Rodriguez holds off Gibbons and Magner to win Sunny King Criterium

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Alfredo Rodriguez (Best Buddies Racing) won the Sunny King Criterium in a field sprint With the victory he becomes the first men’s leader in the American Criterium Cup. Thomas Gibbons (Automatic-ABUS Racing) captured second and Ty Magner (L39ION of Los Angeles) secured the final podium spot in a frantic uphill sprint with 25 riders.

The Best Buddies Racing squad placed all six riders at the front of the race in the final three laps to close down multiple attacks from Project Echelon Racing, Nashville Local Wolfpack, and ButcherBox Cycling, as well as favoured sprinters Magner and Frank Travieso (Blazers). 

“I am excited to win the first event in the American Criterium Cup for Best Buddies Racing, Mike Hernandez and our Director Thomas Craven have really made this team feel special…like a family.  I am looking forward to racing the rest of the series and every other race that we can get to during the rest of the season with these guys,” Rodriguez said after his first victory of the season, taking second place at Birmingham Hammerfest in March.

“Everything was perfect. The plan was all race to go together. But for me it was hard because I crashed in the first lap. My hand hurt the entire race.” 

The men’s race under the lights saw a big pileup on turn four after the opening lap, causing the race to be neutralised, and then stopped, for almost 15 minutes. When the race resumed with 57 laps to go, Automatic took over at the front of the race

A dozen laps later, a two-rider breakaway - Agusto Sanchez (Emanuel Ibarry and 2NDBIKE TEAM) and Michael Hernandez (Best Buddies Racing) built a solid gap of 20 seconds on the 88 riders behind. The gap held steady around the 1.1-km course with Automatic-ABUS Racing working on the front for the chase. 

As the lap count went down, much like the cold temperatures after the sun had set, Project Echelon launched Brandon Feehery for a mid-race sprint with 30 laps to go, which ignited a full chase from behind and the gap to the leaders was cut in half to 10 seconds.

The reset button was hit with 28km to go and all was back together. Three laps later it was Bryan Gomez of Best Buddies who took control at the front and began to stretch out the peloton. Then Magner moved off the front as well. Last year’s winner Tanner Ward (Best Buddies Racing) gave it a go at the front for a few laps, only to have the field regroup with 19 laps to go.

Best Buddies’ then launched another attack, which shredded the string of riders behind into multiple groups. A couple of Automatic Riders were there, but it was Sanchez who came back to pick up a prime and tried a a solo attack, a second breakaway of the night for him. Time was running out.

Three riders bridged up - Spencer Moavenzadeh (ButcherBox Cycling), Kyle Tiesler (Nashville Local Wolfpack) and Ruben Campanioni (Best Buddies) to join Sanchez. Andy Scarano (NGCA Elite pb Tyler Perry Studios) and Gomez put in a move to the front group to make it a pack of six.

Automatic Racing closed down the move with 12 to go. With six to go, Best Buddies Racing and ButcherBox worked at the front yet again. Best Buddies used all six riders at the front and led out Rodriguez to the win.

The series continues on May 21 in Rochester, New York for the MVP Health Care Rochester Twilight Criterium. The bulk of the series offers seven races in seven states during the summer months and concludes on Labor Day, September 5, with the Benton Park Classic, the fourth and final day of the Bommarito Audi Gateway Cup.