Congratulations to Erica Adelberg, who took second place in the Cat3 field at the Giro del Cielo on May 15-16 and another second place at the Tour of Syracuse, May 22-23.
Here's what she had to say about the criterium at the Tour of Syracuse, where she won the sprinter's green jersey:
Crit: Very fast race, not all that hard to hold on and not overly technical, but still a challenge in discipline and focus, and the fastest crit I've been in from a mph perspective, which was both invigorating and a little terrifying. The other Raddies put in some good attacks, as did a few riders from other teams, but pace was too high and wind was too strong for anything to stick. As for me, I really focused on trying to figure out where the best position to sprint from was as there were some s-turns and curbs in the final approach, and was happy and surprised that I got it figured out for the intermediate points and the finishing sprints. Crit must have been somewhat hard though because my HR maxed at 186 at some point, which is the highest I've seen so far this year. In any case, coming across the line first out of the 3s earned me a really cool green jersey to be worn in the road race on Sunday, along with a nice trophy and a little cash.
And here's Erica's report on the road race at the Giro del Cielo:
Road race in on a pretty rolling 5.5 mile loop, 6 laps for the cat 3s. A few non-omnium riders joined us today too to bring our numbers up to around 15 again. I was still in 2nd place for the omnium, 3 points behind the woman with whom I'd tied for the 2nd for the TT. Basically all I had to do to stay in second was to stay on my bike and place fairly well in the road race. But I wanted more! Getting my first 1st would be my ultimate goal.
On the line they announced that there would be one points prime, 3 deep, worth 10-6-3 towards the omnium. So it turns out that it's not just the finish we'll have to worry about. My idea was to get on Deborah's wheel and come around her at the line like I had in the crit. But I'd lost focus and miss her jump, and end up getting 3rd for the prime as Kristin Lotito comes around me for 2nd. This improved my 2nd place odds by a few points, but now I was even further out of 1st...
Those of us who sprinted have a little gap at this point, but it's into a downhill and we don't organize and the top contenders are all in it anyway, so we all slow up. Except for one rider who is not competing for the omnium. I can't tell you what happened there because I was so focused on Betty and Deborah I honestly didn't even see her go up the road, but she must have jumped around the corner and got a good gap on us rather quickly. There is some discussion about chasing her down, but the three of us have no inclination to help, and I guess no one else was motivated either so off she went. We never saw her again.
Anyway, we just continued to roll around, race felt mostly like everyone was just waiting for the final sprint. As we're going up one of the steeper climbs on the 4th lap, Betty puts in a pretty good acceleration. I find I'm in too light of a gear to respond properly, so I shift up but my bike reacts violently under the pressure of the chain movement and literally bucks me right off. I could never be a rodeo rider. So as I hit the ground, I'm like, "Holy crap, I actually managed to lose my podium," I was so mad at myself! But no one crashed into me luckily, so I picked myself up as quickly as I could, straightened my brakes, got back on the bike and just hammered. I could still see the front group despite the fact that Betty was apparently trying to take advantage of my misfortune by attacking even harder. But adrenaline is a good thing for bike racing, and within a mile or so I was able to clamber back on, picking up 5-6 stragglers along the way (still haven't figured out if they were dropped because of the time lost getting around me when I was sprawled on the ground or if Betty's group had legitimately escaped them, probably a combo...given how much they thanked me afterwards for towing them back up).
Anyway, so it comes down the the finishing sprint after all. In response to how the prime sprint went down, I decided not to fight Kristin for Deborah's wheel, as I could use all the help I could get in order to get to the line, since it tends to be a long sprint, and Kristin clearly wants that position. But Kristin went early, which I thought could work out, so I stuck on her wheel. Alas, Kristin had totally mistimed the sprint, and sat up long before the line, I came around her at that point, but with Deborah, Kristin, and Pan Pan all on my wheel, so instead I ended up giving them all a nice leadout to the line, as I sprinted for 4th in the field sprint, 5th in the race, but....yes, at least a 2nd place podium for the Omnium! I will be happy with that for what turned out to be a fun and challenging weekend!
