Tri-State Velo

Sunday morning I woke up before the crack of dawn (5am to be precise), to get myself to the Lower Providence criterium. It was damp and very chilly outside. I drove to Lower Providence Crit course, as I wasn’t sure I’d be able to find it on my bike. It was still a little tricky to find, so I only had about 50 min before start time by the time I parked.

Warmed up ~20 min on course and on trainer. Should have warmed up a bit longer. Lynda, the most seasoned veteren present from our squad, advised that, due to the composition of the field (including Sarah Uhl and Kim Geist), our strategy for a good placing rested on getting one of us to go with the break (which she accurately predicted would go early), or bridge as fast as possible up to it.

The large women’s field assembled at the start about 8:10am. The race was 20 laps of a flat, 1 mile, 4-corner course. The second half of the course was riddled with water-filled potholes and bumps. There were many strong riders, track riders and sprinters in the field. I got a pretty decent position in the first third of the pack off the start line. Barely a lap later, an attack was started by Sarah Uhl; she was joined by Kim Geist, Chrissy Saraceni and a couple of (2?) others. The break went quite explosively, and I didn’t manage to get on it.

I made an effort to stay to the front of the pack. I did a good amount of work, chasing down a couple of attacks (including a few by Betty Tyrrel; Lynda took over the chase on one of Betty’s attacks when I just couldn’t get on it) and attacking myself at about the halfway point (only lasted about half a lap before the field reeled me in). A couple of times I found myself hanging around the back of the pack, but definitely not as much as in previous races this season.

With about 2.5 laps to go, the breakaway had lapped us. Geist and Uhl made their way to the front of the field, where I was situated. I was able to get third wheel on them, as they traded off pulls between the two of them. Between the first and second turns of the last lap, things really got moving. Everybody was trying to move up, and the field got wide across. I became a little nervous about tight spaces in the corners; I entered the final turn way on the outside, and was so jittery I almost ran into a gutter. The sprint started right out of the turn, and I started too late, plus I was so far over I couldn't get on a wheel. I wound it up right to the line nonetheless, if only for the sake of practice. Lynda was a couple of riders ahead of me, and Julie just a bikelength ahead on my right.

So, all in all, not a fantastic finish, but I feel I got some more practice at crit pack riding, put in a hard effort, and feel more confident and motivated about the next race.

Sarah Charlesworth