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!