Fitchburg Circuit Race (Stage 2)

Today's stage was a 55km circuit race. Our race was 11 laps of the 5km (3.1mi) circuit. The course wasn't too technical. It seemed like most of it was downhill, except for the finish. The finish was a pretty significant hill. The first 100meters of the hill were big-ringable. Then it flattened out some. The last 200meters were pretty steap and not as big-ringable. Our goal for the day was to move Evelyn up in the G.C. Coming into the stage she was 4 seconds down from the lead. We were very aggressive throughout the race. All of us attacked. The lead group was whittled down to 54 riders by the end. We started with 113 riders. No attacks were able to stay on this course. The wind and the downhill were too big of a factor. On the last lap, Jeannie Longo pushed the pace over the hill and a small group got off the front. Evelyn was in it. It didn't stick, as ValueAct and some other riders pulled it back. We caught them on the straight-away before the right hand turn up the hill. I was sitting 4th wheel and as I passed Evelyn, told her to hop on. Colavita's Tina Pic jumped hard at the base of the hill. I was 2nd, but there was no way I could close that gap. I gave it my all until I could barely turn over the pedals. I hit the 200meter sign and didn't think anyone was going to come around me. I tried to dig deep but had nothing left. Soon enough, I saw Evelyn and Jen McRae coming around me, along with quite a few other riders. Evelyn got 3rd, taking a 3 second time bonus. Also, the lead 3 riders had a gap on the rest of the field, and the officials gave them a 2 second gap. This gave Evelyn 5 seconds ahead of the leader. So now she is in the yellow jersey. AWESOME! Anne is still 3rd, just 10 seconds down. I came across the line for 13th place and moved up in G.C. to 19th. We have 4 riders in the top 10 now. Everyone rode super well today. We came in with a plan and goal, executed it perfectly, and walked away with our desired results :). Tomorrow is a big day. We are all going to have to race hard and smart. It's a 67 mile road race. Until then!! Thanks for reading!
-A