The battle for the overall Rock Hill omnium winner played out on a one-mile loop located at Winthrop Lake. Dave Forkner of Globalbikes had won the Day One’s street sprints as well as Day Two’s Patriot’s Trail road race. “I don’t think it’s locked up,” Forkner said yesterday when asked about his chances to take the overall title in the criterium. “I definitely need to get a top ten or better than that to win [the overall].” How true those words turned out to be.

The pro men faced 35 relatively flat laps which guaranteed aggressive racing. Attacks were frequent and the speed was always pegged. With over 90 riders on the course there were plenty of sharp elbows that caused riders to “come to grief” during the race. The green-machine of Globalbikes was seen at the front keeping riders, that were in striking distance of Forkner’s lead, in check. It was this kind of attentiveness that doomed any break away and set the scene for a field sprint.

“My team set me up perfect but it was just bad luck. I came out of the turn about 10th wheel, which I thought would be alright, but the rider in front of me got gapped and I had to start my sprint at 400 meters by myself and I fizzled out.”

It was a worse case scenario for Forkner in the field sprint as Thomas Brown, who was currently in third place overall, won the criterium with Forkner crossing the line in 13th place. Brown’s victory put him on not only the top step of the podium for the criterium, but also in the overall. Forkner dropped to second on general classification followed by his teammate Ben Renkema in third.

Not all was lost for Globalbikes’ Forkner. Brown is a pro for Team Mountain Khakis so he does not need the qualifying points for the Nature Valley Grand Prix which Rock Hill is affiliated with. As a result that available spot was awarded to Forkner.

At the time of this report no official results from the promoter were available and Carolina Cycling News was unable to provide full results.