NEBC Women’s Report: Concord Criterium
August 18, 2011 By Julianne
Jacqueline Zider
Saturday we had a strong participation by NEBC women at the Concord Crit. It was fun to see two others that I would do the 1/2/3 race with, and several women that would be in the 4s race. However, the Sunapee women showed up with 5 women out of the 14 starters in the 1/2/3 race, so unfortunately it wouldn’t be a day for any other team to do much but hang in. A few of us from the other teams discussed how we could help each other and defend ourselves against Sunapee, but we knew it would be tough. The course was technical – 6 corners – which I really liked. It made it a little sketchy though at times as some riders were tentative and swirly. Unfortunately, one rider even went down.
Sort of as expected, Sunapee had one of its riders jump off the front a few laps in, while the rest of the women on her team blocked (i.e., refused to do any work to bridge the gap). It wasn’t a long gap – only about 15 seconds – but with only a handful of us in the chase group trying to bridge up to her, we didn’t stand a chance. Eventually, we slowed down a bit and hung in. I stayed in the pack and was at the front going into the second to last lap and two of the Sunapee riders attacked. I knew better than to be at the front at that point in the race, but my adrenaline got the best of me. I hung in until the end and managed a 7th place finish, which actually put me as 3rd place in the 23-29 age category for the Atlantic region 
Overall, I was pleased to hang in with the group because it helped show me I can hang with the 2s (turns out I was the first Cat 3 across the line!). Hoping to put in for an upgrade soon here, so this race helped a bit with the confidence for that.
Marissa Acosta
Race report: Concord Criterium 8/6/11 Cat 4 Women’s race, 6th place
I really enjoyed this course. It was the most technical crit I had done so far. It had 6 corners, including a tight uphill right turn and a two corners in a row that made for a hairpin turn. Before the race, teammate Jackie Zider had warned us to watch our positions for the tight uphill right turn. Megan Graham and I had seen an accident/pileup on that very corner for a previous race so I made sure to stay in front when taking that corner when I was actually with the pack. For about one third of the race we had a pack that stayed together. Then an attack splintered the group. I did my best to stay with the people at the front but I was not as fit as they were. So for the rest of the race I worked with a rider from Team Elevate. We eventually caught up to a tired rider from Blue Steel Cyclery and worked with her as well. We followed the Team Elevate rider through the downhill parts, including the hairpin turn, and I’d pull them up the false flat. Guess we helped the Blue Steel Cyclery rider recover enough that she was able to attack during the last hairpin turn. Surprise! I should have been more alert and less naive, since I thought she would stay with me and the Team Elevate rider. I was too late to counterattack so I stayed with the Team Elevate rider until the final turn then sprinted past her to the finish.
Lesson learned for next race: Just because a rider seems tired, don’t assume he/she won’t be able to attack later on. Because I had worked with those 2 riders I was able to ride conservatively throughout the race. I definitely had the energy to sprint hard, but I didn’t react soon enough to the 5th place rider’s attack. Heads up for next time.
Facilities report: 3 Portapotties in a row not too far from the registration desk. Location not bad, but ugh, portapotties. 3.0 out of 5 stars.
Megan Graham
After flatting during warm-up about 30 minutes before the whistle, running about a half mile to my car (because of course I had already removed my tire change supplies from my bike), and trying to get in a decent warm-up in the ten minutes I had left, I wasn’t feeling very confident at the start line. My legs trembled and my hands visibly shook; an experience I hadn’t had yet at the start of a race. I kept reminding myself that safety was more important than doing well, especially on a course like this one, with six corners including a downhill hairpin. My nerves caused me to put myself in a horrible position going into every corner—toward the back of the field. I got pushed back more and more at every corner, but I couldn’t make myself trust everyone else to hold their lines (I should have remembered I could avoid cornering with the pack by being in the front as well, OOPS). So after about four or five laps, the field started to break up. I assumed I was toward the back half of my field, but it was difficult to tell. I spent a while time-trialing, and getting some great practice cornering by myself until sometime around lap 7 there was a crash directly in front of me on the hairpin. I almost went down as well but managed to glide in between two orange cones onto the sidewalk instead. As soon as I looked over and saw the woman who crashed laying down in the street in tears, I knew I couldn’t leave her, so I hopped off my bike and helped her get out of the street. She was too banged up to get back on her bike so I stayed with her until an official came and we all walked back to the starting line together. Although I’m upset at having DNFed, I don’t have any regrets. Leaving her alone would felt much worse. There’s always next year, right?
