Evanston Northwestern Healthcare Cycling Grand Prix
Today's stage was in Evanston, IL...the home of Northwestern University. The course was flat and fast, with 6 corners. This was the last race in the series, and I was still 9 points behind the leader. The plan was to race hard, and leave it all on the road...and that's what we did.
Knowing how fast the course was, I figured it would come down to a field sprint...and it was fast the whole time. After some shadow boxing among the favorites, as well as the guys high up overall, it came back together with about 6 laps remaining. With 3-4 laps to go Grant Potters Herbalife team took the front to string it out. With 2 corners to go on the last lap, Curtis took the front and drilled it through the final turns and dumped us out onto the finishing straight. I unfortunately misjudged the final sprint, and started slightly too late. I ran out of room, and Grant won relegating me to second.
The overall series leader finished 7th, so I missed out on winning the overall by 4 points. If it weren't for me crashing out on Stage 2, then the overall may have been different...but with all of our bad luck this week, 2nd isn't too bad. Curtis rode like an animal all week, and Jeff rode himself into the ground while he was here...so a big thanks to those two guys!
ABRT results:
2 - Stage wins (Curtis and James)
5 - Podium's (top 3)
12 - Top 10's
Below are some podiums pictures from the last race, and for the overall.
James being interviewed after taking 2nd in the final race. Notice our lovely podium girl holding the flowers...
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...thanking the folks from Illinois and Wisconsin for the races...
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...2nd in the final race, Stage 9...
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Podium placing for the overall, 2nd place in the series...
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...another overall series podium shot...
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