The first right turn (Image credit: Mark Zalewski)
The 2nd Bank of America Invitational Criterium in Charlotte, North Carolina, USA last Saturday had all the ingredients for a recipe for disaster, as Cyclingnews' Mark Zalewski reports.
Combine the biggest cash purse in the world with a tight and fast 1.2 mile downtown criterium - add 125 cyclists looking to make their year's paycheck in one race - and the result is dangerous, with riders taking chances they would usually never rationalise. But in the queen city of the south, where NASCAR is king, the people want to see high drama. (Which probably explains why the local TV highlights of the race consisted of two minutes of wrecks and thirty seconds of win footage!)
Colavita-Sutter's Juan Jose Haedo upset the Health Net-Maxxis train to take out the men's race, while T-Mobile's Ina Yoko Teutenberg was just too good again for the women's field.
