Race Report for Brooklyn No.9

Men's Final Top 10

place	Name	Team	Country
1	Colin Strickland	Allez Allez - Specialized	US
2	Ivan Ravaioli	Team Cinelli Chrome	IT
3	Aldo Ino Ilesic	Allez Allez - Specialized	SI
4	Daniele Callegarin	Ridewill Oscar Cycling	IT
5	Daniel Holloway	Intelligenstia GR	US
6	Olivier Leroy	Team Chris Bike	FR
7	Alec Briggs	LaClassica Racing Team by SpeedGang	GB
8	Tristan Uhl	Aventon Factory Team	US
9	Emanuele Poli	Supernova Factory Team	IT
10	Andrea Vassallo	LaClassica Racing Team by SpeedGang	IT

1st lap (breakfast) prime: Mario Paz Duque
Halfway (dinner) prime: Colin Strickland
Fastest Qualifying Lap: Addison Zawada – 1:25.741
Rockstar Games Top Antagonist: Colin Strickland

Women's Top 10

Place	Name	team	Country
1	Ainara Elbusto	Conor WRC	ES
2	Ash Duban	Affinity Cycles	US
3	Vittoria Reati	LaClassica Racing Team by SpeedGang	IT
4	Irene Usabiaga	Poloandbike	ES
5	Keira McVitty	Whybenormal?	GB
6	Johanna Jahnke	Whybenormal?	DE
7	Veronika Volok	Sycip Team Cento	US
8	Jo Celso	Team Cinelli Chrome	US
9	Sammi Runnels	Aventon Factory Team	US
10	Corinne Price	Whybenormal?	GB

1st Lap (breakfast) prime: Ainara Elbusto
Halfway (dinner) prime: Ainara Elbusto
Fastest Qualifying Lap: Ashley Faye – 1:31.576
Rockstar Games Top Antagonist: Kiera McVitty

Click here for complete results.

Women’s Race Report

A brisk spring night saw the largest ever field of women line up to start the ninth edition of the Red Hook Criterium in Brooklyn. Earlier in the day, Dutchwoman Ashley Faye (Team Cinelli Chrome) surprised regular favorite Spaniard Ainara Elbusto (Conor WRC) by taking pole position. Faye with a qualifying lap time of 1:37:576 averaged a speed of 41.69 km/h over the technical circuit. Fleure Faure (LaClassica Racing p/b SpeedGang) of France came in second with British rider Brooke Philips (Pedlas Pursuit) in third and Elbusto in fourth.

The race got off to a clean start under the clatter of cowbells from a crowd standing three and four deep along the barriers at the start line. Elbusto showed qualifying out of pole was little but a hiccup and convincingly claimed the breakfast prime. A furious pace after contending the breakfast prime had the field split by the end of lap two with a lead pack of thirty riders.

Early pushes from Katherine Sherwin (Affinity Cycles) and Vittoria Reati (LaClassica Racing p/b SpeedGang) kept the pace high and trimmed the lead group even further. Elbusto played a patient game sitting in the second position maintaining control at the front of the race.

At the halfway point in the race, Elbusto comfortably took the Dinner Prime, padding her lead in the Red Hook Criterium Championship Series. British rider Kiera McVitty (WHYBENORMAL?) didn’t let the pace ease after the prime putting in another attack from the front establishing herself as the Rockstar Games Top Antagonist. Elbusto once again showed her class in controlling races and was sharp to the move. Further moves by Ash Duban (Affinity Cycles), McVitty, and a big surge by Kim Lucie (State Bicycle Co) in the last third of the race, strung the field out but did not create a sizable gap.

In the final turn with just over a lap to go there was a crash taking out a handful of riders. Those who made it through contested a sprint on the final lap. Ainara Elbusto was not to be denied with yet another convincing sprint. Ash Duban finished in second narrowly edging out Vittoria Reati, Irene Usabiaga, and Kiera McVitty.

Men’s Race Report

In the men’s race Addison Zawada (State Bicycle Co) lined up in pole position setting a time of 1:25:74, over a second faster than second place Luis Junquera (Poloandbike) from Spain, and Puerto Rican, William Guzman (Dosnoventa), in third.

After two failed starts due to early first lap complications and crashes, the race was shortened to twenty-two instead of twenty-six laps as originally scheduled. Mario Paz Duque (IRD Carerra) advanced from tenth on the grid to win his seventh Red Hook Crit Breakfast Prime. Aldo Ilesic (Allez-Allez Specialized) soon took control of the race sitting on the front with little objection from his competitors. Zawada started pushing the pace, and the field was strung out, but on the third lap Zawada crashed clipping a pedal through a hairpin and retired from the race. Ilesic still on the front looked to be riding easily though those around were struggling to match the pace.

On lap five Colin Strickland broke off the front establishing a four-second lead while Ilesic, his Allez-Allez Specialized teammate, controlled the bunch. Daniel Holloway (Intelligentsia GR) attempted to chase down the move, but Ilesic was on his wheel, and the field was of no help to him. By the time Strickland came by on the next lap, the gap had grown to ten seconds. The chase group consisted of twenty-five racers with the race blowing apart at this stage. In the reduced peloton, no one team had numbers to mount a serious chase. Ilesic broke up any attempts of individuals trying to work together while Strickland time-trialed his way up to a twenty-second lead by the time he took the mid-race Dinner Prime.

By the fourteenth lap, everyone but the first and second chase group (half of the field) had been lapped by Strickland who seemed to be racing a measured effort while his lead continued to increase.

With six laps to go Alec Briggs put in a big effort while the field was idling behind Ilesic, but once again, like the subsequent moves from Marius Petrache (Team Cinelli Chrome) and Tristan Uhl (Aventon Factory Team), it was neutralized.

With two laps to go Paz Duque put in an attack to make a bid for second place. Ilesic again pulled the move in with ease. On the final lap, Holloway tried to create a separation from the peloton but ended up crossing the line in fifth.

Strickland won by a huge margin easing up to thank the crowd on his final lap. Last year’s championship winner, Ivan Ravaioli, sprinted to second ahead of Ilesic in third, Daniele Callegarin in fourth and Daniel Holloway in fifth.

 

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