Matt Novak, a 17-year-old South Holland resident riding for Chicago- based Team Clif Bar Midwest, captured the Illinois state junior road race and criterium titles at the 2006 Proctor Cycling Classic on July 1 and 2.
The victories marked the first state laurels for Novak, who will attend the University of Arizona as a freshman this fall, and are the most prestigious finishes to date for Team Clif Bar Midwest during its inaugural season.

At the Brimfield Road Race on Saturday, July 1, Novak established his winning margin in the opening moments of the race. A powerful rider who has won a multitude of time trial events, Novak employed that sense of pace and discipline to steadily storm away from his opponents. For the duration of the race, his company consisted of the official's pace car, along with the undulating terrain and the relentless heat that are the hallmarks of the Brimfield race course.

Novak completed the 32-mile, two-lap challenge with a gap of several minutes over his closest chaser. For his efforts, Novak was awarded a medal from the Proctor Cycling Classic, along with a State Champion jersey from the Illinois Cycling Association.

Novak worked to employ a similar strategy on Sunday in the Proctor Criterium, held on a 1-mile figure-8 course in Peoria. He attacked with a significant effort during the opening laps, but the Team Clif Bar Midwest standout was being marked by the entire field after his win on the previous day. Nevertheless, Novak continued to launch a flurry of attacks and accelerated the pace until the field slowly strung out and riders began dropping out of the lead group. With approximately one- third of the race remaining, the pace line snapped and Novak rode solo to his second victory--and his second state jersey--of the weekend.

Team Clif Bar Midwest also fielded a six-man category III squad to take on a field of over 60 talented opponents in the Brimfield Road Race on Saturday. After working to keep breakaways in check during the opening two laps, Clif Bar riders Joel Feinberg, Matt Welch and Brian Boyle moved to the front in the final miles. Feinberg assisted in keeping the tempo high approaching the finish, whereupon Boyle emerged to take fourth in the sprint, with Welch right behind in fifth. Despite bringing an eight-man squad to the line for Sunday's criterium, two crashes in the final lap disrupted the team's solid position in the final meters.