Weekend update: VA, CA, NC, and 3 wins!

Walton Park Criterium, VA

Morgan wearing her podium hat!

The Charlottesville Racing Club and Louisa County Parks and Recreation promoted a nice criterium in Mineral, Virginia. This year the race was the first half of the Charlottesville Omnium, the second half being the Wintergreen Ascent. Morgan represented the team at both races. It was rain for the crit, but she raced strong and the field stayed together for a sprint finish. Morgan won the sprint! Enough said. This is Morgan's 1st Crit win, and also her first season road racing, very proud of you Morgan!!

Wintergreen Ascent, VA

Gold- for Morgan and Mallory!

The ascent up to the Wintergreen Ski Resort in Virginia is 6.1 miles of climbing with an average grade of 8.3% and a max grade of 13 %. According to John Summerson of Carolina Cycling News, "Wintergreen is similar in overall statistics to the French climb of Joux Plane, a famous Alps ascent and one that is often used in professional tours including the TdF". The annual race took place this weekend and our team was represented by Mallory in the junior women category and Morgan in the cat 4 women. Both riders took the fastest times up to the top of Wintergreen and won their categories. Congrats on a great weekend ladies!

Tour de Moore, NC

Tour de Moore Road Race is one of the oldest road races in the South, this is it's 37th year, and in the past it has been used as a Pan Am games qualifier as well as a qualifier for the Quebec Provincial Team. This year the road race is the qualifier for an amature team at Nature Valley Stage Race, so the competition was all there trying to win the one spot. Brenna represented our team in both races this weekend. Saturday's road race involved a lot of attacking, but none that resulted in a break and the race finished as a group sprint. There were two near-wrecks close to the finish line with everyone jockeying for a position. Brenna safely navegated her way through, but lost some ground before the sprint, and finished 19th. The race winner was Erin Burton (RGF Women's Cycling).

Sunday's race, the Brick City Criterium, was aggressive with a break sticking this time. The break contained riders from 3 different teams who were all strong. Race winner Bergen W. (Pepper Palace) eventually broke away from her break and soloed back to the field a lap ahead. The sprint was for the remaining places and Brenna took a good position into the last corner and finished the race 8th over all.

Went Vinyard Road Race, California

one of the hills at Went Vinyard RR

Amanda W. spend her weekend racing and exploring in California at Wente Vineyard RR. The 64 mile road race is in it's 25th year, not a bad legacy. She did this race, hills and all, on a rented trek 2.1, which is not quite as nice as riding a Trek Madone in the hills.  It was a very challenging race, with amazing hills and Alison Tetrik-Starnes attacked, who attacked, and attacked some more - but there were two other beasts racing who beat her in the end. Around 20 women started the race and at least 7 got dropped and didn't even finish.  Amanda hung on for about 35 miles before losing contact with the leaders, but made herself keep pedalling the "tank", and ended up with an 11th place finish only 2 minutes behind the pack.

InMotion Off the Bike, training pics

In Motion Off the Bike Training Blog

Erika and Jaime work the strength circuit that focuses on core.

Erika and Jaime shared pictures of this week's workout at InMotion, where professionals hold the most recognizable certifications in the strength and conditioning field.  One really great thing about training there is that certified strength and conditioning specialists, certified athletic trainers, physical therapists, and sports medicine physicians collaborate to bring you a wide spectrum of options to improve your performance.

Roanoke wet Roanoke

Roanoke Race Weekend

Special thanks to Starlight for promoting a great race weekend

Julie H. sprinting for the line 13th overall, 2nd place for cat 4's

Roanoke Twilight- Women's open on a fun and challenging downtown crit course with lots of corners and a few ups and downs. This year the slick course really split things up for the start, with the field breaking to pieces by the 3rd lap. The race was loaded with attacks and eventually Emilie Ray (Real Deal Racing and Canadian National Tean) got away with Ali (Velocita).

Morgan riding in solo for 8th overall, and 1st for cat 4's

Emilie later got away from Ali for a solo win, with Ali taking 2nd. Kelly (Velocita) attacked the chase group and got away for 3rd. Julie K. worked very hard to catch the breaks and cover attacks during the race, and finished in the chase group sprinting with Ava, Jen (Velocita) and Kimberly (Affinity). Ava gave a great lead on the last lap and Julie came in 5th overall, with Ava taking 7th overall and 1st for the cat 3's in the race. Morgan got away from the second chase group she was in and soloed the last 3 laps in for 8th overall, and the 1st cat 4 in the race. Other results for the team include: Amanda E. 11th, Julie H. 13th, and Mallory 16th. Great job to all the competitors in a tough race who came out and braved the weather and stuck it out to the end! 

Six reasons you should be in Roanoke this weekend.

There are not a lot of races in Virginia like Roanoke Twilight. If you have a bike and you like to race you should be in Roanoke this weekend, here's why:

1. The course is challenging and fun, with enough corners to make it interesting, but not scary, because they are fast fun lines.
2. The competition will be good, I promise. There are already enough serious women signed up to keep things interesting.
3. The prize purse- $1,000.00/ 10 ways. So it's worth your trip, even if you can't pull off the big W.
4. Enjoy the crowds- The downtown Roanoke scene is fantastic. Many of the spectators are not cyclists, but come out to watch the entertainment, and so it has a great pro-race feel with the crowd. 
5. Support a great race (with good prizes for women) and show promotors how exciting women's racing can be.
6. Only one hotel night- Since the race on Saturday is not until the evening, and there is also a race on Sunday, you get a double race weekend without leaving Friday!

 Sign up now, the Roanoke weekend is worth the drive!

Presby Crit, Battenkill, and Langley

Presbyterian Hospital Criterium

Known as one of the toughest criteriums in the country, the 1.2 mile course in center city Charlotte, hosted some of the country's top racers on Saturday night. The pace was fast as usual and the peleton was strung out most of the race due ot attacks and large primes. Nothing stayed away and the race ended in a field sprint. Sarah came in 19th overall. Can you spot her in the picture to the left? (photo: cyclingnews.com) 


Tour of the Battenkill
If you haven't heard of Battenkill it's notoriously tough: the race is over 62 miles of rolling hills on both dirt and paved roads that travels throughout Battenkill Valley. Patty was representing Tradewinds this year and finished strong as usual. Towards the end of the race a small break was up the road, Patty was close behind in the chase group by the finish, and ended up with 11th place overall.

  

Langley Speedway Criterium 

 The local Virginia showdown of the weekend at a short track in Hampton, VA. We had a big showing and a lot of strong riders at the race. The race was fast from the start and had many attacks. One early attack was strong enough to lap the field on the short track, with Ava, Julie K., and Ali (Velocita). The pack slowed down for a while until the the field was lapped, then later Julie and Ali got away again for another lap on the field. There was more excitement but ultimately it came down to the field sprint, in which Julie K. placed 2nd overall, Ava placed 3rd overall (1st cat. 3), and Amanda W. placed 4th overall. Other notable team results are: Amanda E. 2nd place cat. 3, Julie H. 2nd place cat. 4, and Morgan 4th place cat. 4. Great job to all racers in a tough race!

Where will you see us next? One of our favorite races, the Starlight Roanoke Twilight Criterium in Roanoke, VA, and National Criterium Calendar race Sunny King Criterium in Alabama. Hope to see you in Roanoke!!

Jefferson Cup RR

Women's 1,2,3 race report by Avanell
We had a strong showing for Tradewinds, 6 total representing the team. There were also strong showings from ABRT, and Velocita.

The first lap was slow, everybody waiting to see who would take control and who planned on attacking. The attacks and counter attacks started on the 2nd lap with ABRT tiring of the slow pace. Immediately we responded with several counter attacks. Between Sarah F, Julie K, Amanda W, and Patty B, there were few opportunities to recover. Lyndsay (XO Communications), Kelly Fisher-Goodwin (Velocita), along with a few others were not interested in letting anything go. After an attack from Kelly (Velocita), I threw in a (one) counter attack towards the end of the 2nd lap. Ali (Velocita) had a couple of attacks. Amanda E chased down a couple of attacks, a big effort on one coming from Lyndsay (XO) after the hill on the 3rd lap.

We were neutralized on the 4th lap right before the big hill to allow the Cat 4s and 50+ to go through. After 7 minutes of being stopped, most people were expecting a slight cool down, but ABRT attacked once we started climbing. Another set of attacks and coming from our girls and a few others, but nobody broke away for good.
 
Unfortunately we could not get organized for the sprint and Kelly (Velocita) came away with the win. Lyndsay (XO) followed her closely for 2nd, Ainoha (NCVC?) in 3rd and our own Patty B. taking 4th.
 
Women's 4 race
 
from Morgan: "Well Julie was riding really strong the first lap. We both ended up stuck on the front for bits of time... I think Jamie was in the middle of pack for all of the first lap. The highlight of the race for me was on the end of the second lap I was stuck in front and decided if no one was gonna let me off if just slow the ride down and eat/hydrate and this girl behind me is breathing hard and dyin' and when we passed the 200m mark she takes off around me like a bat out of somewhere and continues to sprint over the line. Then realizes we have another lap left once we all mosey back up to her and her victory dance and proceeded to get dropped in a hurry afterwards ;)"
 
-Morgan did get in a break of 7 and place 4th overall, great job Morgan!