Palmer Road Race

by Emma

W3/4 field, 40 miles
April 24

Rain in April in the Northeast? Imagine that. It was mad foggy and rainy—my kind of race. We had a strong field of women cat 3’s and 4’s. I started attacking early just to shake things up and besides, I didn’t want to be out there forever. Other gals followed suit and the pace was hard for most of the race. Heather L took off alone mid-race and 5 of us working (somewhat) together took 10 minutes to catch her. She’s upgraded to 2 and joined Quark since then. The finish was a longish power climb and I had the misfortune of getting on the wrong wheel. The sprint began, I was third in line, and at 200 meters, my leadout just gave up. I tried to muster the strength to go around her but got smacked down by the destructive headwinds. Oh well! That’s racing.

TBW Series Standings after Grant's

Category 3

1. Heather Lebance 100
2. Hannah Long 95
3. Margo Herman 90
4. Liz Seward 85
5. Nanci Modica 80
6. Cindy Ma 75
7. Angela Johnson 72
8. Elizabeth Tyrell 70
9. Jaimie Epstein 68
10. Kriserts Roberts 66
11. Marie DeRosa 64

Category 4

1. Pam Kiely 100
2. Maureen Mcowen 95
3. Nina Santiago 90
4. Caitlin McVarish 85
5. Kimille Taylor 80
6. Kelleigh Dulany 75
7. Wendy Cohen 72
8. Karen Ulrich 70
9. Rebecca Menke 68
10. Nathalie Roy 66
11. Nancy Camp 64

Spring Series

aka, ...and sometimes the bear gets you

I "raced" the Spring Series in Central Park today. All the fields (except cat 5) were combined, and the course was a mess of puddles, twigs, branches and apparently, glass. Because not only did I flat on the first lap? I flatted the other wheel right after getting back on the road. Sometimes, it's not hard to read the tea leaves.

CRCA Women's Team Cup

aka, sometimes you get the bear

Pouring down buckets of rain, cold as heck, and everyone still showed up to play for five loops. Have I mentioned that bike racers are stupid?

Emma took off in a break on the third Harlem Hill with two of the stronger teams represented, and almost got out of sight before getting hauled back at the base of the park. We froze a little while longer before Becky Koh (Radical) decided to try the same trick again. Before I knew it, there were three of us careening down the west side, fingers frozen to the bars and hoping like heck that we'd be done soon.

We managed to hold them off despite strong efforts from Metro and Lipton, and sprinted for the win with Sarah Sauveyre (Comedy Central) toasting Becky & me (3rd and 2nd, respectively). A quick turnaround, and we were at the finish line to watch Emma sprint up the hill to take 4th. Thanks to Comedy Central taking the majority of the remaining points, we're second in the team cup standings—very exciting for a small team that barely broke into the standings in 2004!

2 Seward (breakaway)
4 Nelson (field sprint)