Fitchburg-longsjo Classic 2004

The Rona team stayed with two amazing host families, Paul and Dawn Piccolomini and Barbara and Ed Mazzaferro, in Leominster, Massachusetts.  Their fridge and pantry were loaded with food whilst the basement was stocked with cool drinks.  They welcomed us into their homes, cooked and fussed over us and really just totally spoilt us during our stay.

Stage 1 was a 12km individual time trial.  Our director Jim advised the officials of the start order of our riders, with Katrina riding early whilst I took the second last position of the day.  The start sheet did not have us in our nominated order but apparently the officials were aware of our requested start order so I began my warm up at 3.20pm in anticipation for a 4.06pm.  At 3.40pm my teammate Anna rushed up to me and told me I had 5 minutes before my start.  Without being able to do any hard efforts to open up the legs, I jumped on the Colnago time trial bike complete with a Bontrager disc wheel and raced down to the start with 1 minute to spare.

I still need to fine tune my TT position on this bike but it is a super fast bike to ride.  Without my full warm up it took me 5 minutes to really get going and I finished a disappointing 1min 46sec behind the winner.  I know I gave away nearly 1 minute by not being warmed up, thus I start the race in 33^rd position instead of the top 10 that maybe I could have had.  Katrina Grove rode well to finish in 3^rd, 32 seconds behind the race leader and new Canadian time trial champion, Sue Palmer-Komer (Genesis).

Stage 2 was a 13 lap circuit race.  Rona needed to retain Katrina’s 3^rd position in the GC and to be mindful of conserving energy for the tough mountainous road stage tomorrow.  I felt great on the 500m climb and contested the points jersey which was made up of 4 sprints at the top of the only major climb of the 5km loop.  I finished 1^st, 2^nd, 3^rd and 4^th in these sprints putting me second in the competition, 10 points behind Laura Van Gilder and 20 points ahead of Tina Pic, both from Genesis.

The race ended in a field sprint with no change to the top GC positions as the major contenders finished with the main peloton.  With a few girls getting dropped on the circuit today, I actually moved up from 33^rd to 28^th in GC.

Stage 3 consisted of a 120km hilly road race.  During our team meeting, I was told to be aggressive and get into an early break.  This would help me secure some points over Laura and Tina and force some of the 10 Genesis riders to chase.  After 20km, a break was established that included both Andrea and myself.  Tina Pic (Genesis) was also in the break but with her team defending the yellow jersey, she sat on and refused to work.  A forth rider, Kristy Scheffenacker (Colavita Olive Oil) joined Andrea and I in much of the work being done in the break.

I contested the 5 sprints for the points jersey but Tina had the freshest legs and won 4 of the 5 sprints, giving her a 20 point buffer over me at the end of the day.