On Friday, August 15th, Chris Tirone (French Meadow Bakery/Fortistar) headed out to Chicagoland for the annual Elite and Elite Master Mens National Criterium Championships.
Each field attracts 150- 180 of the finest criterium riders from all over the country and this years event would be no different, with strong representation from California Giant-Strawberry, UBS Financial, Texas Roadhouse and many other top amateur teams.
The master’s event was fast and tactical. With 5 laps to go and the field intact, Chris took advantage of a pause in the action to accelerate up into the UBS Financial lead-out train. With 4 laps to go, Chris held 4th position in the lead-out train on Thurlow Roger’s wheel, and maintained that position through the bell lap. With 3 turns to go the UBS train unexpectedly shutdown and California Giant sent a train up the left side, which had eventual winner Galvan Antony (UBS) in tow. After losing some ground switching trains, Chris fought back into what would eventually be a respectable 15th place finish.
In Sunday’s Elite Men’s 80km Criterium Championships, extreme heat gave way to torrential weather, including wind gusts approaching 45mph. Chris used his cyclo-cross background to ride conservatively as the pack whittled down from roughly 180 to 70 riders as the course conditions were claiming large groups of riders every lap. Chris made it through the final sorting out, but came up a little short on the fitness side to finish a race of this intensity. Coming back in one piece after two days of racing, 600 turns and speeds topping out at 45mph is a big accomplishment in itself! I am sure he is already looking forward to next years events.