Win at Lake Sunapee
The race began with a slow pace for the first 3 miles or so. Susanne and Cathy took turns up front leading the pack. No one else from the field was willing to get out front and lead so Susanne continued to do most of the work keeping Mary out of the wind and fresh for the assaults that were to come ahead! As we approached the two long gradual climbs Silke (IF) made her first assault. Mary went with Silke and was able to stick her wheel. This first assault was not great enough to loose the pack. Legs of the pack were still too fresh. After the downhill descent came the second long gradual climb and Silke made her second assault. Mary again went with her and was able to stick her wheel. Mary and Silke continued to push it up the hill and create a big enough gap to begin their break. The break soon was out of site and out of mind. Mary and Silke from here on out were able to hold their gap for a lap and a half. Mary had great position going into the final finish on Silke’s wheel. Silke lead around the rotary but then dropped her pace significantly waiting for Mary to come around and jump the gun. This finish requires patience and Mary decided she did not have any patience and went for the line taking a wheel in the pro men’s race! Very chaotic finish.
Susanne’s remarks from the pack standpoint!
The Pro Women’s field was going so slowly in the first few miles that the Cat 4 women’s field caught up to us. Granted the Cat 4 field started only 3 minutes after us, they still caught us. So our field was neutralized. As Mary said, Susanne was pushing the pace at the front, especially after being caught by the Cat 4 women. Susanne pushed it as much as she could without passing the pace vehicle. But as we approached the climb, that is when the attack took place that shattered both fields. When Silke (IF) attacked from behind in the Pro Women’s Field, we were right on the Cat 4 women’s field so there were riders scattered everywhere making it tough to figure out who was who. Mary and Silke wouldn’t have noticed this as they had successfully broken apart from everyone else. Susanne was pretty spent at this point so couldn’t get up to the other strong riders who were at this point trailing Mary and Silke: Zoe, Karin Turner, Nicole Kellogg, Jennifer Stebbins. Susanne caught up to Lizette Bolanos-Naut (IBRC) and Kristin Gohr (Colavita) and the four of us worked together picking up Kat Carr. We formed a pace line and kept it up the remaining lap and a half. At the very end, just before entering the rotary, we caught up to the group of 4-6 riders who were between Mary and Silke and the four of us. Susanne’s legs had started to cramp on the second lap – due to a bike fit the afternoon before – had been able to work hard on rollers and flats; but was hurting on the climbs. After the final climb Susanne knew her legs were bad and that she didn’t have anything left for the finish. Susanne pulled the group of four through the rotary and up to the start of the access and then Lizette, Kristin and Kat took off to the finish.