Portsmouth Crit
6th – Brooke O’Connor
9th – Clara Kelly
15th – Natalie Dumont
Carola Berger
This is our teammate Susanne Delaney’s race, she is the promoter and does an excellent job of running the race every year to showcase her hometown of Portsmouth, NH. Rectangular, 4-corner circuit goes around the downtown streets. Backside was newly paved this year which was a welcome surprise to combat the strong headwind along the same stretch. After a few weeks off from our last team races of the Salem and Beverly Crits in August, goals of the team were to try to get our racing legs back under us, find teammates for leadouts for primes and the finish. Throw in some attacking and counter attacking and see what happened.
First prime was called and Clara got the front with Brooke lined up behind. Clara gave a massive lead-out which I almost blew with former teammate Mary Zider (Specialized) using me as her lead-out and I just stayed ahead in a photo finish to win the prime. As the race progressed, there were signs of all 4 NEBC women in either solo or group breaks. Clara was out in a group for a few laps, Brooke countered and was alone for a couple of laps. When Brooke got caught, Natalie immediately countered. Fast forward to the final 2 laps when first Clara went to the front to keep the pace high for a lap, then with one to go, Nat exploded out of the field to counter and make everyone else chase. Brooke tried to stay up front and get ready for the final sprint. Going into the last 2 corners, brooke was too far back in 3th or 4th spot and once we were out of the last corner sprinting for the finish, a couple of ladies came around Brooke and she had to settle for 6th. Clara was close behind for 9th and Nat hung on for 15th after her last lap effort.