Jiminy Peak 2002

The Jiminy Peak Road Race, in Lanesborough, Massachusetts, is dedicated to the memory of a promising young rider, Shaun Thornton who tragically lost his life at the age of 22. The top five place getters, in conjunction with their prize money, were presented with memorial mugs in his honour.

A field of 75 women lined the start at 11.30am in the car park of the Jiminy Peak ski fields. The course was undulating, windy in sections, with a gradual big ring climb at the 22km mark while the last 1.5km up to the finish had a steeper climb up that flattened in the middle and then kicked up to the top.

We had an impressive Verizon-Wireless Cervelo presence with 14 riders including Erinne Willock, Hiroko Shimado, Petra Ford, Julia Farell, Ann Marie Miller, Julie Monagle, Dawn Richardson, Karen Nash, Kathleen Shaw, Brenda Nevins, Yvonne Ilton, Pam Alessio, Amanda See, and myself.

Our plan was to have a continuation of Verizon-Wireless Cervelo girls going off the front to demonstrate aggression, but to also try and break things up and soften the other riders' legs a little. I shadowed Laura Van Gilder (Trek), wanting to get in a break with her, if she attacked. Julie Monagle, Julia Farell, Ann Marie Miller and Petra Ford did a lot of work in this lap, and were often left dangling 100m off the front fighting a vicious headwind. Notwithstanding their efforts, the peloton stayed together on the first lap with all breaks being shut down.

Erinne attacked midway into the 2nd lap and with one other rider, quickly got a sizeable gap. A number of Verizon-Wireless Cervelo girls moved to the front to try and slow the peloton down for her. Laura set a steady pace up the climb to the finish on the 2nd lap and Petra and I were stuck to her wheel. Petra just lost contact near the top and sat up expecting the peloton to roll around her. However, we had put a 50m gap into the field on the climb and so 6 of us snuck away down the hill while Petra drifted back into the peloton to control the tempo and minimise further breaks.

We had Erinne up the road on her own (as she had dropped the other girl early on), so Ann Marie and I were not going to do any work in the break. So we sat on for a free ride while Laura Van Gilder (Trek Plus), Louise Barriss and Catherine Bearce (CCB International), and Catherine Powers (Terry Precision) worked hard, and yelled at us but to no avail. As soon as we caught Erinne, with about 25km to go, we all started rolling turns to put time into the peloton.

The peloton were not in sight and we were working hard, so we knew our chances of being caught by them were slim. I wanted to avoid an uphill sprint, so shortly after the gradual climb at the 82km mark, I dropped off the back of our break, waited until Laura had just rolled her turn and then attacked into a flat headwind section. I caught them all by surprise and they didn't react. I then set out on a 6km threshold time trial to the finish. I didn't hold anything back and soon my lungs and legs were screaming. I rounded the final corner with only the 1.5km hill to go and prayed I would be able to hang on. I hit the first part of the hill and grimaced with pain. I felt like I was getting nowhere but still had a 15sec gap on them. My breathing was really laboured.

I overtook 3 guys who were also racing on the course who yelled encouragement to me. I tried to increase my speed through the flat midsection and then looked up to the remaining 600m to the finish. I looked back and I could see the break behind the guys I had just passed. With only 20m to go, I looked back over my right shoulder one final time (big mistake) and heard someone scream "Go Laura". Laura had broken clear of the break, came sprinting up on my left side and edged over the line in front of me.

I hung my head in disappointment as I rolled across the line. We had all ridden so well and my solo attempt at the end was the right move, but I had looked back at the wrong moment, instead of throwing everything towards the line, and perhaps that look had cost me the victory. However, I don't want to take any credit away from Laura who is a really strong and experienced rider and who rode an intelligent race.

Verizon-Wireless Cervelo ended up with 4 girls in the top 10 so a fantastic job to all who helped us have another successful race.

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