Vanderkitten recently hit two key stops on the team's calendar: Tulsa Tough and the Philadelphia Liberty Classic. We took the trips with Michael Hernandez, and were later joined by his lady Sabine in Philly. Michael bravely took on director/mechanic duties with us, and he did an amazing job of getting our bikes running smooth and keeping us calm and stress-free in the days, hours, and minutes leading up to Philly. Michael took care of every detail, and I cannot thank him enough for his leadership!
Our hosts in West Chester were very wizzelcoming.
Philly...it was a hot one lemme tell ya! I missed my feed on the last lap (painful) but managed to "borrow" one of Mel's bottles for utter survival. We snaked our way through the field, muscled up the wall four times, and managed to stay with some key groups all the way to the finish. On the last lap we were all together - the peloton had brought back Kristin Armstrong, who was on an early solo break. As it usually plays out, it came down to Lemon Hill on the last lap.
Perfect timing! Getting ready to miss my feed.
(Thanks for the photo, Sabine!)
A group of 5 broke away on Lemon Hill, which contained eventual race-winner Chantal Beltman (High Road). Coming off Lemon Hill on the sweeping right and left turns back to Kelly Drive, the field was fully strung out. I took the inside lines and tried to jump up to the front with our sprinter Melissa on my wheel. By this point, Chantal had broken away by herself, so 4 were left in the group. I chased the group of 4 until they were reabsorbed back into our group. I was gassed at this point, but when I saw that Mel had been shuffled and was no longer on my wheel, I got back in, Mel and I found each other, and I tried to recover for the finish.
Lemon Hill is deceivingly far from the finish, and people forget this, even after going around the thing 4 times. Good for my recovery at this particular moment, bad for girls who try to go too early! Anyway, Mel and I moved our way inside the roundabout and up the pack to the finishing straight. With about 200 meters to go, there was a pretty big crash in the middle of the field that took out a ton of girls, including Flavia. Mel and I moved left and avoided the carnage, finishing 18th and 19th respectively. Philly was one of Mel's key races, and I wish I could've done more for her at the finish. Guess that's racing, and we just have to learn from the experience...and Philly is Philly!
In other "Vander-news" we also did the Tulsa Tough series previous to Philly week. After our consistent top finishes, Vanderkitten currently sits 1st in the USA Crit Series team standings, and 2nd in the individual standings (Jennifer "Wheels" Wilson). We're really excited to hold this place, and are looking forward to defending the position for the duration of the series, which finishes at Interbike in Las Vegas.
Apparently this is normal in Tulsa?
This however...is not.
Photo Courtesy of Taos Action Photos
Next stop: Austin, TX (USA Crit series)
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