This was one close race! Katheryn went into the final stage 4.3 sec. behind Alison Powers. With time bonuses of 10, 6 and 4 seconds for the top 3 places in the stage, she had to either take time out of Alison or be 1st or 2nd on the stage without Alison being in the top 3. The Webcor team gave their all and Katheryn found her sprinting legs to take 2nd on the stage (winning the field sprint) but unfortunately for us, Alison took 3rd, giving her the win by 0.3 sec!
Katheryn in the sprint (Photo from VeloNews.com)
Here is Katheryn's Report:
May 9, 2010 - Stage 4 - The Downtown Fayetteville Crit
In years past this has been one of the hardest stages of the JMSR; usually an 8 corner crit, due to construction, this year, it would be 12 corners. I don't think I have ever done a 12 corner crit. Not only would the 12 corners challenge us, but also the start/finish stretch, about three blocks long, had a lovely hill in it that sapped the legs every lap.
We arrived with plenty of time to take a quick lap of the course to check out all 12 corners and get a good warm up in on the trainer. Being ready to go hard from the gun was of utmost importance. Yet, as with almost all of the crits in the US, there is always the "race before the race", what I am talking about is the race to the start line. Yes folks, most people race to be the first one to cross the finish line but there are some that race to get the best spot on the start line! Really?! And trying to contain 60 anxious racers is next to imposible for the race officials. What did not help was the race announcer calling up the top 10 of yesterday's stage placing, not the top 10 in GC! Needless to say, things got somewhat sorted out and I lined up with the other GC contenders on the front line as we received our final instructions.
We were warned about one particularly "dangerous" corner (corner 39 I think it was, hahaha, nope it was corner 11) which had seen people crash at it in every previous race. Hmmm... this could be interesting.
The gun went off and immediately Sam Schneider (Tibco and the current U23 crit camp who had gotten a call up) went to the front and strung it out. I was actually happy about this as I did not want to be fighting with 60 other women for all of the corners. I knew this race would be fast as the GC from 4th-10th or so was soooo close and with 10", 6" and 4" up for grabs at the finish (not to mention I was just shy of 4" behind Alison) there would be some very driving riders/teams who wanted the race to be aggressive.
Unfortunately, about 3 or so laps into the race, 'sniper corner' (that is what some of the guys called it as it was almost as if a sniper was taking people out) took its first victims and one of them included Rushlee (Colavita), who was sitting 7th in GC, she was ultimately okay, a bit banged up, but was not able to finish. I was glad to have missed that crash and very happy to see Erinne about a lap later and know she too avoided the carnage. Erinne put in several attacks but was followed closely by Alison Powers and other strong GC riders. Andrea also made her presence at the front despite the sketchiness going on in the peloton and the speed causing riders to be popped off the back. Tibco tried several attacks to dislodge their riders from the group but were unsuccessful.
The Vera Bradley riders tried several different times and tactics to get riders off the front and it was not until a great attack by Alexis Rhodes with three laps to go where they managed to get someone off. Anne Samplonius (Nanoblur) set pace to try and bring her back along with several Colavita riders. She never really got out of our sight, but due to the technical nature of the crit, it was a bit challenging to put on a full on chase.
On the last time through 'sniper corner', Anne went down, taking out Meredith Miller (Tibco) and a few other riders. Fortunately I managed to avoid going down as did Alison Powers, who immediately got on the gas and took off. Hot on her tail, I was not about to let her get away from me.
With one corner to go and the final time up the climb so close, I put my head down and gave it my all going up the climb. I was not able to catch Alexis, but did hold off Alison and got 2nd in the stage. Unfortunately, Alison got 3rd and secured her overall lead by less than 2". Sooooo close!
It was a great four days of racing for the team. I had what I had for the finish of the race because my team did a great job the other road stages to protect me and keep me safe.
Thanks to Dave, Jeremy and Laura as well.
I am now off to France to do the Tour de L'Aude with the US National Team.
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