Hartford W4 Crit

An early start to the day, as Courtney, Andrea and I hit the road at 5am Sunday morning on our way to Hartford, CT. But we had coffee and bagels, and at a rest stop in Connecticut, a boy scout troop was giving out free food! Courtney had a yummy-looking egg and cheese sandwich, and all of us wondered why on earth you’d set up your tents between the highway and the rest area….

The race itself was 20 laps around Bushnell Park—7/10ths of a mile, 5 corners and an almost not there uphill out of the next to last turn to the finish. On the line at 8:30am, we have 20 cat 4 women, and immediately behind us, 20 Masters 60+ men—and never the twain shall meet (ha!). The whistle was blown, and we were off.

All three of us remembered our plans to stay near the front, stay out of trouble, and did exactly that. No other New York women had made the trip, so we were definitely wary and keeping our eyes open. Seems everyone else was doing the same—the pace, while solid, wasn’t outrageously fast and everyone was pretty content to sit in. Throughout the race, we were passing (and being passed) by the Master’s men—first the leaders, then we started passing the stragglers. (The course was a little too short to handle two fields easily.)

At nine laps to go, I took advantage of a lull in the field and bolted away from the pack. Courtney and Andrea stayed back, but my escape was short-lived when the announcer called for a prime the next lap; I was swept back up in the sprint for pizza. I tried again at three to go, but with no success—the only other rider who tried to escape had the same experience. Throughout, Andrea was busy covering the riders pushing the hill, and Courtney helped control the pace up front.

As expected, it came down to a field sprint. Andrea and I went up the inside, and almost got taken out by a swerving rider, taking 11th and 10th respectively. Courtney did quite a bit better, roaring around the outside and capturing 4th overall! Woo-hoo!

I wrapped up my racing by doing the Master’s 50+ field. Remember that almost not there hill? It’s really there once you’ve gone up it 35 times! But it was still excellent fun to ride with such a big pack of experienced riders.

Looking Swanky!

Check out the Terminator sporting the brand-new kit (and knee brace—an optional after-market accessory) at the May 23rd CRCA race, thanks to Andy Shen of CRCA/Merrill Lynch.

Race Series Update

The latest from the Aquafina NY State Women's Category 4 Race Series is that Emma and Liz are ranked 10th and 11th, respectively. Good friend of the team, Ellen Moses, is currently leading the series, and we couldn't be more excited about that!

The next race in the series is the Lou Maltese Memorial in our own Central Park on July 10th—�we'll be out looking to raise our rankings!

"I Had Butt Cancer!" (Flyboys RR at Floyd Bennet Field)

Hooray for women's fields! Eve, Nancy and your faithful correspondent dragged our tails out to Floyd Bennet Field in Brooklyn this morning, all set to pit ourselves against the best New York could offer. 10 laps of the famed Floyd Bennet Field race course, which is just over 2 miles long, dead flat and windy as all get out. (It's not a birthplace of aviation for nothing, y'know...)

So today at 7am? Seven women toed the line, fierce faces preparing to do battle against the puddles, the wind, and each other in a fight to reach that finish line first and place in one of the top five money-making spots. Catherine Powers (La Grange) and Sarah Sauvayre (Metro) led us in a ceremonial first lap to check the rather large puddles left behind last night's thundershowers, and as we crossed the line again, the pace began to pick up a bit. Catherine made her first attack after the first turn, and we all reacted promptly and with success. Not so much as we made it through the second corner and onto the windiest side of the course—Catherine swung to the left and made her move. Sarah and Cindy Ma (Metro) caught on, and the three motored off into the sunrise, never to be seen again.

Nancy and I promptly swang into action, enlisting Evelyn Heinbach (Hell's Kitchen) to work with us and chase the three escapees down. But it was too little, too late—a lap and a half later, they were completely out of sight, we had lost Eve, and there were still 7 laps to go.

At 6.5 laps to go, figuring that wearing Evelyn out was key in order to place fourth and fifth, I attacked. Nancy waited for Evelyn to react, and I waited to get caught. Amazingly, I didn't—I time-trialed it for the next twelve miles, cutting through the puddles and cutting every corner in my crazed attempt to stay away. And as I crossed the line with two laps to go, what do I hear but a cheer from Nancy—who is standing near the officials tent.

Yes, it's true—the dreaded "butt cancer" had taken care of Nancy's race aspirations for the day. She had found herself worn out, tired and achy after a hard week of training, and after dropping off of Evelyn, chose to support us from the sidelines. We have flogged her appropriately, and we hope she has learned her lesson. We also made her make breakfast, which was really good, so once this report is complete, all will have been forgiven.

Eve, workhorse that she is, practiced her own time-trialing, and once lapped by the leaders, managed to help bridge Cindy back up to the other two for a last brief connection. She had a strong finish, taking 6th overall. So for the players at home, that'd be Catherine in first, then Sarah, Cindy, myself, Evelyn and Eve.

Bear Mountain RR (by Liz)

Our first big road race as a team and we passed with flying colors!

The Bear Mountain Road Race is held on a 14-mile course at Harriman State Park in NYS. It's hilly, to say the least (note the 'mountain' in the name). The start heads straight downhill, into a u-turn, at which point you start climbing from all but a dead stop. After a couple of miles of stair-step climbing, it flattens out a bit, becoming a bit more rolling before another long uphill leading towards the feed and the finish line. All the women start together, but the Cat 4 women do three laps and the 123 women do four.

Last year, this race was cancelled due to fog. This year, the curse continued, as the start was postponed due to a missing ambulance. We returned to the cars to keep warm (it was damp and cold out), and wait for more information. Eventually, the word came around that we would start some time after 11:30am (our original start was 10:18am), so we fussed more about what to wear, what to eat and how much additional warm-up we could do considering our original warm-ups were completely gone. And then back to the line we went.

Six Swanky's joined a field of 38 cat 4 women and 40-odd 123 women. I think there were a few nerves at work, but thanks to Andy (in his dual role as Emma's husband and team sponsor Fit NYC) taking care of jackets, extra bottles and giving us all moral support, we were ready for a good start.

The first time down the hill was supposed to be neutral—you don't pass the motorcycle, you don't race like a crazy person. That being said, we hit 40mph on the first downhill. There was passing, there was breaking, it was not exactly the leisurely strolling roll one might imagine from the word 'neutral'! And then there was the uphill. We were scattered about the field—I was so far to the right that at one point I actually rode off the road. Emma was just gliding along in the first third of the pack, while the rest of us (including Andrea with her Terminator knee brace) were moving about in the middle. Our naescent teamwork began showing itself when I started to fall out of the pack towards the top of the hill—Andrea and Nancy both dropped back and towed me back up to the field. Amazing stuff!

The weather had begun to clear up a bit, but the roads were still pretty wet, so it wasn't surprising that there were some bobbles between riders—the stop/go pace was extremely conducive to creating trouble. The second crash on the first lap took place going into the first of two roundabouts after the main hill. The road turned down and then curved right, and the combination was enough for brakes to get applied. The result was that three girls, including Emma, went down, with Nancy making the play of the day when she rode completely off the road to avoid hitting Emma or her bike. She just nicked Emma's helmet and by the time I passed mere seconds later, Emma was on her feet—a nice combination of bike handling and cat-like reflexes!

The rest of the race was considerably less eventful. All six of us were able to hang in through the first lap, and part of the second. The pace picked up the second time up the hill, and each of us fell off in turn. Nancy had some bike troubles resulting from the crash, but stuck in there thanks to help from neutral support. Everyone was able to find someone to work with for at least part of the race, and everyone made a point of sprinting for the finish whether they were alone or not! And to top it all off, the sun came up, the roads dried off, and it was a beautiful Sunday afternoon. A good day for Swanky's!