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Clarke, Pic win Chris Thater Memorial crit
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Hilton Clarke (Toyota-United Pro) won Sunday’s Chris Thater Memorial Criterium in Binghamton, New York.
The Aussie, who won here in 2006, edged out Alejandro Borrajo (Colavita-Sutter Home) and Eric Boiley (Volkswagen) to take the victory on the 25th anniversary of the NRC race, the ninth stop on this year's USA CRITS series.
“My guys on my teams really put their trust in me today, and I was glad I was able to pull it off for them.” Clarke said after his win.
Clarke was part of an eight-man breakaway group that separated itself from the remainder of the 118-man field at midrace. Joining Clarke, Borrajo, and Boiley were David Veilleux (Kelly Benefits), Mark Walters (Team R.A.C.E. Pro), Gerardo Fernandez (MikeFraysseSports.com), Tom Soladay (Time) and Mark Hekman (Toshiba-Santo).
“It took a while for the break to go, but when it did we seemed to get a minute or a minute and 30 seconds right away.” Clarke said. ”It was not the best situation with all their teams having their best guys there, but there was complete cooperation from all the guys in the break. It seemed like everyone just wanted it to come down to a sprint finish from among that group.”
And a sprint finish is exactly what they got. Coming into the final corner, it was a battle to be the first man through. Clarke, however, bided his time, and his careful tactics paid off.
“That last corner is really deceptive, and going into it, I was only fourth. But coming out I got a whiplash effect and I went by the others and won pretty easily.”
The victory, Clarke’s second in this year’s series after his earlier win at the Wells Fargo Twilight Criterium in Boise, Idaho, puts the Aussie rider in fourth place overall. Yosvany Falcon (Toshiba-Santo) still leads the series.
Pic does it again, too
The women’s event also saw a repeat victor in Tina Pic (Colavita-Sutter Home). Pic, who won here in 2003 and 2005, found herself engaged once again in a two-woman duel with rival Laura Van Gilder (Cheerwine). After 10 laps, the pair broke away and sewed up the top two spots on the podium.
A good 1:40 behind them, the contest for the remaining podium berth heated up when Kacey Manderfield (Verducci-Breakaway) attempted to distance herself from the rest of the riders and wound up taking Pic’s teammate, Nichole Wangsgard, with her. They were soon joined by Anne Samplonius (Cheerwine), Laura McCaughey (Juice Plus) and Anna McLoon (Colavita-Sutter Home).
As Pic once again outsprinted Van Gilder for the win, Manderfield got the best of her chase group to take third.
Van Gilder and the rest of the Cheerwine squad can console themselves with the fact that teammate Kelly Benjamin still holds first place on the overall leader board. Jennifer Wilson (Vanderkitten Racing) and ValueAct Capital’s Taitt Sato are second and third.
Next up in the USA CRITS series is the San Francisco Twilight Criterium on September 13.
