1st WIN for our new team

Snowball Crit #2 happened on a 60 degree sunny day. The day was almost identical to the first snowball crit in terms of weather. We have been blessed with these early races with good weather. The womens open field was almost the identical field of riders as the first snowball with a few extra racers thrown in. This race had many different attacks by many riders. Many primes were thrown in making for an exciting race to be in as well as watch. 3/4 of the way through Brittany from Fat Frogs got a huge gap during a prime and it got bigger and bigger as the laps were counting down. The peleton was deciding who would make the move to go after her. Eventually Vanderkitten attacked which led to a 5 person breakaway that caught Brittany with a few laps to go. With 3 laps to go Laura Cook (VK) bridged up to the breakaway group to join her teammate Ali, bringing Jen Pope with her (FF). Ali gave a fast lead out for Laura on the final lap. Emily Joyner (TWR) went around in the final 200 and barely held off Laura at the line for a photo finish. That's how Tradewinds got their first win of the season and ever as a new team. Also congrats to Jen Pope and Fat Frogs for breaking onto the podium.

Thanks to BJ Samuels for a great shot at the line:
top 5 results:
1st Emily Joyner(TWR)
2nd Laura Cook (VKVB)
3rd Jen Pope (FF)
4th Ali Ingram (VKVB)
5th Brenna Hosang (TP)

Like nascar, but on bikes!

It was pretty fun to be on such a cool track, racing at the Richmond International Raceway on Saturday during the women's open. In the VCA there has already been 2 races and 3 if you count wolfpack. It is still february. The weather was February weather this weekend (cold and really windy). The attacks started after a few laps and never let up, with VKVB off the front launching all of them. In the end VKVB was able to get away and go 1,2 showing their strength in the monster wind.

One last note. In all the men's divisions the races were full with over 100 riders in some fields. People came from all over, north south and everywhere else. We were expecting this to be true for the womens race as well seeing as how Richmond is in on I95. We thought there would be an invasion of MARA riders in particular who would take the quick drive down. Thanks to Artemis who supplied one rider. But that was it. Our field had a healthy 20 plus riders from the Hampton Roads and Richmond. Hopefully we will see more MABRA racers in the future. VCA has some of the strongest girls seen in a very long time this year. The competition is good, come join us!

Sunny Snowball

Lots of sunshine and new faces at Snowball Criterium. The race was pretty mellow for the first 15 minutes, but after that the action picked up. After several failed attacks by various people, Ali (VKVB) launched a killer before turn 1 and continued into the headwind. The peleton scrambled to react with Brenna in lead pursuit (Tripower) when Emily (VA Asset Group/TWR) powered up and bridged the gap. Ali showed her strength and continued to push the break with little help from Emily while the chase group began to reel them back in (Fat Frogs' Jen and Bridget with Tripower's Brenna). Laura (VKVB) sat in the chase group and bridged to the break after the gap had been shortened by others. Once in the break the two VKVB riders began to attack Emily until Laura broke away solo. The chase group then pulled Ali and Emily back in and continued to chase Laura for the last 4 or 5 laps... well they tried, but Laura's teammate Ali threw them off their pace line by taking slow turns and the chasers could not quite get into their rhythm. Laura came in first, then the group sprint came in with Emily taking the sprint for 2nd and Ali coming across for 3rd.

Wolfpack Race Report

Three of us made the trip south for the Wolfpack Cycling Classic this past weekend, after a lot of discussion about the weather we decided to go Friday as planned. The snow ended up cancelling the Saturday race but we enjoyed the time eating waffles, spinning inside, riding the Sunday course, window shopping in Chapel Hill, and watching the Olympics. It was fun getting to know my teammates better and planning for Sunday's race.

Sunday was Kim's very first road race and every one's first race of the season. After several flat tires before the start of the race, a broken helmet, and a broken trainer we lined up at the start and were impressed by the large number of college racers. The roads were full of pot-holes, so more excitement and more flats (none on our bikes). The attacks began immediately after the roll out and continued until the inevitable break made. I tried to get in on the action but quickly discovered that it is not July, and I need to race a bit more conservatively in February. More excitement at the start of the last lap with a wreck that took up most of the two-lane road. I was very thankful to get around it (and more thankful that my team was all still rolling, too). I was not able to get into the post-wreck break and so worked with Kim (teammate) and Katie (RCWR) for the last lap. Kim, in her first race ever, was a huge help to keep me fresh enough to make it up the last hill with a gap on our small group that I held through the finish line for 5th place in the women's open. What better motivation to keep on the trainer and to get out in the cold than an early season race? Looking forward to a great season and an awesome team!

Prize list is Snowballing

We are still getting more prizes, so this list is not complete, but check out who is donating prizes to the womens race... and sign up today for the Snowball Criterium!
http://www.bikereg.com/events/register.asp?eventid=10242