Bethel Spring Series No. 1: women’s race
AFTER THE INCESSANT SNOWSTORMS and inclement weather of February, racers welcomed the sunny skies, dry roads and mild temperatures for the opening race of the 2010 Bethel Spring Training Series on Sunday, March 7.
The favorable conditions brought out a good field of about 30 riders, with many strong regional teams represented, including Stacy Jensen and Peta Takai of Kissena, five riders from the CVC-Subaru team, Amanda Braverman and Joanne Ross (Team Stage 1/Fusion Think), Nancy Ford (Simple Principles), Jackie Paull (Watchung Wheelemn) and several riders from Bethel Cycles and Team Rockstar Games/Signature Cycles. Kristin Lotito, our hot sprinter, and I represented CRCA/Sanchez-Houihan Lokey.
The Bethel course is held on Francis J. Clark Circle, a .9-mile clockwise circuit, with the start on a sort straight section, a 90-degree right corner leading into a long, gentle downhill sweeping into a right curve, a flat section that usually features a headwind and a slight serpentine heading up a hill about 300 meters to the finish.
The Women’s Race was 18 laps, and the chief referee announced there would be two primes with no primes offered in the last five laps. I always like to use primes to test my sprint, see how I’m feeling, and figure out what gear to use.
“I always like to use primes to test my sprint, see how I’m feeling, and figure out what gear to use.”
As we came through the start/finish on the first lap, the chief referee rang the bell for a prime on the next lap. Nothing like starting the race off with a bang! As we headed around the gentle curve of corner No. 2 and into the headwind, a woman from the TargetTraining team moved to the front and started time trialing. I had overheard her saying she was a triathlete, which is code for “big motor,” so I was happy to follow her wheel into the hill. I jumped early and won the prime easily. I looked over my shoulder, saw I had a good gap, but thought 16 more laps was a very long time to try to hold a break solo.
The next several laps I talked to my teammate, and we discussed possible times to attack. Various riders tried attacks up the hill, but the group basically stayed together. The pace was not that high, and it was not hard to stay with the attacks.
Suddenly, the lap cards read seven to go, and remembering there was one more prime up for grabs, I thought, Oh, no, this means they’ll have to call a prime with six to go, and we’ll have our last prime with only five laps to go.
Kristin attacked near the top of the hill just before they rang the bell for the prime with six to go. Riders started surging to the front, but Kristin had gone hard trying to attack, so I hit the front to get position. A CVC-Subaru rider and a women in magenta slid in front of me and stood up to sprint near the bottom of the hill. I was stuck behind them and trying to figure out what line to make around them when just enough space opened for me to slide through and take the prime easily. I looked back and saw I had a huge gap, so I had a split second to decide to try to hold it solo for the nest five laps, or recover, let the field catch me and take my chance in the bunch sprint.
“I looked back and saw I had a huge gap, so I had a split second to decide to try to hold it solo for the nest five laps, or recover, let the field catch me and take my chance in the bunch sprint. I decided to go for it.”
I decided to go for it, so I hammered on the downhill, tucked in as tight as I could into the wind on the flat and tried to maintain my lead. Since I had dropped them on the hill, I knew had to go hard on the hill to build on my lead. Not that I wasn’t worried about burning too many matches trying to stay away, and if I was caught, would I be too fatigued for the sprint? I figured if I could hold it until two laps to go, the pack would lose interest in chasing me down and be more interested in conserving their energy to sprint for second place.
On the backside with about three and half laps to go, I was afraid they were gaining in me, so I gunned it even harder up the hill. I could see my lead was growing, so I just settled in to a steady pace. With one to go, the field was nowhere in sight, and I realized they were not going to catch me. I soloed in well ahead of the field. Stacy Jensen (Kissena) took second, Kimberly Edwards (CVC-Subaru) third, and although Kristin got boxed in on the sprint, she scored 8th.
I’m looking forward to wearing the Leader’s Jersey in the second Bethel Spring Series race next Sunday.
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Ann Marie Miller is a New York City–based Cat. 1 racer. She is a 9-time US national masters champion and a USA Cycling level 3 licensed coach. She races with team CRCA/Sanchez-Houihan Lokey.
