Jordan's First International Podium Finish

The 17-18 year old squad of Slipstream Craddock completed their first international race this past Sunday in Belgium, the Deinze Kermis. Jordan made the breakaway group of 7 with 80K to go. His team rode brilliantly in defense, with Jordan winning all the primes and finishing 3rd overall from 93 starters. 2nd place was 18 year old Frenchman Quentin Jauregui, who earned a Bronze medal at the 2012 Junior World Cyclocross Championships. A great result for the team, especially considering it was their first road race since Junior Nationals in June.

Results with timing can be found here.

Local News Article on Jordan

Hudson Star Observer Article

A Dream Come True

Jordan's First National Championship: 17-18 Individual 3K Pursuit

Slipstream Craddock Goes 1-2 in the 4K Team Pursuit National Championship

These guys are truly something special

National Championship Jersey and Gold Medal - 7 years of hard work pays off

3K Individual Pursuit National Championship Results

4K Team Pursuit National Championship Results

Jordan turned 17 years old on Wednesday. The next day, he achieved his dream of earning a National Championship in the 3K Individual Pursuit on the Track. The following day he earned his 2nd Stars and Stripes as a part of a 4 man crew in the 4K Team Pursuit. An amazing 3 days in Trexlertown, Pennsylvania.

This was Jordan's first Track Nationals. The favorite to win the 3K Individual Pursuit was Jordan's Slipstream Craddock teammate, and defending national champion, Greg Daniel. Jordan's championship ride is best summed up in his own words, “Just going in, I wasn’t sure how I would pace it,” he admitted. “In training, I never did a full 3K. My dad was calling out the splits, and they were faster than I wanted going in, but I felt good, so I decided to go with it.” Jordan won by 2 seconds in a time of 3:35, from a field of 21 racers.

The 4K Team Pursuit is a race where 4 teammates start together, each rider taking short pulls on the front in a single paceline. Their finish time is measured from the front wheel of the 3rd rider from the team to finish, so they are allowed to drop one rider. A good team can ride a time faster than the fastest individual on the team could ride alone. This requires practice and discipline. The strongest rider has to moderate their effort to maximize the contribution from the rest of the team.

Slipstream Craddock fielded 2 pursuit teams, "Slipstream Black" and "Slipstream Blue". The Blue team was first on the track of 7 teams, and rode a flawless race, finishing with all 4 riders in an impressive time of 4:45. Their time held up as the next 5 teams finished, with the closest 7 seconds off the pace.

The Slipstream Black team went 2nd to last. Their fastest time from training was well off the Slipstream Blue time, but they set an aggressive lap schedule, targeting a time of 4:36. Their start was flawless, and they started ticking off each of the 12 laps right on schedule. Each rider took their turn on the front for half a lap, except for Jordan who took full lap pulls. They were setting the fastest intermediate time splits. Then late in the race, they had a bad exchange, gapping one of their riders. That rider dug deep, making it back into formation to take one more pull before leaving it for the other 3 to finish it off. They hit their target time exactly, almost 20 seconds faster than in practice.

Only one team was left to spoil the 1-2 finish for the Slipstream Black and Slipstream Blue. The "Young Medalists" team ticked off laps, matching Slipstream Blue's splits, but falling off the pace of Slipstream Black. It went down to the wire, finishing just 1 second off Blue's pace, slotting into 3rd. Elation in the Slipstream Craddock camp!

This was the culmination of the efforts by Slipstream Craddock team director, Christian Williams. It was poetic that his son, Noah Williams, was a member of the Gold Medal Pursuit team. It was Noah's first National Championship Gold.

A sincere thank you go out to all of Jordan's sponsors, supporters, and fans who helped him achieve his National Championship dream!

Texas State Time Trial

Cat 2 Podium - Cullen 1st, Schilling 2nd

Jordan crushed it a the Texas State Time Trial on Saturday, June 30th. He won the Cat 2 division, in a time of 53:51, on a 42K course, finishing over a minute ahead of teammate Jonathan Schilling. Way to go guys!

Jr Nationals Road Race

After a days rest, Jordan and his Slipstream Craddock team were ready to battle for another Junior National Championship. The road race was held on a 15-mile rolling circuit on the Fort Gordon Army Base. An early morning start meant the heat wouldn't be a huge factor. With 150+ racers taking the start, on a course lacking any real challenge, a field sprint was very likely.

Crashes were the story of the day, several on the first lap. Slipstream Craddock led the field through the feedzone at the end of the first lap, with Jordan riding near the back. His teammate Mino Gunta had a flat tire, but the wheel car was no where in sight. Suddenly we hear at the end of the feed zone hill, hoping none of our riders were involved. Then Jordan appears, having turned around and immediately offers his rear wheel to Mino.

Jordan figures he will grab a nuetral wheel from the car, and quickly chase back up. Unfortunately, the wheel car is several minutes behind the race, servicing the many previous crashes. After a few minutes, we start asking if anyone has a spare. A generous parent offers one, and Jordan heads off to make up a deficit of several minutes.

Jordan caught up to Mino, and Imari Miller, who was involved in the feedzone crash. Those 3 worked together in a small group to regain the field, but eventually realized it was an impossible task.

At the front of the race, Slipstream Craddock still had 7 racers in the front group which was still 70-80 riders strong with 1 lap to go. Several crashes near the end of the race left several racers with a painful, disappointing ride to the finish.

As predicted, the race did end in a large field sprint, with Alex Darville jumping too early, leaving the door open to Miguel Bryon for the win in a photo finish with Logan Owen. Ansel Dickey finished 3rd.

Teammate Michael Dessau narrowly missed out on the podium, finishing 6th, with Greg Daniel taking 8th.

Even though the team didn't achieve the success they would have liked in the Road Race and Criterium, the team gained some valuable experience. With a majority of the riders remaining in the junior ranks for next year, the future certainly looks bright for the Slipstream Craddock Junior Development Team.

Jr Nationals Criterium

Jordan giving his all for the good of the team

Teammate Dessau takes 4th

After the Slipstream Craddock's dominant performance at the previous day's time trial, all the other teams were sure to be keying off them. All 10 racers started near the back of the 150 rider Junior 17-18 criterium field.

On the first lap, Greg Daniel crashed out of the race in just the second corner. Never a good sign. An early 2-man break including danger man Alex Darville of Hammer Nutrition, resulted in an insane pace right from the gun. This made it very difficult to move to the front, and it took several laps before Slipstream Craddock got organized on the front. Once they got organized, they worked with others to bring back Darville.

The hard early pace, along with the oppresive heat had riders being dropped by the dozens before the race was even half way done. Jordan rode with great strength, being on or near the front of the field for a majority of the race. Steven Bassett of Texas Roadhouse made a late race solo move for several laps, that was eventually reeled in.

With a few laps remaining, it was Brendan Rhim, of Woodstock Bicycle Club, who made a solo bid for glory, and the field was slow to react, giving him a solid gap. A crash near the front of the chasing field on the final corner just before seeing one lap to go disrupted the chase just enough for Rhim to hang on for victory, barely. Alex Darville - 2nd, Matt Schaupp (Ritte Development) - 3rd, Michael Dessau (Slipstream Craddock) - 4th, Geoffery Curran (Surf City Cyclery) - 5th.

Jordan managed to avoid the late race crash, and finished a respectable 20th. Teammates Noah Williams and Jonathan Schilling went down in the crash, but were unscathed.

USA Cycling Junior National Time Trial



Pro Set-up

Warming up

Go Time!

Finish line in sight

Podium Performance

Proud Moment

17-18 Podium (L-R) - Dessau (4th), Eisenhardt (2nd), Daniel (1st), Rex (3rd), Cullen (5th)

Awesome Team! 3 National Champions, 7 Podiums

Jordan and his Slipstream Craddock team had a very successful day at the USA Cycling Junior National Time Trial held in Augusta, GA on June 21. Jordan averaged 28mph over the 30K (18.3mi) course, good enough for 5th place. This marked the 4th year in a row Jordan has made the TT podium at Junior Nationals.

Even better, his team dominated the 17-18 podium, including National Champion, Greg Daniel, and 4th place, Michael Dessau. His team swept the top 3 in the 15-16 TT, with Zeke Mostov 1st, Jake Silverberg 2nd, and Adrian Costa 3rd. To top things off, Adam Croft won the 10-12 TT. 3 national champions and 7 podiums. What an amazing team performance!