GDVC Spring Crit #1, 2005, Women's Open

by Faye Hartmann

What a great day for racing at research park yesterday. The women's race was dead last so you can imagine how lovely the porta potty was by that time. There were 10 women in the race including me and Gretchen. Our goal was to have fun and finish. There were 3 Nova and 3 cow girls so I thought we would just be watching them race. I started fast to take the first corner in front because I love that corner and thought everyone would take off from there, but, that didn't happen. So I just had fun racing into the corners. A break finally happened, but, stupid me didn't chase right away as I thought the rest would. When I finally realized it was 1 person from each Nova and Cow team they were way up the road and I started to chase. I pretty much died and then the ABD woman finally went for it and 3 of us were gapped off the back so I worked again with the help of Paul telling me to keep going finally caught the group. Final lap was a field sprint and I took it in easy for 6th place with Gretchen in 7th. Gretchen was awsome especially after going for a 60 mile ride before the race! Thanks to Evan and Joe and the other BDs that were there for cheering us on. I spent way too much time in front, but, I had a blast messing with the group. It was especially great to have a teammate to race with.

GDVC Spring Crit #1, 2005, Masters 4/5

by Joe King

We had Jon Tueting, Eric Knuth, Walter Meanwell and me.

I have a short list of goals for this season of racing and one of the bigger ones was to get away for a lap -- which I did about half-way through the race. Lots of good things came out of this. I pushed way too hard up the hill on my own and went through several shades of death. Which meant when a solo rider bridged to me at about the one lap mark I was unable to work with him. The group was taking the corners pretty slowly so the two of us might have been able to stay away (20% chance) but it would have been touch-and-go because of the head-wind on the hill. The other thing I learned was that it is indeed possible to recover in the group after a really hard effort. It was touch and go for second until I told myself that the one lap breakaway won't count unless I finish with the group. The thought of having to do that again was motivation enough to move me back toward the front.

This race was more like a Cat 4/5 race than like the usual 40+ race. There were more tentative riders and the pace was slower. I was figuring there would be a crash in the last corner and with one lap to go I wasn't in a position to get to the front so I put myself at the tail of the group. When we hit the last corner there were at least two crashes -- I was able to avoid them quite them easily to finish near the end of the field.

Jon, Walter, and Eric looked good the entire race. If not for the crashes toward the end, they all might have had some good placings. I felt better than I thought I would -- I didn't expect to be able to attack when we started but after chasing a few tentative attacks early in the race it suddenly just seemed like the thing to do.