Annie Fulton Snelling Report

This is the race that got Annie her upgrade and invite to the Bridge team...figured i would share for posterity.

Snelling Road Race, Women Cat4
1st of 50
2/21/2009
Teammates: Ashleigh Jackson

I've been excited about this race for a while for a couple of reasons: it's
a road race (enough crits!), and there was a full field of 50 (not to
mention another full B field). Snelling, however, is a "C" race for me, so
I had not tapered and was honestly a bit fatigued going in due to a nasty
combination of hiking and strength training on the Thursday before. I
headed out to the race early to get in a solid warm up and be as primed as
possible for the 35 miles ahead.

Within the first 5 minutes of arriving, I was approached by a team in my
field who first notified me that I was marked and asked if I would like to
take part in a breakaway with them. I was a bit taken aback (albeit
flattered), but listened to what they had to say and decided that if it
worked out, sure I'd go in a breakaway with them. My experience with
pre-planned breakaways is that they rarely work and that you really have to
think on your toes.

The first two of three laps of the race were fairly uneventful, save for a
rather large crash that took out several riders behind me. I kept my eyes
open for strong riders, and found a woman who I new was strong. Half way
through the last lap, she and I attacked after a sharp turn. We took turns
pulling, but were eventually caught by more riders. We had a breakaway
going, but no one would pull their weight. I attempted to get a double pace
line going, but didn't work (I made no friends here ;)). The effort wasn't
completely in vain, the field was whittled away to a mere 12.

I sat in for the remainder of the lap, concentrating on staying towards the
front. I had been warned that some anxious riders would start the sprint
before the last turn into the finishing straight away, and the prediction
proved true. I let them go and headed into the last turn around 5th. I
decided to wait a bit before sprinting, but when a lot of girls started
passing me, I decided to gas it. I executed a very McEwen inpsired final
sprint and maneuvered my way through the field to victory!

The points won in the race now qualify me to upgrade to Cat3, which is
really the icing on the cake. I've had a great time racing with Cat4s and
have met a lot of amazing women. I look forward to taking the next step in
racing as a Cat3 :)

Anne Fulton
Bates College '08

http://anniefulton.wordpress.com/