Aldo Ino Ilesic, the Slovenian powerhouse, probably has the most impressive track record of today’s RHC men’s field with only getting 3rd places in every RHC he participated in. On top of that, almost all these crits, except RHC Milano No7., were won by his teammates. However, on the day of Red Hook Criterium London No.3 Aldo wasn’t there nor is he registered for RHC Barcelona No.5. Team Specialized-Rocket Espresso did post on his absence on the day of RHC L3 but any further details on why Aldo is not racing at the moment has neither been shared by the team nor by Aldo Ilesic himself. We can speculate many things on why Aldo is not racing at the moment but we decide to stay with the facts out there and focus on the consequence it has on the race itself.
Text: Brian Megens
Header Image: Tornanti.cc
Aldo is a super powerful and explosive rider with an impressive physique. On top of that he has experience in mass sprints on the UCI Pro-Tour level. All together this makes him a master in controlling the field to let a teammate break-away from the field while he covers all counterattacks from the pack and (so far) also managed to out-sprint that pack in the bunch sprints for the last podium spot.
In RHC London No.3 Aldo was not there and it is unfair to judge Team Specialized-Rocket Espresso on 1 race especially as they endured several mechanical failures causing Stefan Schafer to leave the race and Alec Briggs to fight his way back from the back of the pack. However, one thing was clear on London and that was Team Bahumer, with 3 strong riders, Filippo Fortin, Alvise Zanasca, and Giovanni Longo, taking control of the race.
For Red Hook Criterium Barcelona No.5 there are several teams with 3 very strong riders that can control the field. However,the question is do they have the experience on how to do that in a world-class field.
Intelligentsia Racing will bring 3 world-class fixed gear riders to Barcelona, current RHC leader Colin Strickland, Marius Petrache, and Cesar Valenzuela.
Bahumer Racing with Filippo Fortin, Alvise Zanasca, and Giovanni Longo have 3 riders that all proved to be elite cyclists in RHC.
Team Specialized-Rocket Espresso will come with Stefan Schafer, Alec Briggs, and Eamon Lucas. All three of them are absolute world-class and with Schafer they probably have the strongest rider of the field in their team.
Besides these 3 teams there are several other teams, Aventon Factory Team, Cykeln Divisione Corse, Team Cinelli-Chrome, and 8Bar, that have multiple top riders in their squad and can surprise the other 3 teams.
