That's right, I did it and it feels great!
With 3 days to go I took the yellow jersey and gained a 6 point lead. With 2 days to go I was feeling strong and confident. The next day was the famous "Downers Ave" stage which was huge but my legs didn't want to go to work. One lap to go I was sitting pretty behind the Kelly Benefits train but the speed was not fast enough. Sterling 'to my surprise' jumped with 200m before the last corner and gapped us. His ride was very commendable and he won the race with me finishing 4th. Great, my lead is only 3 points now going into the final stage! My confidence was certainly shattered and it felt like I had lost the yellow jersey even though I hadn't. 
Sitting on the start line of the final day it felt like my heart rate was about 140 bpm and the pressure was on. All I had to do during the 100km stage was to make sure Strerling did not go anywhere, but trust me he tried. The race was so intense for me and it felt like it went forever! 10 laps to go, 9 to go, 8 to go (you get it) and then we get the bell. He jumps through the peleton and tries to lose me, we all know that that was not going to happen! His move didn't work tonight so it came down to a sprint between us! Cantwell crosses the line ahead of Sterling and takes the yellow jersey for "superweek". The weight that got lifted off my shoulders as I crossed the line was incredible. 
That's not all! My team mate Chad Hartley, raced his heart out and managed to take the "red" sprinters jersey off Rahsan Bahatti (Rock Racing) with 3 days to go. So we ended up in yellow and red for the tour!    

The yellow remains on my shoulders and Jittery Joe's defend it with pride.
As to be expected Rock Racing were out to brake the field apart from the gun and to have Magnell Sterling try and form a breakaway without me in it. Again the boys did a great job and we did not let anything dangerous go up the road. In the end a break of 10 did go without any main contenders in it. I managed to out sprint "Sterling" and sneak away with some more points, which takes me to a 5 point lead. Still the legs are feeling good and the boys and I are very committed to hold onto this jersey until Sunday.

After 2 weeks of battling Rock Racing for the yellow jersey, I finally took it off them today. 4 days to go and I have a 3 point lead over Sterling Magnell from Rock Racing. I feel strong and confident that I can keep my hands on it and the last 4 races are criteriums, so I should be able to manage. The boys, "Ryan and Chad" from Jittery Joe's did a brilliant job today. There was a 40 second breakaway that we thought was gone for sure. It contained Rahsan Bahatti who is high on GC so we didn't want this to stay away. We honestly could not have worked or planned it better, so this 2nd place and yellow jersey goes out to them today! Cheers boys. I can only imagine what Rock has install for me in the next few days, but they better realise that I'm an Aussie and we are built tough!
Keep posted.


Jonny

With only one result seeing me on the podium I must say that I have been very consistant in placing inside the top 5, or should I say just outside the top 3!

Today is stage 9 and its not a good start, as for I'm looking out the window and its raining here in Milwaukee. Yesterday was one of the harder days which consisted of 2 hills that smashed the field apart from lap one of the 1km criterium. It started raining with 20 to go and riders were falling down like an ice skater who took to the ice for the first time. A break of 3 went up the road early which had another Aussie called Bernard Sulzberger. They got a lap up and the peleton was sprinting for 4th. The rain had caused so many people to go down and I would say 75% of the feild had layed it over at some point. Coming into 300m to go Bernad hit out and crashed on the last corner, which allowed Jake Keough (Kelly Benefit Strategies/Medifast) take the win. I finshed  2nd in the sprint but placed 4th overall cause of the break away.
Results so far.......
Stage 1 - 25th
Stage 2 - 4th
Stage 3 - 5th
Stage 4 - 9th
Stage 5 - 25th
Stage 6 - 2nd
Stage 7 - day off
Stage 8 - 4th
Stage 9 - 3rd
Stage 10 - 8th
Stage 11 - 11th
Stage 12 - 5th
Stage 13 - 2nd Takes the yellow jersey
Stage 14 - 12th
Stage 15 - 14th
Stage 16 - 4th
Stage 17 - 14th
Takes the yellow jersey and wins!

Jonny Cantwell

Well SUPERWEEK is fully underway.

Its now day 7 and each criterium has been and average speed of 45kmh per day for 100km. My team mate Chad Hartley and I are the only soldiers from Jittery Joe's and we managed to take the "red" sprinters jersey off the shoulders of Rashaan Bahati yesterday, which has his whole squad here. There are other Pro teams here that have a full team as well and we are hopefull that Ryan Sullivan will fly in and releave some of the weight from our shoulders. 

The legs are starting to feel a little tired and we have decided to have a rest day today! Tomorrow's stage will have a hill repeat which will allow Chad and I to have a better chance to sneak away and claim some more valuable points for the overall classification. Currently I am 3rd on GC and Chad 5th, so we are looking good with not to much pressure! 

Sorry for the delay in posting this but when your on the road its sometimes hard to get online.


2nd in Stage 6. Bensenville criterium

Hello all,
One of the best things about cycling is you learn something new every time you ride or race, "it doesn't matter if you're a beginner or Pro". I should have learnt my lesson when I put my hands up too early back in 2003, when McEwen pipped me on the line in the Noosa International criterium. Well anyway, yes I did it again. Fortunately it was to another fast man called Rahsaan Bahati from Rock Racing. I thought I had enough jump in the sprint to hold the field off but because it was an up hill finish my salute acted as a parachute and allowed Bahati to stretch past me right on the line! So lesson number 2 learnt and I can assure you that it will not happen again, "lucky it wasn't a big race".  

Superweek begins 10th of July and concludes 27th of July (that's right 3 weeks). This race series has been running for around 40 years now and is renowned all over the world to be one of the hardest 3 weeks of bike racing. Preparing for a tour like this is very difficult due to the intensity that is required to race everyday. I competed in this last year and placed 2nd 4 times, 3rd twice and finished 3rd Overall. With a lot better preparation and racing under the belt I hope to take this to the next level. Official website is www.internationalcycling.com so check it out and I'll keep you posted.

Jonny

Cantwell run's 4th in the Manhattan Beach GP.
This criterium is one of America's favorite races for the spectators. The 1 miles circuit finishes with 90 degree turn with only 200m to go. Nic Sanderson (Jelly Belly) lead into the corner a litte hot and his front wheel slid out from under him. This took Freddy Rodrigue's (Rock Racing) out and I just held it up. Fortunate for Rashan Bahatti and 2 other riders they had a good line through the corner and were not put off by the crash. With only a short dash to the line there was not enough time to do anything but hold 4th place. Still this is a NRC (national race calendar) race so this result is one to put on the resume.
Jonathan  

Welcome to JonathanCantwell.com. I have published this website for you all to keep track of my racing career whilst in the USA. Please check back soon as for I will post more news weekly.