Joe Martin Stage Race – Fayetteville, Arkansas

Stage 1 – 9 May 2003 – 112km (70 miles) point to point road race

Conditions: hot, humid and windy – 80F

The first stage of the Joe Martin Stage race was a 112km point-to-point road race starting at Natural Dam and finishing in the centre of Fayetteville.  The organisers transported all 31 riders to the start on buses.  I admit to being a little surprised by such a small field for a National Road Series race but decided many riders were either taking a break from racing or perhaps did not wish to risk the tornadoes that had been affecting parts of Arkansas.

It was a long bus ride to the start, and we were all drinking so much fluid to stay hydrated that we had to request a “nature stop” half way out.  The convoy of race officials following our bus didn’t know what to do when we all piled out and squatted on the edge of the highway.

Our race got underway at 2.30pm and due to the high humidity and heat we were able to feed from the Commissaire’s car at any time as well as at the neutral feeding zone at the 65km mark.

Defending tour winner, Lynn Gaggioli (Velo Bella) and Sue Palmer-Komer Genesis Scuba / FFCC, who recently finished 2^nd in Fleche-Wallone World Cup race were the two strongest riders and I made a point of marking them both from the start.  The race started out quite slowly which was partially due to the heat as well as the 4,500ft of climbing that lay ahead.

At the 50km mark the road started to climb steadily.  Gaggioli attacked hard and Palmer-Komer jumped straight on.  I was on Joan Wilson’s (TDS) wheel as she and I made it across the gap. The effort to get across had hurt Joan with a gap slowly opening in front of her.  I jumped in front of her and took Sue’s wheel.  I could hear someone breathing hard behind me and hoped it was Joan settling in behind me.  After 3 or 4 minutes of unbelievable pain as I was riding above my threshold pace, I glanced behind me and apart from one other rider on my wheel, there was no-one there.  We had ridden away from the entire peloton and were out of sight.  Lynn was continually standing up and attacking from the front and it was all I could do to sit on her wheel.  I lasted another 5 minutes or so and then blew up.  The rider on my wheel was also gapped off and we worked a little together until a group of 8 caught us.

We reached just over 2000ft in altitude at the 64km mark and this was the last of the major climbs finished.   After a long descent, the road was generally undulating with a strong cross tailwind.  Our chase group was averaging 48-55km/hr but the time gap to the break continued to hover around 2 minutes.

After a few attacks from within out group, we decided to work together to minimise the time gap that the break had established.  Two of the Genesis riders, with their team mate, Palmer-Komer in the break, had been sitting on the back of our chase group and were both fresh for the sprint for 3^rd place.

Candice Blickem (USA) Genesis Scuba / FFCC drove it hard up a steep little climb 400m from the line with Amy Moore (Saturn) and myself on her wheel.  Neither of us was unable to come around her so I had to be content with 5^th place, nearly 3mins down on Gaggioli and Palmer-Komer.  My other team-mates suffered today in the hills and all finished 12mins37sec down.

Results:

1 Lynn Gaggioli (USA) Velo Bella                                                     2.58.36

2 Susan Palmer-Komer (Can) Genesis Scuba / FFCC

3 Candice Blickem (USA) Genesis Scuba / FFCC                              2.52

5 Helen Kelly (Aus) TDS 

12 Joan Wilson (USA) TDS