4 - 5 - 6

Hollidaysburgh Circuit Race - Stage Podium

Allison Testroete, Laura Van Guilder, Katharine Carroll

Photo by Christina Grace

Stage 4 - Hollidaysburgh Circuit Race has a long uphill drag at the finish: the type of finish that has been good to Aaron's Katharine Carroll. The race was aggressive from the start with constant attacks and counter attacks tempting riders with the hopes of a strong break being established off the front, however, at the end of the day it would be a made dash to the finish with most of the top sprinters going for it up the final hill into the small town of Hollidaysburg. Only veteran sprinter Laura Van Guilder and Sprint Leader, Alison Testroete would finish ahead of Kat on the day. Teammate Kristin Sanders would finish a strong second for the team in 8th place.

Felicia Gomez retains QOM jersey

Photo by Carmen D'Aluisio

Stage - 5 Martinsburg Circuit Race would finish with both Kristin Sanders and Kat Carroll in a small group of 13 riders off the front by 1:27. Teammates Carmen McNellis, Rebecca Larson, Sarah Caravella, and Catherine Powers would have to work hard on the day to keep the break in check as if it gained too much time it would threaten Felicia's 2nd place overall. This break would move Kristin up to 8th place in the overall standings and thus putting two Aaron's riders in the top ten. Goodluck seemed to be with the team on this day as a late race mishap to team leader, Felicia Gomez, would seriously jeapordize her 2nd place overall, however, SRAM technical support got her rolling again and with the okay to motorpace her back to the field Felicia would "motor" at speeds over 35mph on the back of the team car. Teammates Catherine Powers and Sarah Caravella had dropped back to help her back to the group, however the speeds would prove impossible to accelerate up to fast enough and they would be left behind to roll in on their own on the day.

Stage 6 - Altoona Blair County Road Race would prove to be the deciding race of the Tour. As current World Champion, Kristin Armstrong, and current National Road Race Champion, Mara Abbott gapped the remainder of the field up the first Blue Knob climb with Felicia Gomez being the only rider to attempt to follow the strong duo. Felicia would find herself in "no man's land" with a long decent ahead of her and decided it was best to ease off and join the group for the chase down the other side. Felicia would however, be the lone Aaron's rider to make the front group and would be isolated with some other very strong team representation until teammate Kristin Sanders would join her when another group made contact on the long descent.
Team's being hesitant to work together to bring back the strong duo off the front would cause the time gap to the leaders to grow rapidly and the tactics of Team Lipton would change when the virtual yellow jersey on the road would switch from one Lipton rider's shoulders to another. At the end of the day Felicia would slip from 2nd to 4th overall and teammate Kristin Sanders would remain in 8th place.

Team mechanic, Josh Boggs speaks out

Photo by Carmen D'Aluisio