Cycling News and Race Results

His team-mate Austin Carrol finished second, while his South African team-mate Jos le Roux managed a fifth position.

The route was fairly technical with not only two steep climbs, but also because of the "invisible wall" rule. According to this rule riders aren't allowed to cross over the middle of the road and if they did, they are disqualified. "This meant the road was only wide enough for four riders to ride next to each other," said Kriek.

The bunch thinned out to about 40 riders (70 started) after the first lap. "On the second climb of lap two I got in a break with six other riders. We worked well together until I heard that Jos and Austin are trying to bridge the gap. As soon as they joined the break I told Austin to attack. The plan was to let him go and then for Jos and I to cross over to him. Only one other guy followed Austin. We were about 13 riders in the break and the gap was about 40 seconds."

Kriek attacked. "It was a long, hard effort but I managed to join Austin."

With 1km to go the trio had a gap of 90 seconds on the chasers. The finishing straight is a climb of about 300m with a 12% gradient. "I started my sprint with 500m to go. I caught the other rider totally off guard. I don't think he expected me to start my sprint that early and I managed to stay away. Even though I hoped for a victory early on to get the confidence up, I didn't expect it to happen so soon."

According to Kriek he enjoyed riding and racing with a team that has experience and a good understanding of racing. "We really worked well together as a team."

His next race is the Boulevard Classic on Saturday in Crestwood, CA.