I could do that again

I spent this weekend in the Northern New Jersey woods competing at the Giro del Cielo, a two day, three stage race. It got off to a slow start, with an uphill time trial first thing Saturday morning. I have personally resolved to learn how to go uphill and time trial faster, so the 4.5 mile climb was a rude reminder of my two biggest weaknesses. Luckily the GC was based on points, not time, so I was counting on the criterium that afternoon to redeem myself.

The course was dead flat with 4 corners in barely half a mile. The pace was rather casual for the majority of the race and I managed to take second in the points preme. Seven miles later, I was well positioned around the final corner and found myself in the closest sprint of my life. Stacey Jensen of Kissena and I crossed the line within a centimeter of each other and neither one of us knew which one had been ahead when we crossed the tape. After a cooldown lap, we realized that the officials didn’t know either and watched as five people huddled around a screen trying to determine the race winner. Finally, I was announced as the race winner with the difference coming down to a single pixel on the screen.

Early the next morning I was pleasantly surprised to find that the effort had put me in third place in the GC, just four points behind the leader. It was announced that the first of the six laps would be another points preme. My teammate, Caitlin, and I both knew that those points would be key to hanging onto a solid GC placing. Caitlin put in so much work in the first half of that lap that I was worried she might not have enough left for the leadout that we had briefly discussed. Not to worry though, just when I needed it, she came up from my right side and I jumped on. She led us almost to the line, until Stacey and I took it into our hands again and busted out another brutal sprint. I took second, and the race settled down for a while. We put in another 25 miles or so and then it was time for the final sprint. Although we still had most of the pack with us, at this point I knew exactly who to look for. Right on schedule, Stacey opened it up and I chased her hard, but it wasn’t quite enough. I took second place to Stacey for the third time that weekend, which boosted my GC standing to second overall.