Podium Girls, follow-up

And yeah, Ellen won the cat 3 women's race in Albany.

Just in case you were wondering.

Brooklyn, take 2

August 28, Prospect Park

Ann-Marie writes:

"Good race; hard pace throughout. Not many women. I took 4th. Karen won, besting Becky Koh."

Ann-Marie is much better at short race reports than I am. (And so is everyone else....)

Podium Girls

(still catching up, but we're getting there!)

Capital Region Road Race
August 21, 2004
36 miles, rain. And more rain.

Oddly, they don't have cute podium boys to deliver medals and flowers to female winners of the Albany RR. To be fair, I doubt they had podium girls for the men either, but one does expect the best from their first podium experience, yes?

Before you get too impressed, we didn't actually win. We did take second and third though, and had the finish line actually been visible through the torrential downpour? No question in our minds but that Nan would have taken it—as Emma said afterwards, "I was all psyched, sprinting away thinking I was going to win, and all the sudden, Nancy went rocketing by me like I was standing still!" Unfortunately, Anna Drakulich of Saab/CBRC did know where the finish line was, and warped the space-time continuum to gain six inches on Nan in the space of 1 video frame.

Backing up just a tad, sixteen riders, including six Swanky's, were on the line at 9:15am, along with the juniors and 55+ men. By 10:00, our substantially smaller group was completing the first of three twelve mile laps, and as the rain turned sideways and sped up, ruing the decision to forego arm and knee warmers. Not that everyone had had that choice—oddly, few riders had actually interpreted the clear satellite photos of the Albany region in August to mean that it would actually be 59 degrees and pouring. Huh. Back to weather school for the lot of us.

As we hit the section of the race where we got to climb hills (in other words, the entire middle of the course), Andrea flatted as I slipped off the back yet again, leaving Nancy and Emma to duel it out with Anna, Karen Ulrich of Setanta, Elisabeth Wegner and Marsha Kapinus of HVVC. I'm told they raced, and attacked, and countered, and raced some more.

In the end, a five-woman sprint came down to Nancy and Anna, followed by Emma, Karen and Elisabeth. Marsha rolled in a minute later, and in a staggering display of "so close and yet so far away," I finished seventh just 3:15 down. Ann-Marie & Sheila O'Connor of East End/Krebs Cycle sprinted for 10th place and Courtney pulled through some of the worst racing weather any of us had ever seen to finish 13th.

But on top of podium spots for Nancy and Emma? Medals. In addition to being the last race of the Aquafina 3/4 womens series (which Wendy Cohen of Hell's Kitchen won by clinching a top 15 spot at Albany), Albany was also the New York State Road Racing Championship, and they won silver and bronze medals. I can state with authority that Emma wore hers all the way home and impressed all sorts of people at the rest stop. (Hey, a medal is a medal!)

Cousin ITT

August 14
CRCA Individual Time Trial—2 laps of CP

It’s amazing how well everyone who trains with us (who don’t actually wear our kit) time trials. Ellen Moses (Foundation) whipped out a 30:06 to win the latest iteration of the club’s race of truth—Karen Ulrich (Setanta) took second with 30:18. Yeah, she’s never time trialed before. But she has practiced with us, and we’re willing to take part of the credit!

Oh, and this team? We did OK. I won the coffee bet (and it’s time for Eve to pay up!), but Nancy is breathing down my neck. If she figures out how to sit down while riding time trials, I fully expect to be paying out next time. Andrea and Emma also moved into the sub-33 minute range, in their usual lock-step fashion—2 seconds apart! Courtney did her first time trial of the year, in a respectable 34:01, trailed by Ann-Marie, who rode sans aerobars because, hey, who needs those crazy aerobars when you've got a brand new Bianchi?

Brooklyn

August 1
Prospect Park, W with Masters

11 laps, field of six women (plus Bronwyn & Lori racing as masters) in the master’s field. Took third (behind Cindy & Angela). And then it rained. Didn’t bother writing home.

It's chaos, baby!

July 31
Central Park, W3/4 field. 5 laps

The first three laps were nuts—leapfrogging (and being leapfrogged) by the men’s race clinic. Being neutralized every few minutes didn’t make attacks nearly as effective as they might have been otherwise.

But people tried, and it was good—Karen Ulrich of Setanta put in an excellent solo effort for the better part of the third lap, and once the men had cleared off the course, it was game on. It was good fun to see the team take an active role in making the race—we were determined that nothing would go without us, and if Mohammed didn’t come to the mountain, well, we’d take the mountain to him. But by the last lap, nothing had stuck, and we were all together coming back around the bottom of the park.

Hannah Long (Sanchez-Metro) took off like a rocket from the carousel and came within inches of holding off the field at the line, only to get tagged by Nanci Modica (Radical Media). Ann-Marie charged up to take 5th, Emma and Andrea stacked up 7th & 8th, Eve and myself somewhere pretty close behind.

Tour of Hilltowns by Emma

Tour of Hilltowns
Presented by the NCC
August 7, 2004
60 mile road race
Windsor, Mass.

It was supposed to be a perfect race for me—hills, more hills, and lots of opportunity to play. Well, either the 4-mile climb 21 miles into the race was too much for me or I was just having a bad day (it can happen).
The first 20 miles was simple. I and 3 other riders (including Kimille Taylor from CRCA/Radical Media) took turns setting the pace for the women’s 4 field of 23 eager pedal pushers. There was lots of chatter within the field and I couldn’t wait for things to get interesting enough to silence the group. Once the climb began, the field spread out. I was with the front pack of about 6 riders for the first 2.5 miles. Then, I got tired and the front riders suddenly got faster. Oh no! The rest of the field was far back and the billy goats kept getting farther away from me. What’s a Swanky to do? “Just breathe and pedal and you’ll live,” I thought.
I finally made it up the hill and was time trialing alone fighting strong, gusty winds to catch the front pack. Two riders (Karen “Legs” Ulrich from Setanta and Kathleen McGuffin of Waitsfield) caught up with me and the three of us worked diligently for 30 miles of wind, hills and leg tearing flats (Karen was doing the leg tearing and I was the tear-ee) trying to close a 4-minute gap to the front pack. Needless to say, we didn’t. The last 6 miles before the finish was another long climb and Karen and the other rider decided they wanted to travel light, leaving me to finish the race alone. My whole body ached and my lungs burned, but I finished 14th place. Karen finished 11th and Kathleen 13th.

Sumertime

...and the living is easy.

Or busy anyway! The Swankys have been racing pretty much every weekend, and we've fallen a bit behind on our race reports. But we've got some good stories to tell, and the first one (Emma at Hilltowns) is coming up any minute now. So don't disappear quite yet—things are happening but quick around here, and you won't want to miss a minute of it.