“…just pedal faster than the others” (Luke Summers)

The Comeback Criterium presented by Swashbuckler/PaRenFaire.com
New Holland, Lancaster County, PA- 23 laps (0.7mi course), 6 left turns, 1 right turn.



Max Speed: 49.2km/hr
Av Speed: 36km/hr
Max HR: 182bpm
Av HR: 167bpm

A 12:05 start with just over 1 hour drive to get to the race. It was a local race with some reasonable riders (Sarah, Nonnie Howard, Kristy Swope, Betty Tyrell, Lorainne Lipfert, Jackie Paull). I felt very welcomed by the friendliness of the riders, this would assist in keeping their women's participation numbers high I remember thinking. Right from the time that I got out of Kurt's car, there were women riders saying hello, I had never met these women, yet they were so friendly and welcoming. It was an Open race, not a big field and there were some Cat 4 women at the start line. I had no idea what the standard would be like so I tested the waters by attacking in the first 20metres (before the first corner, like at the WA state 100km champs). I had been instructed (by Kurt) to attack through the corners particularly and hurt the girls as much as I could in the wind on the back side of the course. I was finding my legs, despite going on a hard 3 hr plus ride on Saturday after racing on Friday night. I was enjoying the left hand turns.

I attacked at least once every lap for the whole race- I was committed to hurting the field. I had split the field split from 18 to 10 early on, I felt for the Cat 3/4 women. With a good counter attack, there was a Masters USA TT champ (Betty)off the front, I was okay with letting her sit out there for a bit, just keeping an eye on her and making sure that I could go off the front and get to her, no one else was chasing, they were all looking at me. Then there was an announcement for the one and only prime for the race. There was a pair of $250 Hutchinson single tires up for grabs. The USA TT champ was about 9 secs in front of our group, I had just over 1km to make up this time and win the tires (I was thinking that Luke would be really impressed with this). So I dug in and went off the front and got her just before the line. It hurt and Kurt was encouraging me to work with her and stay away, but the bunch had chased me and we were joined by two other riders.

We picked up two lapped riders (one with a team mate in the four) but dropped then a few laps later. There was four of us with 5 laps to go, I kept attacking every lap. With one lap to go I was able to stay away for a 5 second win over the other three riders, with the bunch lead by Nonnie. You Tube video finish with thanks to Kristy Swope.

I chatted with some of the women at the end of the race, spoke to the Hutchinson tire rep and thanked him for my prime prize. The event organizer has encouraged me to race some more of their events whilst I am here. I deserved a Quiznos sandwich for lunch and a nap this afternoon. We watched Simon Gerrans win a stage of the tour and Cadel no longer be in yellow (for tomorrow anyway). Local race report(which will make you laugh) can be found: Sturdy Girls Cycling and final results will be posted on Bike reg in good time.
Thanks to Kurt for the race info, I had on idea on the timing between groups etc.