Attleboro Crit Women's 3/4, Chris Rothfuss, July 8
Attleboro Criterium
Women’s 3/4
appx. 50 starters (combined 3/4, 30+ and 45+ fields)
NEBC: Cris Rothfuss (1st), Tami Buhr (5th), Sally Annis (7th), Jen Cunningham-Butler, Aiyana Currie, Blake Fitch, Julie Lockhart, Annette Kennedy, Helen Pearce, Catherine Womack, Kathy Martin, Lorraine Warner (hoping that I listed everyone and not sure of placings, as results are not on bikereg yet)
As you can see, the women took a cue from the NEBC men and showed up in force! With such numbers, we knew that we had to do the proper thing and put on a display of cycling teamwork. We achieved that, as well as three top tens.
With three fields combined, approximately 50 women squeezed onto the starting line. I say “squeezed” because it seemed that everyone tried to claim a spot in the front row, creating the very real threat of a mass crash after one collective pedal stroke. Somehow, we got off without incident. Tami and I took off hard to set the early pace, string things out immediately, and show that NEBC was in the house to play. After a few laps of pace-setting, we started taking turns attacking. Sally threw down about 17 (perhaps an exaggeration) blistering attacks throughout the race, and Tami and I took our turns trying to keep things peppy. We had a hard time staying in position for effective counter-attacks and will work on that more next time. Also, we managed to launch at least three attacks right as the prime bell was rung, so our plan to also line things up for the primes was foiled frequently. But it felt good to be active. At one point, Tami, Sally and I managed to be at the front of the field in delta formation (with Tami in front of the two of us) just as we were approaching the hill. I told Sally to stay right where she was and stage-whispered to Tami to “go.” Could of sworn she heard me and was surprised and somewhat amused when, instead of a hot attack off the front of a blocking pair of teammates, Tami instead started to stalk off slowly and quietly, like a cat carefully hunting a bird in the long grass. And it started to work! She got off a little ways before the field awoke from its day-dreaming to realize that NEBC had launched the stealth attack of the year. Of course, Tami hadn’t heard me and was just inadvertently riding us off her wheel. :)
The finish was picture perfect and my win was a direct result of my teammates’ efforts. Sally, Tami and I lined it up with a few to go. I got squeezed off with 1.5 to go and had to work like heck to catch back on. Blake helped me out in this process by creating some room when I desperately needed it. I latched back on just as Sally accelerated off the front with 1 to go. Tami took over on the backside and delivered me through the final corner. The two of them rode fast and strong to keep me from getting swarmed and boxed in. I jumped just as we straightened up from the final corner. Natalie Dumont (Wheelworks) put a hard charge on me and appeared in my peripheral vision as we approached the line. Behind me, Sally was yelling ‘go!’ and I was thinking ‘feet, please go faster.’ I threw my bike at the line for good measure and took the win by a few inches.
The whole team deserves to be proud today. Our individual goals ran the gamut from just completing the race (for our newest racers) to staying in the field (for our up-and-coming Cat 4’s; particular kudos to Aiyana and Lorraine for achieving this goal in a good field) to directly contributing to a team win. Mission accomplished on all fronts.