“…and one for the team”

The Hammer Creek Road Race
Presented by Swashbuckler/ PaRenFaire.com Cycling Team

Lititz, Lancaster County, PA

Saturday, August 02, 2008

Race results:
1. Diane Grim (C3-Sollay.com)
2. Davina Summers (Fleet Cycles)
(bike reg has not posted official results yet)

A late finish last night from the velo…to an early start this morning for the road. The lovely, Kristy Swope (EPS/CSS/Riptide Cycling) gave me a lift to the race. Dominate in today’s field was the team C3-Sollay.com with about 7 or 8 girls in the relatively small field of about 20 riders. I was impressed by their teamwork today (as I have been in other races I have raced with them here in PA) and clever moves. From how I saw it, everyone else pretty much unofficially teamed up against them for a good race.

The yellow-line rule was applied (the road is not closed and you are not able to advance yourself in the race by crossing the middle line to the other side of the road). On this mostly narrow course, the yellow-line rule made it difficult to pass/attack (except off the front) especially if the front riders were three wide. C3-Sollay.com were using this well, bringing all of their riders up to the front and blocking allowing another team rider to go off the front and this was the move of the day. Previous to this, there were many other good moves in which small breaks formed, but were again caught. From what I can remember, nice moves were made my Sarah Iepson and Lenore Pipes (Sturdy Girl Cycling- for their race report I have borrowed some pics) and Kristy Swope (EPS/CSS/Riptide Cycling).

The lowlights were:
*Melissa O'Reilly (Van Dessel Factory Team) breaking her chain after riding strong all race
*Beth Mason (C3-Sollay.com) linked bars with a team mate and came off and broke her bike forks, (the link has pics) and I can still hear that carbon breaking noise

*a unknown rider did the most spectacular off-road effort through a corner and down into a grassed ditch

There was a huge down pour of rain about ¾ the way through the race. In the final laps (it was a circuit style road race) some of the bunch were unaware that C3-Sollay.com had Di off the front and were preparing for a bunch sprint rather than chasing. I was still trying, but my attempts were ineffective, she was too far in front and Sonja Evers (C3-Sollay.com) was too efficient at covering my moves. So we were sprinting for 2nd place.

Sonja wound up very early, so strong that I had to push hard to hold her wheel. Colleen Gulick (Colavita Racing), who is an up and coming star on the track, started coming around Sonja, so too Jackie Paull (Watchung Wheelmen/High Gear Cyclery). I was being patient in the slightly-uphill finish, waited for my mark and kicked for the bunch win (2nd overall).

After the race I was wondering where all the girls had gone. I rolled back into the car park and saw them all standing around having a race debrief. They were all complementing each other on good race moves, congratulating each other on place wins and discussing Category points etc. These women had just raced so hard against each other and then all smiles and hugs no less than 30 seconds later. A credit to all the ladies for having such a positive, good fun women’s racing scene.