Twilight Crit ROCKS downtown Rochester!!

A very special thanks to all our loyal sponsors, friends, and especially families for coming out to support, cheer for, and in fact, scream for, the JW Dundee’s team at the Twilight Criterium!!!!!!!! It was picture perfect weather for the race and it was great to see a HUGE crowd out at this awesome event for cycling! To top it all off, watching the Pro Men and Women race under the lights, which were provided by our sponsor M.L. Caccamise electric, left us all in AWE!!

Cheyne 3rd in Juniors (17-18)
Cheyne Hoag kicked off the night with a great 3rd place finish in the Junior race. Two riders went right from the gun and Cheyne quickly recognized this was the move to be in, so he fired up his motor and bridged across to the early aggressors. He reached the break in the closing laps, and the threesome stayed away from the field. They dueled in a sprint to the line with Cheyne coming home 3rd for JW Dundee’s Ales and Lagers!

Rob 4th in Cat 3/ 4
The Cat 3/ 4 race brought a staggering 93 riders to the line to battle it out for the $1000 purse. My small miscue for the night was I didn’t sprint to the starting line, or sneak over there to get a front row spot & I ended up starting at the tail of the massive field. The race started in a fury as Jay Joslyn (Shikluna), the odds on favorite, was hammering the pace early to test the field. Eric Grim (Full Moon Vista) was also an early aggressor at the front, as both he and Jay were anxious to get away from the huge field. I patiently carved my way thru the field from the back for the first 12 minutes of the 45-minute race. I was spending a lot of energy coming up, but I knew I had to get into the top 20 before the half way mark when things would probably shatter. I settled into the top 15 riders looking for a move, but the race pace was just blistering the first 15 minutes, with the field stretched out single file for most of the circuits, and many riders gapping off the back.
The crowd cheers around the course & especially at the start/finish was AWESOME!! The cowbells clanging, and the cheers really are inspiring when you’re digging deep. Around 12 laps to go I saw Joslyn and Grimm get a gap on the field coming thru Bausch & Lomb circle. Coming down Court St., by the Dino BBQ, I saw no one was chasing, and it was NOW OR NEVER! I grabbed two gears and punched it up the left side from about 15 riders back as hard as I could go. I hit the Irving alleyway with a gap and caught on to the leaders by the start/finish line. I was hanging on by a thread, but this was the MOVE. A lap later, Matt Shechtman (Cornell) and Ed Maset (Pavan Cycling) joined us in our escape with 10 laps to go. We were all working a stout pace to establish the break, but Jay was definitely the guy with the biggest motor. I pulled when I could, but I was suffering big time to stay on as we continued to drive it home. The next time I looked at the lap counter it was 2 to go. We held formation coming thru for the bell lap. BANG! Maset punched it real big up the right side at the Dino & all of us scrambled into an all out sprint to get to his wheel. We were strung out going by BC arena & thru the Irving alley at a frantic pace. The 5 of us, in single file, were sprinting up Exchange. Maset blew as we hit Broad St. going to the finish and Joslyn hit the jets for a dominating WIN with Grimm in tow for 2nd. I chased Shechtman home to take a 4th for JW Dundee’s Ales and Lagers. Cheyne Hoag completed a tough back-to-back race double, finishing a solid 15th. Mick Snyder (JW Dundee’s) came home 24th.
Rob Dietrick
6/25/06