Wed. May 16/07 - Team R.A.C.E. Women's Road team on the podium!

This weekend marked the start of the road racing season for the TeamR.A.C.E. Women's road team. Celeste Merey, Diana Joness, and I raced in Brockville at the Brockville Road Race for Habitat. The race is held on a 9.6 kilometer flat- to- rolling circuit and starts in the small town, Lyn, Ontario. We did 8 laps for a total of 78 km.

The race went off in 3 waves, and the senior women were grouped with various senior and masters men's categories. There were a total of 64 riders in our field, 25 of them women.



There were many breakaway attempts including a valiant effort by Diana, but nothing was able to stay away in the windy conditions. The race organizers had some organizational issues, and our group had to restart the race after one lap because we were catching the group in front of us! Also, when the Senior 1-2 Men's group passed us, there was a major mixing of categories, as noone could tell who was in what group. Miraculously, we all got sorted out on the last lap and our group finished together.

New to the Team R.A.C.E. Women's team this year is Senior 3 rider Celeste Merey. Celeste had a great day and pushed herself to hang in with the main pack of riders for 5 laps. Way to go Celeste! Watch for Celeste to come on strong as the season progresses.

Diana and I were in the main pack going into the last lap. With 3 kilometres to go, there was a crash that took Diana down. She picked herself up and managed to finish solo, 1:33 behind the group in 12th place. Until this point, Diana was feeling great and was hoping for a strong finish.

I got stuck behind some tired riders going into the sprint and had to go wide into the crosswind to make up a gap. Despite this, I managed to finish 2nd in the women's category and 2nd out the entire group of 64.

Next up for the women's team: Diana will be racing at the "Niagara Classic Road Race" this weekend in Pelham, Ontario. Then on May 26 and 27, Diana, Celeste and I will be heading to Syracuse, NY for the "Syracuse Race Weekend" stage race.

Full results from all categories can be found here: http://www.ontariocycling.org/web_pages/results/brockvilleresults_2.htm