It's a big race in the Italian Village of Windsor, Ontario- with a character and flare that cannot be beat and over 50 years of history.
What race is it?
The Tour di Via Italia, or simply known as the Erie Street Criterium.
Purdue University was represented by Joey Iuliano and through proxy, as he races for the Panther/RGF presented by Felt Bicycles in the summer, Chris Uberti. Other notables in the field included Darco Fico, Daniele Defranceschi, Paul Martin, Kirk Albers, and last year's winner Ben Renkema.
The race did not start off particularly quick, however, after several laps the race was on. Joey was very attentive at the front and went with a few promising moves that were brought back after a few laps. With 60 KM to go in the 100 KM race, Panther rider Andy Moskel made a two man break and several laps later Chris joined with others in tow and Paul Martin made the jump across after that.
The breakaway quickly gained time on the field- which was being lackadaisical in it's chase effort until 12 to go when Darco Fico launched a valiant effort to bring the break back, however, no one was willing to assist. With that, the break, and the race, slipped up the road.
With one to go a the break was starting the fragment, Chris made it across to the split and his teammate Paul launched into a vicious lead out. In the most dominate display of sprinting prowess, Chris powered away after the last corner to seal the deal on the biggest win of his career.
