Tour of Page County Race report 2010

Road Race

I had high hopes going into the Tour of Page County. I knew the courses would suit me well as they had some challenging climbs. On Saturday, the Women Cat 4 race started at 8:05am and it involved 2.5 laps, about 30miles. 20 women started in a moderate pace, nothing crazy. The first half of the course was pretty much flat. The second half would be the challenge as it was all hills and pretty steep ones too. Patty from my team set a good pace at the beginning of the hills, and I thought I would get dropped already.

The first lap ended with me sprinting by myself up to the finish line to get the king of mountain points. No one else went for it, which I was surprised about. Despite a good pace on the hills on the second hill, we did not drop that many riders and our group still involved about 10 riders. I also got the second king of mountain and I was not really challenged by anyone. Since we still had a lot of riders in the group, I knew that once again it all would come down to a sprint uphill finish and it did.

The two Bike Pro shop girls whom I haven’t seen the entire race suddenly moved up and started the sprint to the finish. I followed and had to take the longer way to the finish because there was no other way around them. This was a mistake because I could not close the gap anymore to the girls. I finished third, an inch away from second place and maybe a foot from the first place. Because the Bike Pro shop is not part of MABRA, I won the MABRA Championship despite the third place.

Criterium

The criterium for the Women Cat 4 started at 8:45am and we only were nine girls starting. The first 100m were an uphill sprint and I think we lost five girls at that time already. It was now a race between the four of us: the two Bike Pro Shop girls, a Coppi, and I. I knew that I was four points ahead of the first placed Bro Shop girl and I wanted to get at least one preme to ensure I stay first overall.

The first preme was announced and Alex, the winner of the RR, sprinted for it. I reacted too late and gave up half way up the hill. I was more prepared for the second preme when the other Bike shop girl started sprinting. I followed and I got her by maybe an inch. Having won nine extra points (twice King of Mountain and one preme) on top of the results, I did not have to sprint for the third preme anymore so the Alex sprinted again for the last preme with no one following.
The last four laps of the crit were very boring because no one of us wanted to pull so we drastically slowed down and we were waiting for the uphill sprint. A déjà-vu from the road race, the bike shop girls and I sprinted up the hill. Alex won again but this time I took second, ahead by an inch from Michele. I was very happy with my result; and even happier because this also meant the overall win.

With a third place in the road race, second place in the crit, overall win and win of the MABRA Championship, I cant complain about my results.