Fitchburg, day 2—The Return of Ass Cancer!
Stage 2—circuit race
Our only mid-day start—funny how much time one little bike race can take up! Four of us rode over to the course, while Eve, Courtney & Andy (Emma’s husband and soignier) drove the cars loaded up with trainers, bottles and backpacks. What a treat!
Personally, while I tend to find this day the most nerve-wracking, it’s also fun for the exact same reason—it’s our first chance to actually ride with the other girls and see what the field is like in person. And this year, we’ve got a really strong, really experienced field. Along with our six Swanky’s, there are approximately eight girls riding as the ‘Town Line Sprinters’—they’re actually a team of Boston-area collegiate riders. Kimille Taylor is the lone cat 4 representative of CRCA/Radical Media, and of course, Ellen Moses of CRCA/Foundation is representing quite capably as well.
The circuit race is held on a three-mile, roughly triangular course with a good sized hill leading up to the start/finish line. There are points for the sprinters jersey on three laps, but being as the hill takes a lot out of one’s legs, it’s a hard haul to sprint up it in front of everyone else!
But on the first time up, Emma took her try and took third in the sprint. How fun to see the Swanky’s jersey racing up the hill at top speed! (And it was pretty cool hearing the announcer mention us later in the race as well!) The rest of us just straggled up the hill in our own ways, managing to stick back onto the pack at the top each time.
After the third lap, the hill started taking it’s toll. Eve and Courtney fell off a bit, along with a number of other riders. And on the fourth lap, a bit of a disaster. Nancy got caught behind a bumping drill gone bad and ended up on the ground. As she so eloquently puts it, “This time I really did break my ass!”
Yes, it’s entirely true—she managed to crash her rear end into the pavement at such an angle that she may have cracked a bone in her bum. You heard it here first, my friends—the ass cancer returned with a vengeance. She was unable to pedal, and unable to finish the race. As a consolation prize, we’ve made her team captain (don’t tell her no one else wanted it!).
Leaving Nancy writhing on the ground, the rest of us continued to sweat all over the course. At two to go, another opportunity for the sprinters and an opportunity for the GC leaders to push the pace over the top and onto the other side of the course—which they promptly did. We hung on, and one to go.
Coming down the home stretch, Andrea, Emma and I were the three Swanky’s in the hunt. And the Town Line Sprinters started leading out past the Civic Center, I found myself exactly where I wanted to be—on Ellen’s wheel going into the final turn. I hung on for dear life, sprinted up that hill like the devil himself was on my heels and nearly died. But I managed to pull out 8th, with Emma at 11th and Andrea at 14th. Amy Kurdock of TLS/Harvard took the win, Ellen took fourth and held on to the (very bright) orange leader’s jersey. Eve and Courtney came in mere moments later in 39th and 43rd positions. Also notably, Kimille rocked those sprint points and took home a lovely green sprinters jersey for her efforts—nice work!
Overall classification update:
1 Ellen (CRCA/Foundation) leader
13 Liz -:55
18 Andrea -1:37
19 Emma -1:39
37 Courtney -5:27
38 Eve -5:28
Our only mid-day start—funny how much time one little bike race can take up! Four of us rode over to the course, while Eve, Courtney & Andy (Emma’s husband and soignier) drove the cars loaded up with trainers, bottles and backpacks. What a treat!
Personally, while I tend to find this day the most nerve-wracking, it’s also fun for the exact same reason—it’s our first chance to actually ride with the other girls and see what the field is like in person. And this year, we’ve got a really strong, really experienced field. Along with our six Swanky’s, there are approximately eight girls riding as the ‘Town Line Sprinters’—they’re actually a team of Boston-area collegiate riders. Kimille Taylor is the lone cat 4 representative of CRCA/Radical Media, and of course, Ellen Moses of CRCA/Foundation is representing quite capably as well.
The circuit race is held on a three-mile, roughly triangular course with a good sized hill leading up to the start/finish line. There are points for the sprinters jersey on three laps, but being as the hill takes a lot out of one’s legs, it’s a hard haul to sprint up it in front of everyone else!
But on the first time up, Emma took her try and took third in the sprint. How fun to see the Swanky’s jersey racing up the hill at top speed! (And it was pretty cool hearing the announcer mention us later in the race as well!) The rest of us just straggled up the hill in our own ways, managing to stick back onto the pack at the top each time.
After the third lap, the hill started taking it’s toll. Eve and Courtney fell off a bit, along with a number of other riders. And on the fourth lap, a bit of a disaster. Nancy got caught behind a bumping drill gone bad and ended up on the ground. As she so eloquently puts it, “This time I really did break my ass!”
Yes, it’s entirely true—she managed to crash her rear end into the pavement at such an angle that she may have cracked a bone in her bum. You heard it here first, my friends—the ass cancer returned with a vengeance. She was unable to pedal, and unable to finish the race. As a consolation prize, we’ve made her team captain (don’t tell her no one else wanted it!).
Leaving Nancy writhing on the ground, the rest of us continued to sweat all over the course. At two to go, another opportunity for the sprinters and an opportunity for the GC leaders to push the pace over the top and onto the other side of the course—which they promptly did. We hung on, and one to go.
Coming down the home stretch, Andrea, Emma and I were the three Swanky’s in the hunt. And the Town Line Sprinters started leading out past the Civic Center, I found myself exactly where I wanted to be—on Ellen’s wheel going into the final turn. I hung on for dear life, sprinted up that hill like the devil himself was on my heels and nearly died. But I managed to pull out 8th, with Emma at 11th and Andrea at 14th. Amy Kurdock of TLS/Harvard took the win, Ellen took fourth and held on to the (very bright) orange leader’s jersey. Eve and Courtney came in mere moments later in 39th and 43rd positions. Also notably, Kimille rocked those sprint points and took home a lovely green sprinters jersey for her efforts—nice work!
Overall classification update:
1 Ellen (CRCA/Foundation) leader
13 Liz -:55
18 Andrea -1:37
19 Emma -1:39
37 Courtney -5:27
38 Eve -5:28
posted by liz @ 10:31 PM
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