Jesse Anthony wins Criterium stage of Univest Grand Prix 2011 - Cycling Update
Kelly Benefit Strategies-OptumHealth Team’s Jesse Anthony showed a tremendous performance in the Criterium stage of Univest Grand Prix 2011 on Sunday, September 18. The race started and finished in Doylestown.
In the final kilometres, Anthony powered to beat the other cyclists and was able to cross the final line in a time of 1 hour, 52 minutes and 9 seconds to cover the distance of 80 kilometres.
Jackie Simes (Jamis/Sutter Home) was runner-up with 2 seconds down to Jesse and Robin Carpenter (Bikereg.com/Cannondale) finished third with a difference of 6 seconds.
After finishing the stage, Simes said, “We worked together for a little bit and then I got stuck to lead out. I thought I timed my sprint pretty well. It was an uphill sprint.”
With few laps to go, Anthony attacked in the field and increased his pace to quickly join the other cyclists including, Thomas Soladay, Brett Tivers (Garneau Club Chaussures) and Johan Landstrom (Cyklecity) as all of them worked well together to take a lead.
Univest Grand Prix promoter John Eustice said. “It was a bar fight out there … a tremendously exciting race. The crowd was 10 deep at the finish line. I’ve never had a crowd like this. Again, it’s an example of how great American bike racing is and how great
the American professional class is. I believe in them.”
In the last five laps, Kelly Benefit Strategies-OptumHealth Team controlled the situation and managed to get two cyclists in the initial four-man breakaway. However, the other cyclists were in the front split and Simes increased his pace to catch Jesse.
However, in the final kilometers Anthony attacked and managed to cross the finish line first ahead of the other cyclists. Anthony put in a brilliant performance as fought hard throughout the race to take the win.
Tom Zirbel (Jamis/Sutter Home) tried his best to take the lead but failed to hold his pace and grabbed seventh place with a difference of 7 seconds ahead of Nick Frey (Jamis/Sutter Home) and Thomas Soladay (Kelly Benefit Strategies-OptumHealth).
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