Tour de Ephrata April 25th & 26 -Evie Does it Again for the win

Day 1 40-mile road race:

The race was amazing but most importantly we got a big dose of Amish culture right away on the drive to the race, buggies and Amish people all over the place. Goal #1 was accomplished.

About 70 women started this race. The Raddies did nicely get ourselves to the front of the race quickly. I was thinking it might be good to try out some new strategies at this race, but then decided a women's open field with 70 riders on a narrow, windy and gravelly roads might not be the best idea. Instead I did what I know best, and sat on or towards the front the majority of the race.

The Raddies made our presence known by being at the front and protecting each other from the wind (more like Erica and Maria coming up and sitting in front of me, so awesome!!). I got a nice lead-out from Andrea Luebbe the 2nd lap near the hill and launched an attack, I got a away for about a mini minute, then I got caught by a few, tried to attack that group a few more times, but was really a big fat snickers bar dangling in front of them on the open Amish roads. I think we dropped about half the field (unfortunately Maria suffered another flat, I think it was the 2nd or 1st lap, yuck, hopefully you have fulfilled your flat quota for the season!). About 35 of us went into the finish. I somehow got myself stuck in the swarm of the pack going into it, when we hit the 200-meter mark the girl from BMW (Lauren Shirock) jumps. I decided I should mark her wheel and then I just tried to sprint and not get in the way of anyone else. I managed to pull off 3rd and Erica was right there at about 20th.

Day 2 TT and Crit:

It was 4 miles flat (or more rolling) and then 4 miles uphill and this uphill hurt, I remember thinking; I might puke...puking before you cross the line is not sooo cool. I was able to clock a good time and got 1st (I think it was Maria's shoe covers she let me use), Maria, "I am going to soft pedal it” I see screaming up the hill got a strong 16th place and Erica rocked it full cannibal style for 23rd (I think it was about 60 plus women at this point).

So the crit was a classic 4 corner one, with a little uphill followed by a downhill finish. Raddies were once again able to shimmy up to the front and from the gun we went hard, my thought was maybe we should try to string it out in order to get rid of some of the riders. It was 20 laps, I tried to attack a good amount of times on the little hill, sometimes getting a gap but most people were not so itching to work with me. Maria hopped up front a few times and gave me a nice wheel, which was awesome. Erica was doing great until the last few laps when some girl crashed. I heard the crunchy bike noises...yuck! Impressively she finished the race after crashing, with a broken wheel with 7 laps to go. Wow! Maria got stuck behind the crash and was able to bridge herself back up to the pack, I think we were 3 laps to go as I drifted to the back and heard Maria go, I’m here!” Sweet! So the last lap to got up at the front, a couple of Verducci girls started to try to lead each other out from the turn of the hill, so I just decided to use brute force and go. I took the last turn at the front, knowing that I had Andrea Meyers and Mary Costelloe on my wheel, but it was too late to fix the problem, so I tried to move fast, but I wasn’t fast enough. Those 2 came around me.... yuck.... I think if it wasn’t for the crash, we would have been able to set up a better lead out, next time!!

I won the GC overall. It was a fun weekend, The Raddies really showed we were a team that works together and we were all able to work on our tans.