Kelsey Crew wins cherry blossom classic -- Report by Michelle Lee
Kelsey strikes again!
Inge, Helene (a recent new member -- welcome, Helene!), Kelsey, and I lined up for the cat 4 women's race at the Cherry Blossom Classic this morning. The strong north wind and winding, narrow course made it quite interesting. It's quite a fun course for a short, flat circuit. A few attacks were made, but nothing stuck. As Heidi R. pointed out, the second turn is key -- it's rather tight and if you're not in front, you get stuck behind people slowing down or braking.
With 3 to go I took that turn clean and wide on the outside, and found myself with 1 other girl with a a couple bike lengths' gap. We took one pull each, but someone behind had towed up most of the field. I was a little winded (I have exactly one match per race, it seems) and decided it would be ok to rest in the back. The next lap came before I knew it and I was stuck. Someone attacked at the front, I worked my way through most of the field, but was pooped, and couldn't jump away from the field.
Luckily, Kelsey sitting near the front had gotten clear and we were confident she'd rock that break. 5 separate teams were in the break of 5, though, so noone made concerted efforts to catch them. The next 2 laps were uneventful. In the last few turns before the finish, someone on the sidelines yelled "inside! inside" and I moved there just as the line was coming into sight. I put on blinders and jumped for the line, getting clean... but 5 feet before the line, saw that they were waving everyone inside and off. Apparently there'd been a crash in the break.
Kelsey sprinted from about 150m out and won by several bike lengths! But behind her 2 girls had apparently bumped each other sprinting for 3rd or 4th place, and crashed right at the line. One walked away and another was talking, but strapped onto a board to go into the ambulance.
Inge and Helene rode well, too, and finished (or un-finished, as we had it) strong in the pack. After the race, we chatted with some people from other teams. Apparently NJ has a season-long women's cat 4 cup, and many of these races have 1/2/3 or open women's fields as well, so we're looking forward to hitting those up.
Good luck to those racing later today and at Battenkill!
Michelle
Apr 12, 10 | 9:00 am by Kissena #