Dekkers takes win in crash filled criterium

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The fields at the International Cycling Classic continue to get larger with more pros coming in each day, providing even more competition. The Richton Park Criterium presented by Chicago Dough Pizza was an exciting display of speed riding on a tight fast 0.7 mile course and some sketchy riding contributed to several crashes.

The opening laps were lightening fast and numerous riders were scrambling to try to get into the early moves. A fast trio formed that comprised of eventual winner Hans Dekkers (Garmin Slipstream Pro-Tour), Christoff Van Heerden (Team MTN) and Spencer Beamer (Team Mountain Khakis).

This break quickly rolled out of sight despite some urgent chasing going on by the peloton that had average speeds at over 30mph for the best part of the first 21 laps. A chase group of nine had just got themselves established at the 21 lap point; however Curtis Gunn (Fly V) suffered the misfortune of crashing straight into a little girl on a bike (the girl was unharmed).

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This caused him to fly over the handle-bars for a heavy landing that punctured a lung and cracked ribs. This stopped the race for a good 20 minutes so that an ambulance could come onto the course to take Gunn to the hospital. This stoppage allowed riders who were struggling at the back of the race to recover and get back into the race.

At the restart the officials gave the breakaway trio a 50 second start on the nine-man chase group, while only seven seconds was given to the chase group despite protest from riders who believed the gap was more like 20 seconds. After the restart, the resurgent peloton quickly gobbled up the nine-man group; however the breakaway lapped the field in quick time.

About 20 minutes after the restart, one rider went down in the middle of the road into the pack, thus causing Superweeks first massive pile up of riders. At least 20 riders had to visit the SRAM neutral support pit for a free lap. After that major crash, the average speeds came down slightly to about 28mph.

The bunching up of riders through some of the tight turns, coupled with sketchy riding made for some hair-raising experiences for a number of riders. With 10 laps to go, the pace picked back up considerably to around 32-33mph average as the bigger teams got organized on front for leading out their key riders and it was very difficult for riders to move up.

It was a frenetic gallop to the finish and another crash in the middle of the field on the last lap caused nearly half the riders to be gapped. It was Jonathon Cantwell (Fly V) who won the sprint for fourth and team-mate Bernard Sulzberger was right behind in fifth and retains the yellow for yet another day. Carlos Vargas (Team Hotel San Jose) is back into form after a slow start to the series with his sixth placing coupled with his fourth placing at the Elgin Road Race the previous day.

Hans Dekkers (Garmin-Slipstream Pro-Tour) took the win followed by Christoff Van Heerden (Team MTN) and Spencer Beamer (Team Mountain Khakis).

According to Van Heerden, "the last few laps were terrible, extremely sketchy, a lot of risk taking with everyone wanting to get to the front. A guy even hit the inside barriers on turn three with two laps to go but amazingly stayed upright. It was a fight trying to stay out of trouble and to watch for my two breakaway companions".

Van Heerden praised the Ritchon Park event, saying "it was a great track and very well organized, however the crowd could have been better as the race would have been exciting to watch. It was perfect weather conditions for racing, nice and cool and not too humid".

Thomas Soladay who was acting Team Director for the young squad of Team Mountain Khaki riders commented that the guys did great. "The plan was to be in every move and keep the race hard. Spencer got into the winning break after lap one and we had a rider in every move after that, just to watch and sit on. After our man lapped the field, we started to attack the field again to keep the race aggressive"

Inaugural hand-cycling race

The first ever hand-cycling race was held at Richton Park with 11 participants with varying disabilities including: amputee, spina bifida and spinal cord injury. It was an open classed event without any classifications. Kevin McGee from the Chicago area won the race by a large margin.

Most of the riders were recreational riders with one avid triathlete also competing. However, the excitement of the event encouraged several of the riders to express interest in training to race in hand-cycling events.

The goal is to secure sponsors for this Hand-cycling event so that Richton Park Village can offer prize money and attract out of town top racers.