Kissena Cycling Club

Report by Stacey Jensen:

Yesterday I raced the Phillipsburg Crit, which is a fun race in a tiny town in New Jersey. The road surface could have used some work, but the course layout and town support was cool. The whole town seemed to shut down for the race, and it went down the main street and around some neighborhood blocks with the locals sitting on their front porch cheering. It was cute.

The course consisted of a long flat straightaway on the front and back stretches. The front straightaway turned into a 90-degree corner, which did a tight S-curve series into the 90-degree second corner immediately turning into a short hill followed by the straightaway back stretch, then two 90-degree corners into the front straightaway.

There was a good showing of women in the 1/2/3 field; most of the pure sprinters in the region who didn't want to go to Green Mountain :-). The 16-18 Junior boys started a few minutes before us, which proved to be problematic, and then we rolled off. The first attack came on the first lap on the backstretch, and they kept coming. It was a really intense race, very fast-paced, lots of attacking and chasing. I tried to conserve my energy as I haven't been training for crit intensity this year, so I chased down a few attacks and then would recover back in the pack. The pack would often string out because of the tight corners and high speed with no one wanting to stay in the wind. With about 7 laps to go, they called a prime. The pace immediately picked up and one girl went on the attack on the back stretch but got reeled in. I stayed in the front half and just waited to see if there would be a moment for me to go. After the fourth corner into the front straightaway, tw! o girls took off to grab the prime. I was sitting in the front of the pack at third wheel, and no one else was going to chase, so I decided to go for it. I bridged the gap (and in doing so found a gnarly big bump in the road and gasped as my rear wheel flew up and swung out what felt like several feet in the air :-), snagged the wheel of the two girls going for it, passed them, and nabbed the prime. One of the girls afterwards told me that in her final sprint, she decided to stay seated because she saw my bike fly through the air from the bump and it freaked her out. I was on my own for most of that lap, but the pack caught me, and I was a bit tired. Several more attacks happened in the final laps, and we ended up swallowing up the Juniors who refused to move right and let us pass, and when they finally did let us overtake them, one of them proceeded to slow his bike to almost a stop on the inside of the corner nearly causing a crash. The last lap was crazy fast, and ! I was 6th wheel coming into the final straightaway. Two girls started their sprint, and I followed suit, passing them, but then realizing it was too early, my legs were spent, and I had provided a nice leadout for some of the others. We all finished fairly close, but I ended up with 4th. I was happy with the result though and had a great time with the girls in the field who I've known for a few years now from the crit races from which we all seem to masochistically enjoy the pain. I would recommend this race for anyone next year; fairly close, great primes, and great payouts! Hope everyone is enjoying their long weekend!

Best wishes,
Stacey