Housler Delivers First Win - Niagara Criterium

The team rolled out for the first time today on the streets of Buffalo -- a nice course right in front of City Hall. We were pretty pumped up to get it going today and the pressure to win was on for sure!

We had a plan to be aggressive throughout the race, and Brendan launched the first blow in the early laps. We didn't really think he'd stick it from that far out and we were ready to counter the chase. But he gained a gap of 20 seconds and realized his move had some serious legs (pun intended!). The squad led by Rob and Drew put in some hard work up front to control the chasing field as well as look for the right bridge by the other teams so we could follow and have more man power up front. But the teams were not that interested in trying to bridge, so we kept the field in check and worked to get Nick set up for the field sprint. Unfortunately, Nick's deraileur broke and he was stuck in the 11 which was too big a gear to hit the line which was only 250m from the corner.

After almost 50 minutes off the front alone, Brendan went on to snag the big win, Nick just missed the podium in 4th and leadout man Drew finished 6th. A great effort by all on the Minerva Design Cycling Team!