This crit showed the rest of the amateur teams what professional racing is all about. The goal of the Motorola team was to get Max Van Heeswijk into position to take his 6th Classic Stage win in 2 years and gain a 20 second time bonus to push him up in the GC from his 5th position. It worked to perfection.
With 3 laps of the race (which was 36 laps in total for 30 kms), that had been raced at a furious pace, the Motorola squad assembled in front of the field. Julich, Swart, Heeswijk in line, with Van Poppel riding for the Dutch Websdale Team sitting the wheel. Hunt, 3rd in GC, was sitting on Van Poppel.
2 laps to go, and Hincapie comes up to strengthen the Motorola charge. It is Swart driving, Julich, Hincapie, Van Heeswijk, then Hunt, then Koerts (who had recovered from his crash yesterday), then GC leader, Lillywhite.
Bell goes, and the Motorola train is unaltered. The first 4 over the line get the time bonuses, 20 seconds to the winner. Coming into the second last corner, a huge crash occurs just behind the lead riders. At first it looks like Hunt is down, but no, he reappears. The wind up over, Van Heeswijk with seeming ease, sprints out from behind Hincapie's wheel to win from Mike Weissman from Germany, a past winner who had been ill early in the week, with Dutchman, Den Braber third. Lillywhite failed to figure and gain any bonuses.
Points: Hunt 18 Tanner 13 Rasenberg 10 White 10 Van Heeswijk 9 Pearce 6 Lillywhite 6 Rendell 5 Wilson 5 Burke 4 Sprint King Hunt 18 Heeswijk 17 Rasenberg 10 Tanner 10 Lillywhite 9 Burke 8 Sweet 7 White 6 Den Braber 5 Pearce 5