Women's B Stedman & Caster's GP Cyclocross - Dec 06 - Janet Ramos
5th Annual W.E. Stedman GP of Cross
South Kingstown, RI
Saturday, December 09, 2006
B Women – 40 minutes
24 Starters – 23 Finishers
NEBCers: Julie Lockhart (21), Janet Ramos (11)
This is one of my favorite cross races since I did well at it last year (6th) so I came to the race hoping to have a repeat performance. This course is relatively flat so it favors those that are power riders although that coupled with the wind this year it was an energy sapper as the race progressed.
This year I have been working on being more aggressive with my starts and unfortunately this was not one of my better ones. When the officials whispered ‘go’ a woman in the middle of the front row (I was in the 3rd) could not clip in so she started riding to the left cutting off Sue Maclean (my marked wheel), a few other women, and myself. Talk about being in the wrong place at the wrong time. So we sprinted like hell, left her in the dust and caught back up to the rest of the field and jumped in to enter the single-track in the woods. We all bottle necked at the run-up that Cris talked about in her report and at the top I jumped back on and rode like hell. Now we were on the grass, one of my favorite parts, so I passed 2 or 3 riders there. Next was the off camber, dead grass dirt section into the barriers where Cris, Todd and some other NEBC folks were cheering for me so I showed them my stellar dismounting and remounting technique by coming to a complete stop before jumping back on the bike – sorry guys. Now it was time to get serious and really get going. Up ahead of me I saw a rider I have been marking in my races, Stacey Mosely, so just before the end of the first lap I managed to pass her never to see her again on my heels. As the second lap started I pretty much maintained my position throughout the race. On the 2 final laps, I do-si-do’ed with the 10th place woman who at the beginning of the season always placed 5 to 8 positions ahead of me – not too shabby after being injured 2 months ago.
Of course I have to say thank you for all of the support and encouragement by my fellow NEBCers who cheered during the race. Every time I hit the long pavement by the wall your cheering helped me to stand and sprint even though my legs wanted to do the opposite. Thanks guys, you helped to give me wings.
Caster’s Grand Prix of Cross
Verge New England Championship Cyclo-Cross Final Round
Warwick, RI
Sunday, December 10, 2006
B Women – 40 minutes
31 Starters – 30 Finishers
NEBCers: Julie Lockhart (28), Lori Whynot (20), Janet Ramos (13)
This was my first time racing at the Caster’s race and it was a blast. The course is quite different from the Stedman course in that it has a few types of terrain: pavement, 2 lovely sandy beach sections, super twisty woody sections, and some grass.
The juniors went off before us and unfortunately one of them went down near the start so our start was a bit messed up – the officials pretty much let us just take off when they moved the wounded kid off the pavement (it was sketchy to say the least). After we twisted through the asphalt parking lot we entered the first sandy beach area where Lori passed a bunch of women and was off like a shot. I kept her in my sights to keep up my motivation since running in and up a sandy run-up is not my forte. My legs were feeling pretty good and at this point I was around 17th or 16th place. So I swooped down out of the woods onto the pavement and up to the one set of barriers with a group of 3 or 4 women. After remounting I was in hot pursuit of picking off slower riders. As I twisted around the intestinal shaped wooded section (to quote Richard Fries), up ahead I saw a rider who I have been marking in my races all season long, Heidi Wakeman. First, I passed an MIT rider and then as I came upon Heidi and passed her I said ‘let’s go’ but she could not keep up with me. So I just did my thing and kept my pace high into lap 2 and 3. At the beginning of lap 3 some inner-race excitement occurred after the start/finish, Julie Lefebvre proceeded to wipe out in front of me on the pavement and a little further along the top 3 juniors zoomed past me so I assumed that I would be pulled the next time through the start/finish. No dice on that one. About half way through lap 3 I was passed by 2 other juniors on a downhill where one of them almost took me out at the bottom of the hill (I squawked rather loudly at them), man, that was close. Towards the end of lap 3 I passed a rider who had ‘CU’ on her butt but at the beginning of lap 4 she passed me on the sand beach run-up and took off. Half way through lap 4 I tried like hell to catch up with an MIT rider ahead of me but I just could not catch her. So as I came into the finish I stood and sprinted to ‘finish strong’ since there was another MIT rider on my tail.
Once again, thanks to Bill, Oscar, Anne, Mary Lou, Scott and the other NEBC folks who cheered for me during the suffer fest races this weekend. It really helps hearing ‘go Janet’ even when I and bumbling around with my bike after barriers and run-up sections. You guys are the best!
Now it’s onto Nationals! Good luck to everyone that is racing this weekend -Go NEBC!