WENTE CRITERIUM - WIN!

We had a two fold plan today, to save Tracey and I for the sprint or to get Kristin and Emily off in a break, fortunately for the team and unfortunately for the sprinters, the later occured. i was in two minds how to write my report, a positive, upbeat, fluffy account of the race or the 4am should have, would have, could have version, i am choosing the later, i think there is more to learn - isn't there always?? We used radios, not because we needed them but because we needed to practice using them for upcoming NRC races.

First of all everyone was feeling very optomistic about getting a win today, we had better as we were the team with the most team mates and the field wasn't very deep. Not to discount the ladies that were there as there are some super strong individuals. it was a combined field of over 40 women, the cat 3s would get picked separately. We wanted to control the race from the start and we did. Lori on her 2007 debut, charged to the front and established a good pace, there were a few attacks by other teams which were very quickly shut down and countered by PROMAN. kristina attacked and stayed away for a couple of laps until the field reeled her in PROMAN immediately countered and strung out the field. PROMAN won every prime either a 1st place or 2nd place prime. Rachel, Kristin, Emily and Kristina were really active on the front while Tracey and I sat in. * A little side note on this - I hate sitting in! I thought for once i would truley just sit in, stay protected and surf wheels. In the past It may have looked like i have sat in but truth be told thats probably all i could manage! Sitting in is hard, it feels like you aren't in the race, it was great practice for me but i didn't enjoy it one bit, especially as i was feeling good and dying to sprint on my new carbon Orbea. My legs were aching to do something. When i saw the break go I was happy to see 2 PROMAN in it but at the same time, my lesson in sitting in is don't be too far back as you may miss a break, i was probably on about 10th wheel. I considered asking Rachel to get me up there while they were still at a manageable distance, but this risks bringing other riders, i opted not to but in retrospect i should have as this was a goal race for me and i should have settled for nothing less than the win, i should have dug as deep a i could to get there, with someones help or not. Rachel and i both have a snappy jump so it could have worked. Tracey tried once to bridge on the wheel of Julie but as soon as Julie saw Tracey she stopped working. The girls worked well together, Virginia from CRC is a smart rider and watched for a PROMAN break and got in it again along with another gal (sorry not sure who - Flanders team?) The 4 riders stayed off, on the final lap, Michael instructed Emily to attack from behind, Kristin should have gone with her but instead Virginia did, Emily made Virginia work and then sat behind her approaching the finish and popped out and easily outsprinted her for the win, Kristin followed for 3rd. Meanwhile back in the pack......... things were getting hot! Lori , Rachel and Kristina were setting up to lead out Tracey and I, we started a little early but we managed to all be near the front, oh dear, were tracey and I too near the front all of a sudden we were in the front well before the last turn, suddenly Rachel appeared, i jumped on her wheel and then hoped Tracey would be on mine, rachel got me to the turn, it was just what i needed, she began to fade, crap was so very far from the line, couldn't even see it at that point, I jumped any way and went hard, i quickly looked before i jumped and Tracey was not on my wheel, it was a metromint rider, i jumped slightly laterally to shake he off my wheel and just charged for the line into the most vicious headwind ever, everything felt slow motion, i just kept digging and even down shifted, i had got the field sprint, only just mind you as there were gals coming on the left who were on the protected side of the course. Tracey was behind me, Rachel, Kristina and lori rolled in top 15. Cheers to Michael for great direction and thanks to Tim for taking care of everyones mysteriously noisy deraileurs and taking pics, thanks to the PROMAN girls that allowed Tracey and i to sit in. thanks for reading! - Nicola