Ramsey And Olds Win USA Crits Series In San Francisco

Daniel Ramsey of the TIME PRO Cycling Team won the 2008 USA CRITS Series in San Francisco held on September 12th, 2008. This race was the first-time running of the San Francisco Twilight Criterium. Ramsey, one of the more experienced members of the TIME squad, was the beneficiary of a mechanical that dropped a very competitive Jorge Alvarado (Kahala/Lagrange) to 3rd place in the home stretch of the race.

118 men initially rolled to the line of the one-kilometer course on Union Street in downtown San Francisco to vie for the $10,000 prize purse. Alvarado was aggressive from the start, helping to lead a five man break that also included Alessandro Bazzano (Successful Living). Bazzano's aggressive riding paid off as he claimed the mid-race prime. Every break that managed to establish even a momentary gap over the main field, however, caused a high-speed reaction from the pack. At one point, those riders who had yet to call it a night were stretched out on course in a 15-second-long single file.

With three laps remaining, Alvarado, Ramsey and Successful Living’s fast man Ricardo Escuela established what would be the evening’s winning effort. The trio held a 13-second gap over the remainder of the peloton, but Alvarado’s unfortunate mechanical put the race in Ramsey’s hands.

The women’s race fielded some of the strongest talent in American cycling, including long-time veteran Laura Van Gilder of the Cheerwine squad, two-time Olympian and 2004 National U.S. Time Trial Champion Christine Thorburn (Webcor), and Canadian Olympian Gina Grain (Webcor).

The race, though, belonged to PROMAN Professional Cycling Team’s Shelley Olds. Throughout the course of the night, several breakaways threatened to permanently split the field of 58 riders. Kat Carroll of the Aaron’s squad put in one aggressive effort after another in the hopes of putting the race away early.

With only six laps left to go Carroll made one last effort that brought Van Gilder, her teammate Sarah Bamberger, Christine Thorburn and Chrissy Ruiter (ValueAct) along with her. Carroll attacked again and put 15 seconds between her and the other members of the momentary break and an entire 40 seconds on the peloton.

In the end, however, the field all came altogether with two laps remaining and Olds pulled off the formidable task of besting not only Van Gilder, but Series leader Kelly Benjamin (Cheerwine) for the lion’s share of the $5,000 purse.

Visit the USA Crits web site for full results and more.