alexey Shmidt (Team Type 1 Devo) |
8 | Frank Travieso (Team Cocos) |
9 | Daniel Holt (Team Type 1 Devo) |
10 | Oscar Clark (United Healthcare of Georgia) |
11 | Colin Jaskiewicz (Champion System) |
12 | Brendan Cornett (Locos) |
13 | Chris Brown (Litespeed-BMW) |
14 | Cesar Grajales (Competitive Cyclist Racing Team) |
15 | David Lozano (Team Type 1 Devo) |
16 | Josh Thornton (ZMotion) |
17 | Ben Day (UnitedHealthcare Pro Cycling) |
18 | Christian Parrett (Athletix benefitting Globalbike) |
19 | Emile Abraham (Rossetti Devo Cycling Team) |
20 | Thomas Brown (Team Mountain Khakis/SmartStop) |
21 | Travis Livermon (Team Mountain Khakis/SmartStop) |
22 | Jean Michel Lechance (Rossetti Devo Cycling Team) |
23 | Jeff Louder (UnitedHealthcare) |
24 | Adam Myerson (Team Mountain Khakis/SmartStop) |
25 | Chad Hartley (Kenda/5hr Energy p/b Geargrinder) |
26 | Brian Toone (Tria Cycling p/b DonohooAuto.com) |
27 | David Cueli (Team Cocos) |
28 | Nick Inabinet (Astellas Oncology p/b ABD) |
29 | John Simes (Jamis Sutter Home) |
30 | Chris Barton (Bissell Pro Cycling) |
31 | Michael Olheiser (Competitive Cyclist racing Team) |
32 | Luca Damiani (Kenda/5-Hour Energy Pro Cycling) |
33 | Thomas Rabou (Competitive Cyclist Racing Team) |
34 | Dan Harm (Astellas Oncology p/b ABD) |
35 | Serghei Tvetcov (Team Exergy) |
36 | Kevin Mullervy (Team Exergy) |
37 | Andrew Crater (Cleveland Clnic Sports Health) |
38 | Conor Mullervy (Team Exergy) |
39 | John Murphy (Kenda/5hr Energy p/b Geargrinder) |
40 | Patrick Allison (Tria Cycling p/b Donohoo Auto) |
41 | Andres Faustino Alzate (Team Exergy) |
42 | Jose Frank Rodriguez (Team Cocos) |
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