ABRT Women Rock at Leonardtown
Leonardtown- May 16, 2010
It had been a couple years since Leonardtown had been run and I was excited to see it return this season. One of the true crits in the Mid-Atlantic: flat out fast, a technical downhill turn, and jumps out of every corner. The 2010 edition did not disappoint! Christine, Sarah and I put our wheels on the line and said--let’s go. It was fast from the start and not having raced Saturday my legs were slow to come around. An attack went early into the wind on the backside and Sarah made the split. The field was not content to let a break go and the front drilled it, stringing it out single file, leaving me gasping and hanging on in the turns. Those first 15 minutes are painful.
Finally, the engines were primed and all three of us were grabbing wheels as attacks went by looking for the break that would stick and dragging back the ones ABRT was not in. Syn-fit attacked and then Kenda and so on. I see Christine coming out of the pit after flatting. I am trying not to look at the lap counter until it flips to single digits. The field flew down the hill and leaned hard into the right turn, I was eighth wheel and bang-- the woman in front of me slid out. A handful of brakes, fishtailing and bracing to hit from behind—for a moment my race ended--but crash slide to the left and somehow I had righted the bike and was aimed up the hill. Sarah had made it through with the front group of six and I sprinted to join them. We had a 10 second gap with the confusion in the turn and tried to make it stick. We were hunted down and back together for the prime lap with 3 to go. Just love those three-lap-to-go-sprints, a Joe Jefferson special.
“3 to go, 3 to go, 3 to go” and it is strung out, on the rivet--gaps opening and closing, sprinting around slowing riders that are toasted or blocking. This hurts but it is fun. Someone wins Champagne on the prime lap, two to go, one to go…finally. It slows on the back stretch with a Kenda rider on the front looking sideways and listening for the click. This is it. I clicked and jumped left—someone heard it and jumped right. That was the better line and I had to make up the distance in the second to last turn. Sarah was near the front and I hoped she caught my wheel. Through the last turn and 200 meters to the line—go, go, go. I wish I could say we came up with a podium finish like our women at Poolesville but we were just outside with 4th in the W cat 3 and 5th in the W 1/2 but that was a true race and it was raced hard. It is great to see good women’s racing back in MABRA and even better to be racing with great teammates.
Janet Olney
