Roswell Criterium – 4 May 2003

Conditions were very warm for the Roswell criterium situated north of Atlanta city, Georgia.  We raced at 3pm and the mercury was hovering around 30ºC. The course was narrow along the back section with a long gradual climb which fatigued the legs after 60 minutes of racing.  The corners were tight and technical and it was important to stay at the front end of the race to get a smoother ride.

Anne and I attacked together with 5 laps to go down either side of the finishing straight.  Diet Rite jumped on me and I immediately sat up and let a gap open up to Anne.  As Diet Rite set up their chase I sat in 2nd wheel as much as possible and let the lead Diet Rite rider drift off the front.  Their goal was to bring the break back and set up Mayolo-Pic for the win.  Each time a Diet Rite rider found herself off the front it disrupted her chase as the rest of her team had to close the gap before they resumed their pursuit of Anne.  By effectively jumping into the front end of the race as I was doing, it is possible to disrupt the chase enough to keep a rider off the front.  However, on this occasion Anne was caught with 2 laps to go, but her solo effort did earn her a $100 sprint prime.

Before the race Shawn Heidgen (TDS) was confident she had the legs to sprint and it was my job to lead her out, but on the bell lap she signalled to me that she had nothing left.  Instead, I jumped in front of Emily and helped bring her through the field.  We had some bad luck and were caught behind a rider who pulled her foot out of the pedal and swerved all over the road as she tried to regain her balance.  We got around her and I drove it hard down the back section but we were still poorly positioned coming into the final corner.  It was a long 400m home straight and Emily rode hard to claim 10th while I just scrapped into the top 20, finishing 18th.

We are now heading to Fayetteville, Arkansas where I am looking forward to the Joe Martin Stage race which has some nice long and hilly road stages.  Until then – happy pedalling.

1             Tina Mayolo-Pic (Diet Rite)

2             Shannon Hutchinson (Colavita-Bolla)

3             Gina Grain (Victory Brewing)

10           Emily Gloeckner (TDS)

13           Anne Samplonius (TDS)

18           Helen Kelly (TDS)