Sterling Classic Elite Women - 5-9-09
We are now 2-for-2. Our second team race ended with another NEBC win.
Rebecca Wellons (1st), Clara Kelly (7th), Brooke O’Connor (9th), Cathy Rowell (11th), Natalie Dumont (12th), Susanne Delaney (13th)
How it unfolded
Neutral 2 miles from the school to the start/finish hill. Why have all the recent races started with a “neutral” climb? Once we started racing, it was quiet for the first lap. At the end of the first lap, came the first push up the hill, led by possibly Anna Milkowski (unattached). It was enough to split the field, with Nat, Clara and Rebecca upfront, and Cathy, Susanne and Brooke having to chase back on. Each lap up the hill this happen the next couple of times, with different people pushing the pace and slowly ladies being spit off the back. This saved NEBC from having to initiate all the attacks and made for some fun (and hard) racing up the hill and into the next few miles. Action was usually quiet on Rte 12 as everyone prepped themselves for the hill and because it was too windy to stay out alone here. Susanne, Cathy and Brooke took turns keeping the pace going on Rte 12 so our climbers would be ready to respond on the hill. After the hill at the start of lap 4(?), Debony Diehl (Sunapee) attacked and got a good gap. We weren’t too worried about her at first because it was still a long way to the finish to be alone. She steadily gained a sizeable gap for the rest of the lap. At the start of the 5th lap, Kristen Gohr (Colavita) attacked hard with only Rebecca able to stay with her. Another group of Clara, Kat Carr and Karin Holmes (Sunapee), Anna Milkowski and Rebecca Blatt (Kenda) formed behind. Cathy, Nat, Susanne and Brooke were in a third group with two others.
In the front group, Rebecca and Kristen took steady turns pulling, caught Debony and eventually left her behind for the second group to pick up. They gained about 2 minutes on the second group. For the finish, Kristen was pulling hard up the last hill on Rte 12, so as they got to the base of the start/finish climb, Rebecca sat behind Kristen until the hill flattened slightly when Rebecca pushed it hard to come around and beat Kristen up the rest of the hill, with time to put up her arms in a victory salute.
In the second group, they put 2 minutes on the third group. Unfortunately for us, there were now 3 Sunapee ladies in that group. They set up the finish so that Sunapee finished one-two in that group for a 3rd and 4th place of Karin and Kat, with Clara pushing it hard to finish a strong 7th place overall.
In the third group, it was a beautiful picture of teamwork on Rte 12. We had Susanne and Cathy taking short rotating pulls to keep the pace up and discourage any attacks from non-NEBCers. Nat sat third wheel preparing to attack up the finish hill, with Brooke sitting fourth wheel to sweep. This was working awesome until we got to just about the top of the last hill on Rte 12. Cathy kept pulling, Susanne was backing off and Brooke was waiting for Nat to follow Cathy so she could let the gap open. Nat let out a scream of sorts (found out later that a cramp suddenly developed in her leg), so Brooke went around Nat, yelled at Cathy to keep going (as she was already burying herself like an awesome teammate) until the base of the finish hill when Brooke powered around Cathy, encouraging her to keep going, and nabbed 9th place. Cathy was totally spent, but kept going, allowing only one to pass her, and finished 11th. Nat and Susanne finished right behind Cathy.
Upcoming team races (all national level crits):
- Sat, May 16 – Wilmington Grand Prix (Wilmington, DE)
- Sun, May 17 – BikeJam (Baltimore, MD)
- Sun, May 24 – RFK Crit (Washington, DC)