(Sunday's Podium) 
(Madeleine at the front)First the soap box: Elk Grove Village is a race that exemplifies the disparity between men's and women's cycling. The men get three days of NRC racing, with a total purse of $152,000. This year, the women got two criteriums on the same course; Saturday's purse was $3000, and Sunday's was $5000. Also, the 3/4 women got their own separate race on Saturday. This was a big improvement over last year, so we want to thank the Mayor of Elk Grove Village who is the promoter of this race for listening to us. However, from what I understand because the men's race was NRC, even though the women's race was not, the women's race still needed to be sanctioned under NRC rules. This meant that we would not get NRC points for our race, but they would cut our prize money on both days. Not exactly sure what we ended up racing for, but it was much less than $3 and $5k. This was USA Cycling's rules, not the Tour of Elk Grove. But bottom line, the women who showed up to race were penalized.
Now the racing! I was surprised to find at registration that my entries for both days had been comped and I would get to ride as #1 since I had won last year. This has never happened to me before and I have to say it was cool. Thanks again Elk Grove Village! Very exciting for the women's race we had Joelle Numainville and Laura Van Gilder show up to race. Joelle is a young Canadian who is riding for Kenda and she just won the Pan Am games in Mexico. Laura Van Gilder is a many time national champion, and someone I have admired in the sport for years. The course this year was shortened a bit with a nice section through a neighborhood, but they kept the hairpin turn in corner one and the finishing stretch was still super long, about 600 meters. It started to rain on Saturday before our race and it was terrifying but I got more confident as the race went on. We had tons of primes, and I tried a surprise attack for the midrace prime, starting my sprint wide and way back, but Laura Van Gilder was on it and easily came around me. Anne, Madeleine and I all stayed upright but with 4 laps to go, just when the free laps ended Joelle crashed taking her out of the race. Then Kristin Wentworth and Laura Van Gilder went off the front and it started to look dangerous. The pace picked up and the field was shattering. I was in the back when this was happening but was able to work with another rider to get up to the front. We now had an 8 person split and I was glad that we had a break because I wasn't feeling very snappy and knew the sprint would be tough. On the final lap, Jeannie from Mack did a spectacular attack and I was able to cover it, but couldn't come around her. Laura Van Gilder shot around both of us for the win, and Catherine from Kenda nipped me at the line so I ended up fourth. I was bummed to miss out on the podium, but was happy that we all stayed upright, and that Team BH USA all finished in the money.
Sunday's race was mostly the same folks but also included some of the cat 3's who had raced the day before. It was a gorgeous sunny day, so even though we were racing the same exact course as the day before it felt different. I felt much better too. Madeleine did a fantastic early attack causing Kenda to chase, and Anne and I maintained our positions. The race was fairly uneventful and in the final lap I moved up to the front after the hairpin turn. On the radio, Barry told me to wait for the Kenda leadout and sure enough I was ready and able to jump on when Wentworth did a great leadout. She singlehandedly continued it until the final straight away. No one was taking over so when she slowed I slowed slightly until I felt Laura Van Gilder and Joelle fly by. I tried desperately to get their wheel but it wasn't even close. Then I felt Carrie Cash from Team Revolution coming up on the right side and I so desperately wanted to be on that podium that I dug in and unleashed I don't know what, but it got me across the line before Carrie and Jeannie from Team Mack who was also in hot pursuit. People watching said it didn't look weird but I felt like I was completely out of control and my power tap (we are so lucky to be riding carbon tubular powertaps provided for us by The Bike Shop in Glen Ellyn) showed a new max wattage. Anne finished in the money and we had a great day for Team BH USA.
After the race I'm afraid I babbled incoherently to Laura about how much I admired her and what a big deal it was for me to be on the podium with her. She was very gracious and polite and thanked me for the compliments. :)
-Kristen
Now the racing! I was surprised to find at registration that my entries for both days had been comped and I would get to ride as #1 since I had won last year. This has never happened to me before and I have to say it was cool. Thanks again Elk Grove Village! Very exciting for the women's race we had Joelle Numainville and Laura Van Gilder show up to race. Joelle is a young Canadian who is riding for Kenda and she just won the Pan Am games in Mexico. Laura Van Gilder is a many time national champion, and someone I have admired in the sport for years. The course this year was shortened a bit with a nice section through a neighborhood, but they kept the hairpin turn in corner one and the finishing stretch was still super long, about 600 meters. It started to rain on Saturday before our race and it was terrifying but I got more confident as the race went on. We had tons of primes, and I tried a surprise attack for the midrace prime, starting my sprint wide and way back, but Laura Van Gilder was on it and easily came around me. Anne, Madeleine and I all stayed upright but with 4 laps to go, just when the free laps ended Joelle crashed taking her out of the race. Then Kristin Wentworth and Laura Van Gilder went off the front and it started to look dangerous. The pace picked up and the field was shattering. I was in the back when this was happening but was able to work with another rider to get up to the front. We now had an 8 person split and I was glad that we had a break because I wasn't feeling very snappy and knew the sprint would be tough. On the final lap, Jeannie from Mack did a spectacular attack and I was able to cover it, but couldn't come around her. Laura Van Gilder shot around both of us for the win, and Catherine from Kenda nipped me at the line so I ended up fourth. I was bummed to miss out on the podium, but was happy that we all stayed upright, and that Team BH USA all finished in the money.
Sunday's race was mostly the same folks but also included some of the cat 3's who had raced the day before. It was a gorgeous sunny day, so even though we were racing the same exact course as the day before it felt different. I felt much better too. Madeleine did a fantastic early attack causing Kenda to chase, and Anne and I maintained our positions. The race was fairly uneventful and in the final lap I moved up to the front after the hairpin turn. On the radio, Barry told me to wait for the Kenda leadout and sure enough I was ready and able to jump on when Wentworth did a great leadout. She singlehandedly continued it until the final straight away. No one was taking over so when she slowed I slowed slightly until I felt Laura Van Gilder and Joelle fly by. I tried desperately to get their wheel but it wasn't even close. Then I felt Carrie Cash from Team Revolution coming up on the right side and I so desperately wanted to be on that podium that I dug in and unleashed I don't know what, but it got me across the line before Carrie and Jeannie from Team Mack who was also in hot pursuit. People watching said it didn't look weird but I felt like I was completely out of control and my power tap (we are so lucky to be riding carbon tubular powertaps provided for us by The Bike Shop in Glen Ellyn) showed a new max wattage. Anne finished in the money and we had a great day for Team BH USA.
After the race I'm afraid I babbled incoherently to Laura about how much I admired her and what a big deal it was for me to be on the podium with her. She was very gracious and polite and thanked me for the compliments. :)
-Kristen
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