On Saturday afternoon racers at the 33rd annual Dilworth Criterium were greeted by dark overcast skies and unseasonably cool temperatures in the upper 50’s. The Dilworth course is a highly technical circuit around Charlotte’s Historic Latta Park. The KANE Bikes/ nccycling.com team brought a powerhouse squad to the event. Following on the previous week’s success at Medaowmont, the team decided to use a similar tactic by starting the race out super fast with attacks going from the gun. The entire team was involved with a strong series of attacks and counter attacks. There was not a single point in the first 12 laps of the race where the team did not have a rider off the front of the group. Around 25 minutes into the 70 minute race a small group was finally able to break free. The group contained 7 riders. Present from KANE Bikes/nccycling.com was Jonathan Hamblen, Jonathan Page, and Hugh Moran.  With three strong riders away in the lead group, the rest of the team rode aggressively to squash the many attacks from the field.  The lead group of 7 worked well together on the highly technical circuit and eventually lapped the field. Once the group of 7 reached the field the team went to the front to increase the pace to crush anyone who might have thoughts of trying to escape from the field. Just as the break latched on to the back of the field, the skies opened up and put just enough water on the course to make the corners as slick as ice. With 4 laps to go Jon Hamblen put in a blistering attack to ride clear of the field. Jon was able to use his cyclocross skills to drill it throug the wet technical turns faster than any of his chasers. Over the final 3 laps he was able to increase his gap ultimately crossing the line solo 22 seconds in front of the field. The team was able to place 5 riders in the top 12 taking away the lions share of the prize purse.

Present at the race were:

Jonathan Hamblen
Jonathan Page
Jay Charles
Nathan Griffith
Owen Nielsen
Hugh Moran
Joey Coddington
Jacob Fetty
Andrew Olson