While in the women’s race the situation in the last two laps was quite clear, Ash Duban and Ainara Elbusto were fighting for the win, in the men’s race it was total chaos in the last laps with two crashes in turn 8 that caused several top contenders to be taken out for the win. We analysed chronologically what happened in those last two laps of the men’s final to give a detailed overview on how David van Eerd got his first Red Hook Criterium victory.
Text: Date Burgerjon / Brian Megens
Photography: Silvia Galliani
One lap to go:
Stefan Schäfer of the Specialized-Rocket Espresso team took the turn way too fast, he couldn’t hold the corner and crashed taking out several riders including Intelligentsia Racing teammates Colin Strickland, Marius Petrache, and Tim Ceresa. To see what happened check out the videos below.
David van Eerd manages to avoid the crash of Stefan and comes in a good position, he decides to give it his all to take that Rockstar Top-Antagonist award. “After the crash I had a good position, so I kept pushing,”
Final lap:
Van Eerd takes the Top-Antagonist award by crossing the finish line going into the last lap first. After the first corner he realises that he still has a gap and decides to put his head down and go full gas for the win. However, on the last straight going into the hairpin David is caught by the front of the peloton. “On the last lap they [Fortin and Vigano] caught me and I was just fucked. But then I got into third wheel and on the last corner I managed to take the inside line.”
Alec Briggs, David van Eerd, Filippo Fortin, and Davide Vigano go into the last corner almost side by side. It is Alec Briggs who takes a too steep inside line and crashes taking out Olivier Leroy of the Aventon Factory Team. David van Eerd takes the inside line and comes out of the corner first sprinting to the Red Hook Criterium Barcelona No.5 win.
