DLP had a good two days of racing in Illinois this past weekend. . A crack team of three riders, Scott Jackson, Owen Nielson, and Tommy Nankervis decided to make the trip to the Downers Grove to contend the US Professional Criterium Championships. The weekend started with a combined Professional and Amateur race on Saturday as a warm up for the national championships on Sunday. Saturday night the three DLP professionals descended on the race course looking to open up the legs, and with two riders who had never done the race before on the team, learn the course. The team rode a good race the first night with DLP represented strongly at the front by Owen Nielson who seemed to have unstoppable form after his return from a swing of races in Belgium. Scott and Tommy rode the race with the larger goal of Sunday in mind, sitting comfortably in the field, until with two laps remaining; the trio got stuck behind an unfortunate crash, taking them out of contention for the win. However, Sunday was a new day and once again Owen was showing some great form by riding strongly throughout the day. Tommy and Scott both rode conservatively, but managed to represent DLP in the two significant moves of the day, albeit both moves were doomed to fail. In the end the race would be decided by a chaotic field sprint. DLP looked to its’ two strong sprinter, Owen and Tommy with Scott doing what he could to help them in the closing laps. Despite the chaos and high speeds that typically define Downers Grove, Owen and Tommy managed to both place themselves in the top 20, finishing 14th and 16th respectively. This is a great finish for Owen in his first time racing the Downers Grove race. The race was won by Rahsaan Bahati of Rock Racing.

The final race of The Giordona Crossroads Cycling Classic always draws a top notch field as many of the teams have arrived in town for the following day’s $100,000 crtierium in uptown Charlotte. This year was no exception! DLP hit the race in force looking to make things happen. The race started out fast and within only 10 laps of the course in downtown Statesville a small group of five had escaped the field containing both Boyd Johnson and Chris Judy from DLP racing. Almost immediately the rest of the field hit the panic button as riders from both Team Type 1 and Rite Aid attempted to bridge the gap. However it was not to be as the group of five rolled away on the technical course. With two riders in the group, Boyd Johnson took the initiative to drive the break. Within only a few laps the breakaway had a 1/2 lap lead on the field. As the race went on, Chris and Boyd made a couple of attempts to try and shake Rahsaan Bahati (as he was clearly more »

Tommy Nankervis took 2nd place for DLP racing in the Evanston Northwestern Healthcare Grand Prix of Cycling. The race was the 11th stage of the International Cycling Classic known as Superweek. Following Spencer’s win the night before the momentum was high within the DLP Team. The race started out with lots of crashes as the group navigated the technical criterium circuit. All day long attacks went but nothing was sticking. Then with only 9 laps left the Columbian Rider Jairo Perez Suarez put down a big attack and found himself riding clear of the field. Tommy immediately recognized the opportunity and set off in pursuit of Suarez. Tommy quickly bridged across the gap with Peter Dawson from Rock Racing along for the ride. Peter mostly sat on as his team had the lead in both the points competition and the overall GC. As the laps counted down the trio built up a 35 second lead. Tommy felt good about his chances but Dawson threw down a somewhat surprising attack with 400m to go to the line. The early move caught Tommy off guard and he quickly found himself digging deep to grab Dawson’s wheel. Dawson was able to hold on for the win just barely edging out Tommy at the line by a wheel. The second place finish is another great result for the DLP Racing team.