Stage 3 – Unitil/FG&E Road Race,Princeton, 110km

Today’s stage was a day for the climbers.  Each 18km lap had a tough 1.5km climb through Princeton where the feedzone was located, however a number of other climbs throughout each lap soon took its toll on the peloton.

Team TDS rode in defence of the leaders jersey for the third day in a row and I can only describe today’s stage as a very tough day at the office.  We rode on the front, covered all attacks made predominantly by Saturn and Team Basis and set a steady tempo to help discourage attacks.

An early break went up the road with Joan sitting on for the ride.  After this break was caught, I went with the next one but this too was quickly brought back.  The decisive break went on lap 4 containing Laura Van Gilder (Saturn) Heather Albert (Team Basis) Kristin Johnson (T-Mobile) and Erin Carter (TDS).  Tina Mayolo-Pic (Diet Rite) bridged across to them at the beginning of lap 5 and with their combined efforts, they quickly put a minute into the peloton.

With the gap opening up and the leaders jersey being threatened, Ulmer called us to the front and asked us to give it everything.  Erin was in the break sitting on, Christine and Shawn were no longer in the peloton, and so it was up to Joan and I to try and pull the break back.  My legs completely blew up on the Princeton hill climb leading into the final lap and I watched Joan on the front as I lost contact with the peloton.

Erin dropped back from the break to help Sarah who with a dwindling number of team mates was working hard herself, to try and close the gap.  On the final ascent up the Princeton hill, Mactier (Saturn) opened up a gap and with 7km to go soloed across to the break.

Mactier caught her teammate Van Gilder and Johnson who had both been dropped from the break.  With 1km to go she caught Mayolo-Pic and Albert and stayed with them until 100m to go.  Mactier attacked up the final steep section of the climb, opened up a gap and held on it to take both the stage and the leaders jersey.

Sarah finished 1min40sec behind Mactier, slipping back to 4^th position in the General Classification.  As a team, we had given everything to try and keep the leaders jersey.  And although we rode our best, we lost the jersey today but we rode 100% for Ulmer and that’s all you could have ask for today.