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.