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.