Saturday, May 9, 2009

Jiminy Peak May 2nd- Evie takes the win for Radical

Ashley, Cecelia, Dara, Maria and I represented the lovely ladies from Radical. It was a pretty big field; I believe 75 women had signed up. Anyway there was a full Anthem squad and two Canadian teams.

The first lap was pretty uneventful; there were a few attacks, but nothing that stuck. As we were nearing the first climb, I was getting sucked back into the pack, when Ann Marie Miller says, "Evie, come on and stay with me." She lets me hop on her wheels and proceeds to maneuver us over to the left and then brings us up to the front so we could shoot up the first climb!! It was really cool of her, since I had no idea the climb was coming. Anyway I tried to go hard up the hill, although I was just not feeling that hot during the race, every effort seemed pretty trying.

We got over the first hill and I think we got a selection of about 30 or 40 girls now, although I am not positive. At this point, I was set on trying to conserve energy for the final climb, pretty sure that it would be hard to get away before. The Canadians decided to throw down a bunch of attacks, which was fun since it made the race a bit more eventful. Maria did a lovely job of helping pull back in some of the breaks, which was a very nice treat, since my desire to go hard was definitely lacking. Then Ashley threw down the perfect attack before the climb. It made Audrey from Anthem get to the front and set a nice tempo and string it out some. We picked up Ashley after a bit. Audrey just kept setting a nice tempo. I was third wheel behind Ann Marie Miller. I knew that I wanted to be the first one through the turn leading up to the hill. Then a big girl from the Specialized Canadian team attacked again, which was perfect because it gave me the momentum to jump up and get to the turn first. Once I hit the hill, I just started to go hard and once I hit the 1K sign I decided to go all out (hoping that I could hold it harder for longer and then avoid a sprint finish). I looked back and realized that I had created a gap. So I decided to keep going hard, although my body felt like it wanted to explode. Anyway, I was able to hold the gap and cross the line first. I believe Maria finished in the top 15 (after using up a ton of energy to help me!) and I believe Ashley, Cecelia and Dara were in the top half.

I think this race was just another example of how well Radical races as a team. It was awesome how much everyone helped me conserve energy, by chasing down attacks, blocking me from the wind and throwing down attacks that helped make the field tired. Ashley, correct me if I am wrong, but I believe Anna Milkowski complimented us on well we rode as a team. I think that is pretty sweet and seems to be a trend in what people say after each race! It was awesome to see us knock down three pretty strong teams (and those teams definitely had race strategies they were trying to execute!).