Jefferson Cup

Last Saturday, Christina and I headed down to Charlottesville, VA to race Jefferson Cup. We stayed at the KOA located just minutes from the start. We were able to sleep in until the very last moment; this was especially important since it was sleeting off and on outside until about 9:00 AM. The poor guys had to race in the sleet – probably the only race where the men raced early – ha, ha!

At the race, we met Jamie from Charlottesville Fit Studio, a Wobble Naught bike fitting specialist and Vanderkitten retailer. Shortly thereafter I met my closest teammate Mandy Lozano – what a nice person! After having worked the men’s 123 race - and getting no warm-up – in addition to recently returning from Argentina for school – she raced the women’s 123 and finished with the main field. Since she raced as a collegiate rider, her results aren’t posted.

The race was fast and slow. Colovita’s Andrea Dvorak showed up to support her hometown race and to push the pace from the start. The 42 mile 4 lap course sported one large hill that offered excellent breaking opportunities. Every lap had some attacks on the hill, but no organized efforts developed so no breaks stuck. On the fourth and final lap, everyone settled in for what would surely end in a sprint finish.

I was lucky enough to find myself on Andrea’s wheel for the final run toward the finish, but got boxed in a bit right before the line by Amity Elliot of Van Dessel who was later relegated to 21^st. HPC’s Lorena Canadrian found an open lane and came by on the right to take the win. Laura Cook of Conte’s TriPower took second, Leslie Jennings of CycleLife was third, I was fourth and HPC’s Kate Flore rounded out the podium with fifth. All in all, it was a really good race, it’s still early in the season, but this was definitely a good start to what should promise to be a great season – thanks Mandy for all your help with organizing Jeff Cup and getting back into the racing scene! Go Kitty-Kats!