06.16.2006. Nature Valley Grand Prix: Minneapolis Downtown Classic
The CliffsNotes version…A 60 minute crit shortened to 17 minutes by officials due to exceedingly inclement weather. Let’s see what cyclingnews.com had to say about it:

…Then the rain began to fall harder. Twelve minutes in, Jelly Belly’s Andrew Bajadali attacked with Fraser on his wheel, but it was quickly pulled back. Sensing the urgency as the weather began to worsen - with lightning directly above the course - Van Ulden then attacked and got a 5-second gap, which grew as he came around for a second solo lap.

By the next lap, though, Van Ulden was nowhere at the front as his back wheel succumbed to the rain slickened course.

“You could see his back tire just bouncing out of the corners,” Tilford said.

As they came around for the next lap, officials decided the weather was too much and rang the bell for last lap, much to the delight of many of the riders, including O’Neill who raised his hand to show one to the peloton and shook his head in agreement.

That is when Tilford saw his opportunity. A veteran bike racer a background in mountain biking and cyclocross, he attacked into the first corner and held it straight through. His lead was enough that 150 meters from the line, he sat up and began celebrating, with Henderson and Fraser cruising in behind for the bonus seconds.

Tilford said it wasn’t a calculated risk that he took, just a chance for the win. “You just don’t want to let everybody come up on the back of you,” he said, crediting both his skill and his tires for the win. “If I’m riding good, in the rain I can ride with anyone.”

Now, for a different take on things, is Jackson Stewart:

…There was a little crash about 15 minutes in which took out a few health net riders and we eased up a bit just out of respect. The next thing I know, as I am sitting in the top 5 and just passing the announcers booth, something is announced. I did hear it as we had already passed the booth but, all of a sudden some guy comes blazing really hot into the first turn, chops everyone, and everyone hits the breaks[sic] as he looked really uncomfortable in the turn. He got a good gap. A turn later I hear on the radio “this might be the last lap, it probably is”. Health net must not have got radioed yet as they were still just tempoing and probably preferred this random guy in red off the front so he wouldn’t chop them in the turns anymore. It was just passed probably 1/2 to go that Healthnet actually responded and realized it was one lap to go. The random dude held it to the line for the win.

This dude didn’t just win a bike race, he really rubbed it in with his celebration as he finished. From what I could see and others from the sidelines tell me, he was waving his hands all over the place and pointing back at the field as if he was Tom Boonen and just took 7 bike lengths out of a world class field and they all sucked. I guess the dude must of beenback far enough in the group to where he could actually hear the annoucer say it was one to go as he passed the start finish.

I still can’t get over the celebration this guy put on as he won a 20 minute criterium, it was crazy, maybe it was his first win? Who knows.

Now, I’d bet that at age 46 Steve Tilford is likely the oldest guy to win an NRC race. Tilford won his first elite national title in 1983 when Jackson Stewart was 3 years old and has likely won NRC caliber races every year that Jackson Stewart has been alive.