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The Rona team stayed with two amazing host families, Paul and Dawn
Piccolomini and Barbara and Ed Mazzaferro, in Leominster, Massachusetts.
Their fridge and pantry were loaded with food whilst the basement was
stocked with cool drinks. They welcomed us into their homes, cooked and
fussed over us and really just totally spoilt us during our stay.
Stage 1 was a 12km individual time trial. Our director Jim advised the
officials of the start order of our riders, with Katrina riding early
whilst I took the second last position of the day. The start sheet did
not have us in our nominated order but apparently the officials were
aware of our requested start order so I began my warm up at 3.20pm in
anticipation for a 4.06pm. At 3.40pm my teammate Anna rushed up to me
and told me I had 5 minutes before my start. Without being able to do
any hard efforts to open up the legs, I jumped on the Colnago time trial
bike complete with a Bontrager disc wheel and raced down to the start
with 1 minute to spare.
I still need to fine tune my TT position on this bike but it is a super
fast bike to ride. Without my full warm up it took me 5 minutes to
really get going and I finished a disappointing 1min 46sec behind the
winner. I know I gave away nearly 1 minute by not being warmed up, thus
I start the race in 33rd position instead of the top 10 that maybe I
could have had. Katrina Grove rode well to finish in 3rd, 32 seconds
behind the race leader and new Canadian time trial champion, Sue
Palmer-Komer (Genesis).
Stage 2 was a 13 lap circuit race. Rona needed to retain Katrina's 3rd
position in the GC and to be mindful of conserving energy for the tough
mountainous road stage tomorrow. I felt great on the 500m climb and
contested the points jersey which was made up of 4 sprints at the top of
the only major climb of the 5km loop. I finished 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th
in these sprints putting me second in the competition, 10 points behind
Laura Van Gilder and 20 points ahead of Tina Pic, both from Genesis.
The race ended in a field sprint with no change to the top GC positions
as the major contenders finished with the main peloton. With a few
girls getting dropped on the circuit today, I actually moved up from
33rd to 28th in GC.
Stage 3 consisted of a 120km hilly road race. During our team meeting,
I was told to be aggressive and get into an early break. This would
help me secure some points over Laura and Tina and force some of the 10
Genesis riders to chase. After 20km, a break was established that
included both Andrea and myself. Tina Pic (Genesis) was also in the
break but with her team defending the yellow jersey, she sat on and
refused to work. A forth rider, Kristy Scheffenacker (Colavita Olive
Oil) joined Andrea and I in much of the work being done in the break.
I contested the 5 sprints for the points jersey but Tina had the
freshest legs and won 4 of the 5 sprints, giving her a 20 point buffer
over me at the end of the day.
On the final lap, Kristen Lasasso (CRCA-Aquafina) bridged to us and did
much of the pace setting. With 10km to go, I sat on and prepared for
the final 2.5km climb to the finish. We started the final climb with a
1 minute lead over the main field. At 1km to go, Pic, Lassaso and I
were marking each other and watching for the final move.
With 500m to go, race leader Sue Palmer-Kolmer was only 10 seconds
behind us and Jim warned me to not slow down until I had crossed the
line. Pic accelerated with 200m to go and I had no legs to follow her.
She took the win while I finished 3rd. I was thrilled to get onto the
podium in a mountain top finish. And to top it off, I moved up from
28th to 7th in the overall classification. Katrina who was sick today,
still managed to hang on to the important wheels but slipped back to 4th
in GC, while Andrea moved up into 6th overall.
The final stage was a 28 lap criterium. There were 5 intermediate
sprints but Tina Pic (Genesis) had the fastest sprint today and claimed
the Fitchburg points jersey for 2004. We rode an aggressive race to
force Genesis to work hard for the overall win and try and get one of us
up the road. However, the race ended in a bunch kick with Van Gilder
and Pic taking the two top spots. We rode well and were happy to have
3 Rona riders finish in the top 10.
The race organiser and friend, Greg Moran, put on a safe and wonderful
race for everyone, while his wife Deidre, together with our hosts,
treated Rona to a scruptious BBQ at Uncle Norms. And as a professional
cyclist, I am collating many wonderful memories from the friendships I
have developed with my host families.
Now I am off to Vancouver to race BC superweek with team
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