Young bests Borrajo for Glencoe GP

Eric Young (Bissell) won his first National Racing Calendar (NRC) event at the Glencoe Grand Prix held on Saturday outside of Chicago, Illinois. The Indianapolis resident lapped the field with a large group and took the reins on the final sprint, out-pacing Anibal Borrajo (Jamis-Sutter Home) and Ken Hanson (Jelly Belly p/b Kenda).

"This is my first NRC win and it’s awesome because I’ve been waiting all season," Young said. "This is my first year with Bissell and first year as a Pro. I’m definitely really happy to win Glencoe because I’m originally from about an hour away in Geneva, so my family was there."

The Pro-Cat 1 men’s field contested the 85km criterium for a prize purse of $15,000USD and valuable NRC points. The course was some-what of a dumb-bell shape that included 10-corners and one challenging ascent.

A breakaway of roughly 20 riders emerged in the opening laps of the race. It included many of the top criterium riders in the peloton along with several riders from both Jamis-Sutter Home and Jelly Belly p/b Kenda. "We just kind of motored away from everyone," Young said. "Jamis and Jelly Belly had most of their guys up there."

The lead group lapped the field, however, Jamis-Sutter Home and Jelly Belly p/b Kenda riders continued to attack to try and gain time ahead of the other riders who lapped the field.

"There were a lot of attacks after we lapped the field," Young said. "Hanson was attacking a lot and spent quite a lot of time off the front. But, much of the race was dictated by Jamis and Jelly Belly because they both had five or six guys, so just by numbers they were going to be aggressive."

Young relied on his teammate David Williams to navigate the last lap of the circuit and keep him in good position for the field sprint. Williams took Young all the way through the second to last corner where he was able to successfully out-sprint top domestic sprinters Borrajo, Hanson and Brad Huff (Jelly Belly p/b Kenda).

"Dave drilled it through the corners for the whole last lap," Young said. "It was a pretty technical course so if you had good position right away it was hard to over take on that course. I came off his wheel with two corners to go and won the sprint out of the guys who lapped the field."

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