Abraham, Van Gilder win Iron Hill crits
- By VeloNews.com
- Published Jul. 8, 2007
- Updated May. 18, 2009 at 5:08 PM EDT
After 38 grueling laps through the streets of West Chester, Pennslvania, Priority Health rider Emile Abraham parlayed a bid for a standard race prime into a 22-lap kamikaze effort that brought him first place in this year’s Iron Hill Twilight Criterium.
“After winning a few primes, I went for an attack and got a gap. I didn’t think it would stay away but I kept rolling,” he said.
Alongside for every pedal stroke was the relatively unknown Battley Harley-Davidson rider Evan Fader. Fader and Abraham took half-lap pulls over the 1km course, which included a small but decisive hill on the backside of the course.
While the hill inflicted its fair share of damage on the starting field of 125 riders, Abraham and Fader maintained their cooperation through to the finish. With 13 laps to go, however, the 42 riders that made up what was left of the field realized that they would have to begin the chase in earnest.
“I’m just surprised that the right combo never collected and rolled away together.” said Nerac’s Adam Myerson, who took eighth place after all was said and done. “It seemed like there was always one person who missed it. And no one really believed that those two guys could make it to the finish.”
For his part, Fader wasn’t entirely sure that he and Abraham could maintain their getaway either.
“It was really fast. When we went, I didn’t think we were going to be able to stick it. But after about 10 laps, I realized that we have a gap and this thing really isn’t coming down. We were just rolling really well and I knew that my team was back there just keeping the pace.”
With five laps to go, the 24-second gap that the pair had built up was starting to come down slowly. AEG-Toshiba-JetNetwork made a huge effort to put sprinter Frank Travieso in position for the win and crank up the pressure on Mark Hekman (Abercrombie & Fitch), who leads Travieso in the overall points standings in this year’s USA CRITS series.
But Abraham and Fader were committed, and while their lead began to hover precariously near the 10-second mark, the pair held on until the very end, when Abraham won the final drag race that started once the two came out of turn four.
For Abraham, the duo’s effort became a crusade that was worth fighting for until the very last moment.
“It’s either do or die. When you’ve worked so hard, you’ve got to get it 110 percent. That’s what we did,” he said. “Evan was really strong and we definitely rode well. This definitely brings up my motivation.”
The series overall standing changed very little as a result of Abraham’s win, but Hekman received an unpleasant surprise after the race was over when officials relegated him to 30th place in the race for committing a dangerous move during the field sprint for third. No other riders complained, but the head commissaire maintained that Hekman made a “dangerous move that could have caused a huge collision.”
In the women’s race, Team Cheerwine’s Laura Van Gilder pipped Theresa Cliff-Ryan (Verducci) at the line after 40km, holding her lead in the USA CRITS series.
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