CSC 6/2/07

After a crazy week of flights from Newark, cleaning out my office at work (I have a new job as a High School Orchestra teacher in the fall) and meetings, I flew back up to DC to get ready for the CSC race. We had just missed Sarah's birthday the day before, so we surprised her with a chocolate cake. Boy was it good! Great pre-race food!

As to the racing, I was especially nervous for the CSC race. This is always the hardest crit of the year. It is usually fast and it is also very technical with five turns and one section I call the wind tunnel. We had decided to cover the front and to try and work breaks if it looked good. Rebecca attacked early and Laura Van Guilder (LVG), Theresa Cliff-Ryan, Mackenzie Dickey and a couple of other girls bridged. They were just ahead and I thought that it was mostly sprinters and might not be such a good break. Then Brenda Lyons attacked us and bridged up. It definitely wasn’t looking very good for Rebecca. We needed another person. I tried to bridge up, but my legs had no snap from my week of work and two flights. I ended up just going hard and sitting on the front. I got to my radio and told Sarah to bridge. She attacked and got to the break just as LVG attacked them. All the sprinters just looked at each other waiting for the other one to chase. Rebecca jumped and still no one reacted. She went hard and got to LVG. The field was going pretty hard and we caught what was left of the breakaway group.

With Rebecca and LVG gone Catherine, Sarah and I went for primes and covered the front of the field. With two to go there was a $100 prime so I went to the front. Sarah Uhl and I had been duking it out for the previous two primes and she was really watching me on this last one. Seeing this Catherine jumped hard, but Uhl got on her wheel. Unfortunately, with my snap non-existent I got shuffled to midpack. Sarah moved into third on the final lap and Catherine and Uhl just hanging on in front of the field.

Rebecca and tried to make LVG pull the last lap and lead it out. Rebecca wanted to attack her a little early and catch her off guard, but she went a little early. LVG got the win by a bike throw and Rebecca was 2nd.

In our group Uhl was able to stay out if front of the field for third place, Kelly Benjamin won the field sprint with Sarah Caravella hot on her heals for 5th. The entire podium was Cheerwine and Aaron’s!

1st Laura Van Guilder
2nd Rebecca Larson
3rd Sarah Uhl
4th Kelly Benjamin
5th Sarah Caravella