Cantwell victorious at Sunny King Criterium

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Australia National Criterium Champion, Jonathan Cantwell (V Australia) brought his team its first National Racing Calendar (NRC) victory of the season at the Sunny King Criterium held on Saturday in Anniston, Alabama. He won the bunch sprint to the line ahead of Mike Northey (Pure Black Racing) in second and Rahsaan Bahati (Pista Palace) in third.

"This is really important for our team," Cantwell, who competed in the first NRC stage race at the Redlands Bicycle Classic last week. "We tried really hard in Redlands to get a couple of wins but were second and third on the podium. To come out and get the top step tonight is great. We love coming to Anniston to do the Sunny King Criterium."

Luke Keough (Team Mountain Khakis) sprinted into third place at the finish line but was removed from the official results. Keough rode into to the mechanic's pit with six laps to go with a flat tire where race officials gave him a wheel change and pushed him back in with the field with five laps to go. However, there were no free laps with six laps to go and officials rendered him as one lap down at the finish line.

Andrew Dahlheim (Bissell) and Tim Gudsell (Pure Black Racing) made an early move in the Pro-Cat 1 men's 60-lap criterium. Thomas Brown (Team Mountain Khakis) was the next to go but his efforts were short lived and he was reabsorbed into the peloton after three laps.

The most threatening breakaway of the day included Cesar Grajales (RealCyclist.com) and Jacob Rytlewski (Kenda/5-hour Energy) that gained roughly 30 seconds on the field for eight laps. Attacks from Pure Black Racing, Bissell, Team Mountain Khakis, AeroCat Cycling, Global Bike Racing, Chipotle Development Team and Kelly Benefit Strategies-OptumHealth eventually reeled the two escapees back into the bunch.

Pure Black Racing and Kenda/5-hour Energy were arguably the two most aggressive teams of the night sending riders on the attack each lap. "It was our goal to be aggressive because I'm not exactly a full on sprinter," Northey said. "We wanted one of our riders up the road and we keep attacking and trying but nothing stuck."

"After that we figured that we had to give the sprint a nudge," he added."I had a teammate up there with me to keep the pace high so that I could hold position. I was in the right place out of the last turn."

A 10-rider group split off the front of the field with roughly 10 laps remaining that caused some panic for the sprinters including Cantwell.

"There was a decisive move with under 30 minutes to go and I thought that was going to be it because there were 11 or 12 guys in the break," Cantwell said. "There weren't full teams here with six or eight guys to really control the race, just three guys. I'm surprised a break didn't go tonight."

Tom Soladay (Kelly Benefit Strategies-OptumHealth) counter attacked and soloed for five laps picking up lucrative primes along the way. He too was reabsorbed into the peloton with three laps to go as teams with strong sprinters picked up the pace in anticipation of a bunch kick, won by Cantwell.

"It was a free for all and whoever was in front were looking behind to see if their teammates were there," Cantwell said. "The New Zealand guys [Pure Black Racing] were probably the most aggressive and strongest team at the moment and we knew they were the guys to follow and the guys to beat. It was full gas with three laps to go."