Eastford 2002 - Massachusetts

Today was our first race on the east coast for the Verizon Wireless-Cervelo team. Eastford is located about 1.5hrs south west of Boston, in Massachusetts. Scattered showers were forecast and as I am still adjusting to the cool temperatures (compared with the warmth of California and Australia) I packed all my winter cycling gear to prepare for some unpleasant racing conditions. However, the skies remained rain free, the temperature warmed up and conditions for our race were surprisingly better than expected.

Eastford is one of the regional races on our race schedule and although the elite riders use these races as part of our training, it creates a great opportunity for our category 2 and 3 girls to step up and race with the category 1 team.

The girls racing today included:

• Julie Monagle
• Yvonne Ilton
• Joanne Ross
• Karen Nash
• Kathleen Shaw
• Pam Alessio
• Anna Butler
• Petra Ford
• Hiroko Shimada and myself.

The racing official set us off shortly after 11am and we rode in neutral conditions for 3km until we reached the race circuit. The race consisted of 4 laps of the 14km circuit. The circuit was a little sandy in patches, had a few bumps and potholes, but was a relatively good road. The circuit, ridden in a clockwise direction, was basically a square with predominantly undulations and flat terrain. The three climbs on the circuit were short power climbs, with the finish located at the top of the 3rd one.

When I rode the course as part of my warm up, I decided it better to avoid an uphill sprint finish, if possible. Verizon Wireless-Cervelo's plan was to be aggressive with our attacks and to also dominate the front of the peloton. We didn't want any breaks to go without at least one of us present. Our preference was to get two up the road and have the rest of the team control the peloton and allow the break to succeed.

The attacks started almost immediately with Trek and Marianne's Vineyard being most prominent. Verizon Wireless-Cervelo were also aggressive with Petra, Yvonne and I all making attacks. Early into the 2nd lap, the peloton slowed momentarily and Hiroko literally rolled gently off the front. Everyone watched her roll away and no-one followed. She was at least 400m ahead when one girl attacked from the peloton. Yvonne and I started to chase her at the same time, and Yvonne yelled at me to take it, and she eased up. It was the perfect move. Yvonne blocked anyone else from jumping on my wheel and the two of us soon had 100m on the peloton. I was driving really hard and the girl wouldn't pull through, so I dropped behind her, caught my breath and then attacked her and dropped her. I could see Hiroko and it took me another minute to close the gap to her.

Hiroko and I worked really hard together. I took the lead on the headwind and downhill sections, while she was better at leading through the gradual climbs. I tried to hold 45-48km/hr on the flat sections, and anything over 40km/hr when there was a headwind. I had the breathing under control but we were riding at our threshold the entire time. Unfortunately we didn't wire up today and had no idea how much time we had on the peloton so we didn't ease up until we saw the 1km sign on our last lap.

Back in the peloton, 3 or 4 riders where really annoyed to have missed the break and were trying countless times to attack. Petra and Yvonne did a lot of work covering every attack and not letting anything go. The other Verizon Wireless-Cervelo girls remained prominent in the peloton and helped to mentally defeat them.

Hiroko and I rode side by side during the final 1km, and as Hiroko is more of an all rounder rather than a pure sprinter, I took line honours while she secured 2nd place. Hiroko and I also won the sprint prime, however funnily enough, we didn't even know there were sprint primes. I heard the official ring the bell with 2 laps to go and just thought she had made a mistake.

So at the end of the day, Verizon Wireless-Cervelo cleaned up today. We won all the sprint primes and took 4 out of the top 5 places.

Results:

So well done to everyone on the Verizon Wireless-Cervelo team. We rode to our plan perfectly and everyone helped contribute to its success today. Lets continue the season with this same positive approach. Happy training until our next race.