7 wins in a row!
Been a little slacking on writing the race reports the last few weeks, but it’s not because the NEBC/Cycle Loft/Devonshire Dental Elite Women’s Team hasn’t been doing well, it’s just the opposite – we’ve been doing FANTASTIC (or CLAMTASTIC, some might say)!
Sat, July 25 – Tour of the Hilltowns, Windsor, MA
Climbing phenom Clara Kelly couldn’t talk her flat land crit teammates into going to this 90 km hilly race (not the name of the race!) with her, so she went anyways, got in a break with 5 other strong New England women racers and pulled off a 4th place finish after almost 3 hours of racing hills! Did I mention that she got 8th place at the Mt Wachusett Road Race against the top women racers in the nation at the Longsjo Classic on the 4th of July?
Sat, Aug 1 – Concord Crit, Concord, NH
After noting in the earlier races that the best place for the finish would be the 1st of the last corner now that the course direction had been reversed, the team was very excited about the faster, more technical turns before the finish stretch. The team proceeded to win all the primes (included taking a couple of 1st and 2nd place in a single prime lap) between Rebecca Wellons and Brooke O’Connor. Clara was the designated attack on the uphill rider and kept the pace up when needed. For the last lap, Clara started the leadout at the start of the lap, Brooke took over on the top flat section. Former Olympian Nicole Feedman squeezed Brooke out of the first corner, but Rebecca stayed on Nicole’s wheel. Brooke managed to recover and get back into the final train in 5th spot. Rebecca easily came around Nicole after the last corner for the win, while Brooke moved up to 4th. Clara stayed strong to finish 11th.
Sun, Aug 2 – Central NH Road Race, Bow, NH
Was setting up climber Clara, but after Silke Wunderwald attacked over the QOM on the 2nd lap and caught Clara by surprise, Rebecca followed Silke down the hill. Clara chased the duo valiantly for a whole lap, but was then caught by a chasing group of 3. Once Rebecca realized that Clara wouldn’t catch back on, her and Silke began to work together to distance themselves from the field. After eventually building a 3:30 gap on the field in the final 2 laps, Rebecca let Silke lead-out the final downhill and then sprinted around her to grab the second win of the weekend. Clara sprinted in with her chase group for 5th place on the day. As for the QOM competition, Rebecca came over in 1st place all three times over the hill while Clara came over 3rd each time, which gave the team 1st and 3rd in the QOM competition.
Sat, Aug 8 – Gate City Cyclone Crit, Nashua, NH
After constant attacking and counter-attacking, Rebecca and Clara got in a 4 person breakaway which ended with Rebecca taking yet another win for the team and Clara grabbing 4th place.
Sun, Aug 9 – Tokeneke Classic Road Race, East Hartland, CT
Yet another hilly road race that Clara decided to tackle on her own. Again getting into the winning breakaway group, Clara jumped on the podium with the 3rd place finish against a large open women’s field.
Wed, Aug 12 – Witches Cup, Salem, MA
Now comes the reason for the “7 wins in a row…” subject line.
Three primes were called during the race, right when the field would slow down a bit. Rebecca was leading out Clara on the first one, but she had such a strong lead-out, that we decided to let that gap open and Rebecca easily grabbed the first prime. Natalie Dumont then took her turn on the second prime by attacking on the back side of the course and easily held off the field to grab the 2nd prime. When the third prime was called, we were a little off from the front of the pack, but Rebecca made her way up the field, misjudged the finish line and ran out space when trying to overtake the last girl. That was okay because the rest of the race saw Clara, Natalie, Brooke and Cathy Rowell attacking and counter-attacking and covering breaks. At one point Rebecca was off in a 3 person breakaway for a few laps. After that break was brought back, sprinter Rebecca rested her legs. Brooke attacked and kept the pace high with 3 and 2 laps to go. At one lap to go, Rebecca was patrolling the front next to former Olympians Lyne Bessette and Nicole Freedman. With 2 corners to go, Rebecca decided to lead it out from the front, took the pace up quite a bit and held off Nicole in the final sprint who was glued to her wheel. Brooke found a little energy left in the tank and came around a couple people to grab 4th. Clara stayed strong after a lot of work to take 10th, with Nat following behind in 16th and Cathy 17th.
This is now 7 races in a row that Rebecca has entered in the last couple of months that she’s won (includes a couple of races in New Britain, CT).