Bank of America Wilmington Grand Prix Report

From Scott Zwizanski:

I raced today along with Joao and Sven, who was fresh off his last final exam on Thursday in Michigan. The race was in downtown Wilmington, DE, 56 laps of a 0.9-mile course. The race is just a 40min. drive from the town I grew up in, so I raced the Wilmington crit several times as an amateur. I was excited to come back home and race the grand prix now that it has NRC status.

The race was strung out and aggressive from the start. Wind was a big factor; it funneled between the buildings in a couple spots to add difficulty to the course. About 15 laps into the race I went on the attack and a break of about 5-7 riders formed. All the big teams there were represented. I was in there along with Colavita, Kelly Benefits, Battley Harley Davidson and Rite Aid. Within 4-5 laps the break quickly ballooned to about 14-riders, this move had the right combination to stay away the whole race. We held a 25-45 sec gap most of the race while Sven and Joao patrolled the chasing peleton.

With around 10 laps to I went on the attack again and slimmed the front group down to just 6-riders, Borrajo(Colavita), Veilleux(Kelly), Hamblen(Time Pro), Dewald and Fuentes(Harley). With all the teams, with multiple riders in the breakaway, represented in this 6-man group we gained time quickly and some cat and mouse began once we were under 5 laps to go. Lots of little attacks going off but no one wanted to let one guy go. With time running out, I started to think that we were going to go to a 6-up sprint. Borrajo, the fastest sprinter in the group, was a little winded from towing back 2-3 attacks in a row and I saw an opportunity with 1.5-laps to go to get away and I gave it one last shot. I attacked on the backstretch in the windiest section of the course and with the effort I was putting out I knew I was either going to win or get 6th place. It worked out and I soloed the final 1.5 laps to get my first NRC win.