The women's 1-2 race at Glencoe was a small field, but there were a lot of strong riders on the line. I'm not sure why a bigger crowd doesn't show up as Glencoe always puts on a fun and super well run venue. The promoters even work hard to put together good prize money and great primes for the women which we really appreciate. Thanks to all the sponsors - ATT (i love the iphone), Alberto's cycles, First Bank of Highland Park, the Village of Glencoe, and many more... Also, thanks once again to Shelle Jewelers for supporting the women's sprint prize with a beautiful watch. Hopefully the word will start to spread to the midwest women about what a great race this is so that more new women come out to try racing and more experienced racers put Glencoe on their calendar.
The fact that Glencoe is a great race was no secret to Team BH, and we showed up in force with our full squad! We were hoping to have a strong showing as we comprised almost half the field and no other riders had teammates (it was not really fair). Jen of Vanderkitten and Jeannie from team Mack started the race off fast and furious, and with some early primes thrown in there the pace continued to be high. Madeleine attacked hard early on and held a gap for over a lap.... but her escape attempt came to a quick halt when the skies opened up and started dumping buckets and throwing down lightning (yikes). The race took a bit of an intermission waiting for the lightning to stop...
Round 2: after about 10 minutes, we all lined back up on the start line for a new shorter-versioned race. The rain was still dumping, but it was a welcome reprieve from the day's sweltering sun. Again Jen and Jeannie led out with a bang and the combination of rain and fast pace caused the field to string out and begin to split. After a couple laps, Kristen attacked hard for a prime and had a bit of a gap... meanwhile, I was hanging on wheels letting others chase back up and as soon as they did, I attacked. The field was split now and Jeannie of team Mack was the only chaser. Kristen took this opportunity to sit on her wheel and take a break while Jeannie and I went into all out time trial mode. It was a tough battle trying to stay away, but there were lots of people hanging out in the rain and providing encouragement with all their cheers! In the end I was able to stay away for a Team BH win! Kristen came around the last corner in the chase group of 3 with fresh legs (sorry jeannie!) and took the sprint for 2nd! Anne then came in with the rest of the field and let out her speedy power to win the field sprint for 5th! Overall a great day for Team BH!!
We are looking forward to another big weekend of racing at Downer's Grove. If you are in the area Friday, come out to The Bike Shop to talk bike racing and meet the team!
No comments:
Post a Comment