Australia’s Hilton Clarke (Navigators Insurance) won a wild, 40-rider pack sprint on Saturday to take the Saturn Rochester Twilight Criterium. In the women’s race, Sarah Uhl, the reigning collegiate national road champion, won a three-up dash to the line.

Now in its third year, the New York crit is on USA Cycling’s National Racing Calendar. With a crowd estimated at 40,000, and $20,000 on the line in the pro-am men’s race, it earned its spot in the limelight.

In the fading evening sun, 102 riders started the two-hour pro-am men’s race. It was game on from lap one, with teams including Kodak Gallery-Sierra Nevada, Navigators, TIAA-CREF, and Toyota-United stringing out the field. Meanwhile, privateers like triple Olympic gold medalist Stefan Steinweg of Germany, and the always-speedy Jame Carney lurked in the field. The rubber band stretched and riders were steadily shed off the back, but no moves stuck until a group of 12 broke clear with 26 laps to go.

Present in the mix was Navigators speedster Clarke, along with three Kodak-Sierra Nevada riders. "The Kodak guys started attacking me," said Clarke. "They had the numbers in the break and wanted to play their strategy." The gap swelled to 30 seconds before attacks came from the front of the field and Kodak sprinter Dan Schmatz came across, effecting dooming the group.

"We had three guys up there, but not a sprinter," explained Schmatz. It all came back together once again.

With the clock approaching 10:30 p.m., the race wound into its final laps. At five laps to go, Target Training’s Frank Pipp snagged the $650 crowd prime, but the cash sprint didn’t shake out any breakaways. At the sound of the bell four TIAA-CREF riders went to the front, looking to set up sprinter Rahsaan Bahati. But Navigators owned the top three spots coming out the last corner, launching Clarke to a clear win over Schmatz.

"I felt terrible out there tonight," said Clarke. "But sometimes it’s the races where you feel bad that you end up winning."

The one-hour women’s race was stacked with talent from Colavita-Cooking Light, Diet Cheerwine, and Victory Brewing. Riding without any teammates, Uhl, riding for Team Serotta, found herself outgunned.

"I had to try to put myself in every move," she said. And she found the one that stuck, slipping up the road with New Zealand pursuiter Sarah Ulmer (Colavita) and Victory Brewing’s Lauren Franges. As a past junior world champion in match sprints, Uhl had the firepower to comfortably take the win in the three-up sprint.

Men
1. Hilton Clarke (Aus) Navigators Insurance Cycling
2. Schamtz Dan Kodakgallery.com-Sierra Nevada
3. Sebastian Alexandre, Colavita Olive Oil-Sutter Home
4. Vassili Davidenko (Rus) Navigators Insurance
5. Rahsaan Bahati, TIAA-CREF
6. Frank Pipp Target Training
7. Shawn Milne Navigators Insurance
8. Zach Bell (Can), Rite Aid Pro Cycling
9. Brad Huff, TIAA-CREF
10. Martin Gilbert (Can), Kodakgallery.com-Sierra Nevada

Women
1. Sara Uhl, Team Serotta
2. Lauren Franges, Victory Brewing
3. Sarah Ulmer (NZ), Colavita-Cooking Light
4. Sarah Caravella, Team Lipton
5. Kelly Benjamin, Cheerwine
6. Chrissy Ruiter, Victory Brewing
7. Kacey Manderfield, Wolverine-Redken
8. Iona Wynter, Colavita-Cooking Light
9. Sarah Tillotson, Colavita-Cooking Light
10. Caitlyn McCullough, Terry Precision