Stage 4 – Workers Credit Union Criterium, Fitchburg, 50/25 miles (M/W)

Today we decided to go out and have some fun.  We didn’t have a jersey to defend so we were able to race aggressively and try and go for the stage win.

Almost by surprise, Ulmer went for the first points sprint and won it.  Without even talking about it, we started leading her out and she won the next 3 sprints in succession.  With 25 points for each sprint, Ulmer had now accumulated enough points to threaten the sprint points jersey currently worn by Heather Albert (Basis).  With excitement we listened to the commentator announce that if Sarah won the last sprint, she would take the jersey from Heather.  At commencement of the sprint lap, Joan got to the front and drove it as hard as she could and then I took over down the back straight.  Erin sat glued to my wheel with Sarah sitting tight behind her.  Erin took over in the final 1km and opened the throttle to keep the pace high.  Sarah jumped out with 300m to go but Albert (Basis) dug deep and just edged past Sarah on the line to narrowly claim the jersey as hers.

The pack remained together until the final lap with a bunch sprint looking inevitable.  I led into the bell lap, holding 40km/hr up the finishing uphill drag.  Jessica Phillips (Saturn) came around me for the final uphill section and it took all my energy to hold her wheel.  She pulled off at the top corner and I had to dig really deep to drive it down the back straight.  Erin took over for the final section with Sarah hoping to find one final sprint in her legs.  However, Tina Mayolo-Pic dashed our chances of another stage victory by taking the win, ahead of  Van Gilder (Saturn) and Magen Long (OBRU), with Sarah having to settle for 4^th.

With a successfully completed Fitchburg-lonsjo classic, I celebrated in a relaxed fashion by enjoying the James Taylor concert with my host family’s siblings.  After a 2 hour ordeal to get out of the car park after the concert, we eventually got to Boston at 2am and I was very grateful to fall into bed.

I now have one to day to pack my bike and get a little rest before flying to Italy on Tuesday to ride the Giro d’Italia with Team S.A.T.S, a Danish based team.