Hellertown Crit

As a newbie to racing this year, my goals were pretty simple to start - finish a road race and a crit. I had my first chance at the crit finish last month, but flatted out of the race after 5 of 15 laps! But, I finally made my goal at the Hellertown Crit in PA on the 26th! And what a race it was!

Imagine...a course less than 1/2 mile in length...32 laps! As I told my friend Andy..."It's only 128 corners!" :D I had 6 other teammates at the race, so we thought we might be able to do some controlling of the pace and the race, etc. We knew that we had to watch out for one rider from Saucon Valley named Kristy (she rocks). As expected, Kristy attacked. As was NOT expected, she attacked from the starting line! :eek: She took off like a dag-gon bullet and we barely saw her for the rest of the race. At one point, she had 30 seconds on the pack (essentially a half a lap). We managed to pull her in to 11 seconds, but never quite catch her. As many spectators said afterwards, it was the best women's race they had ever seen. We worked our butts off the whole time. It was GREAT! I managed to finish 9th (just out of the money - they awarded cash for 1st - 8th place!), but we had 4 teammates in the top 10! All in all, a great race and a fun day! I can finally check that crit finish off my list of goals for the year...on to the stage race! :)

NJrider, you did great on your 1st crit. Way to go.:D

Ha! I like that: "It's only 128 corners!"

Good job on finishing your first crit and doing so well!! 9th is awesome! Keep that momentum going for the next race. ;) :D

Speed rules!
~BikeMomma

Nice job!

That's a great result for a new racer - much better than I ever had in my first season.

-Kristy (yeah, that one) ;)

ps: Sturdy Girls Rock!

Hey Kristy!

You were awesome at that race! Wow...what an inspirational ride!

Keep on rockin' it out, girl!

Hey, thanks!

Kristy,

I saw that you were signed up for the Manayunk Wall Climb on Friday. Good luck, lady! I'll be there, cheering on a Sturdy, so I'll send some hoops and hollars your way, too.

Lots o'luck!

That will be very much appreciated.

Are you doing the Watermelon Crit on Saturday?

No...i'm taking a well deserved break from races this weekend! Just spectating! :D

Good for you. I did the same thing last weekend.

I'm doing Watermelon this Sat :)

Good luck to you both on Sunday! Go get Betty!!! :)

Equus, are you racing the Cat 4 or Open?

Thanks, Sarah. I really enjoy racing with Betty. She's so motivating and positive...while ripping your legs off.

LMAO! Yep...that just about sums it up! :)

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Originally Posted by ohmyspokes

Equus, are you racing the Cat 4 or Open?

Thanks, Sarah. I really enjoy racing with Betty. She's so motivating and positive...while ripping your legs off.

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Betty cracks me up. She's got the mouth of a sailor or truck driver (not meant as a derogatory comment) and she rolls around in the most normal of clothes before and after she races. Then when it's time to race, she's is the most unreal thing on a bike - there's nothing she CAN'T do. Gotta love her and all of her positive and encouraging light. :)

I'm doing the cat 4 race on Sat. I believe I have a few teammates in my race and at least one in the Women's Open. Do you know the course?

No, I don't know the course at all. You?

I'll be in the Open field. First race as a Cat 3.


I'm also thinking about doing the Tour of High Bridge on Sunday. That one sounds really interesting.

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Originally Posted by ohmyspokes

No, I don't know the course at all. You?

I'll be in the Open field. First race as a Cat 3.


I'm also thinking about doing the Tour of High Bridge on Sunday. That one sounds really interesting.

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Watermelon Crit course is on Livingston Campus @ Rutgers University in Piscataway (I went to school there so if you have questions about directions or anything let me know). The course is really flat and there are 3 turns, the "4th" is a wide sweeping bend in the road.

Congratulations on your upgrade! That's fantastic. I've heard that the racing is different in that it's more like racing "with the guys" = higher and steadier pace vs. the yo-yoing that goes on in women's 4 races.

High Bridge has 2 nasty climbs - not long but steep. You'll need at least a 25 if not 27 on your cassette.

Good luck with both races :)

Oh cool, nice description.

Thanks. I'm looking forward to the challenge.

Thanks for the tip about High Bridge. I'll see how my legs feel for that one.

Good luck to you, too!

Congratulations!!! You did awesome!!!! Wish I could have been there to watch!

I just found this on my PC. Post H-town.

NJBikegal smiling it up after a stinking hot race. Who knew we'd bump into each other again online?

Kristy - did you do High Bridge? If so, how was it?

I decided not to do High Bridge. If I had known about it earlier, I would've done that instead of the Watermelon.

Ah well, there's always next year.

Hilarious photo! That was really a great race...and a tough one, too! How did the Watermelon crit go? What's next on the schedule for you? You too, Equus? I'm heading to Lancaster this weekend for the Cargas Crit. I wanted to do Peiffer Hill, but it doesn't work with my busy schedule (ha!)! Sounds like a GREAT course though...really technically tough.

Watermelon Crit was OK. No one got away, so it was a sprint finish. I came in mid-pack. Small field, but all strong women.

Next up: Peiffer Hill. You know something about this course? Willing to share? ;)

This is my first year doing most of these races, so I've been getting to them super early to pre-ride the courses. Maybe next year I can sleep in. :)

I'm going to skip Cargas. Good luck! You've got a good wheel with Sally in there. Maybe we'll be hearing about a S.G. trifecta next week...?

Hello :)

Watermelon was an eventful afternoon for me. My cat 4 race was pretty comical because my brain [apparently] isn't wired for crits so I didn't know the race was over when it was because I thought we had one lap to go! :confused: Whoops :o Since there were few people in the women's open race and my teammate was whimpering, I jumped in that one too. The pace was pretty quick and the strong wind in a few sections kept me from recovering enough to do anything.

Next on my list is Housatonic Hills RR up in Conn this Sunday and then the Velocity Sports crit in south Jersey the following Sunday.

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Originally Posted by equus123

Next on my list is Housatonic Hills RR...

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Wow, that race looks fun / painful. Kick a$$!

I second Spokes on that one...ouchy! That would be fun to ride, but not so fun to race! For me, at least! :D

Good luck to you!

Kristy, Good luck at Peiffer Hill tomorrow...immerse yourself in a sea of pink! We've got a big group collected for this one! :) According to our coach, the big challenge on this race is VERY narrow roads (only about 3 riders across) and LOTS of twists and turns! I'm sure you'll have a great race! I'll be saving myself to race the big dogs in the Open Cargas Crit on Sunday! :)

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Originally Posted by NJBikeGal

Kristy, Good luck at Peiffer Hill tomorrow...immerse yourself in a sea of pink! We've got a big group collected for this one! :)

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No kidding! I was just looking at the reg list. Ten from your team?

Thanks for the tip about the course.



Oh, and re: Watermelon - I just found photos on Truesport of the Women's Cat 4 race:

http://www.truesport.com/Bike/2007/Q...lon060907.html

Sweet, thank you K! Stinks that they don't have any pix from the women's open race :(

lol, there's a picture in there of my infamous "finish" where Katherine and I are looking at each other. She's thinking, "when is this girl gonna go?!?!" meanwhile in my head "Nice, we're catching them. lalalalala I wonder if Katherine is going to take a pull now?"

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Originally Posted by NJBikeGal

According to our coach, the big challenge on this race is VERY narrow roads (only about 3 riders across) and LOTS of twists and turns!

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If that's the case - make sure you're in the front 5-10!!!! And if you have to, get to the front of the start line if you can to make sure you're in the front of the field for those narrow sections. If you get caught in the back then you're screwed if somebody attacks or the accordion effect might make it really annoying to ride back there. Do whatever you can to stay up front. Good luck!

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Originally Posted by equus123

lol, there's a picture in there of my infamous "finish" where Katherine and I are looking at each other. She's thinking, "when is this girl gonna go?!?!" meanwhile in my head "Nice, we're catching them. lalalalala I wonder if Katherine is going to take a pull now?"

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Sooo funny. I was wondering if that photo went along with your story.

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Originally Posted by equus123

If that's the case - make sure you're in the front 5-10!!!! And if you have to, get to the front of the start line if you can to make sure you're in the front of the field for those narrow sections. If you get caught in the back then you're screwed if somebody attacks or the accordion effect might make it really annoying to ride back there. Do whatever you can to stay up front. Good luck!

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Right on :cool: