Turtle Pond, Women's 1/2/3 - 4-13-08
Turtle Pond, Women’s 1/2/3, (4 laps, 5 times up the climb)
April 13, 2008
NEBC: Mary Zider (1), Rebecca Wellons (5), Sally Annis (6), Tami Buhr (8), Natalie Dumont (9), Sam Dery (), Cathy Rowell ()
Brooke O’Connor (team director, riding in Hub colors, finished with Sam)
We went hard from the gun as planned. After a hard charge up the hill at the start and a hard push on the descent, Sally attacked and got a nice gap. Ann Hansgate (Terry) bridged up a short time later. The field was mainly made up of single riders from a variety of teams so most were reluctant to chase. This left NEBC to ride tempo at the front. We covered some attacks and launched an occasional attempt to bridge but things remained calm until we hit the climb again when we once again set a good hard pace to try to whittle the field down. Sally and Ann stayed away for over a lap and then Sally slowed knowing that we had other plans for the day. As they got closer on the back side, Tami bridged up and had Sally to shut it down so we could let the field catch and we’d go again.
Sally was anxious to get more work in so was instructed to hang in until the hill and then lead a hard charge. Unfortunately, she was out of water but went so hard before the corner into the hill that no one could go with her. It was such an effective attack that she put a huge gap into the field up the hill. Sally was away again with 2 laps to go. Once again there were various attacks and attempts to bridge up by other players. The team did a good job covering them all. Rebecca launced her own attack on the back side and stayed away until shortly before the fourth time up the climb. Having both Sally and Rebecca down the road created a greater sense of urgency among the field.
Heading towards the hill for the 4th time, Brooke took the climbers to the front and then set a hard pace. Tami was marking Ann Hansgate’s wheel ready to follow if she went hard. Sally’s tenderizing of Ann worked as Ann completely popped heading into the climb trying to hold Brooke’s pace. Tami was caught sleeping and got gapped big time on the hill and had to chase hard with another rider to catch back on. Brooke and Sam also got detached at that time with Sam suffering quad cramps. Brooke and Sam eventually joined up and had the field within view but couldn’t close the last gap. Meanwhile, the action in what remained of the pack heated up with more frequent attacks followed by NEBC counter attacks. Natalie launched a huge counter that got her down the road. Rebecca followed suit and bridged. With Sally still out there and now Natalie and Rebecca too, the others started working much harder to bring them back. Nat and Rebecca were caught and the pace kept high to try to reel in Sally. The pack was closing the gap as we approached the final corner. Mary took to the front and charged hard from corner and simply rode the competitors off her wheel. She eventually passed Sally with 200 yards to the finish and crossed the line in first. Rebecca also charged hard up the climb and took fifth. Sally crossed behind her in sixth and the rest of the NEBC gals followed with Tami and Natalie also in the top ten.