Première course au Québec de la saison! Critérium CUCC 2012

Je suis de retour au Québec dépuis une semaine, et après un peu de repos, et quelques entraîments de qualité, (et une super ride dans le Parc de la Mauricie!) j'ai fait ma première course au Québec cette année!


La journée de course CUCC organisée par l'Université McGill s'est commencée avec une course d'introduction pour débutants et débutantes avec un départ neutre de 10 minutes suivi par 20 minutes de course.  J'ai beaucoup aimé voir les gens qui vennaient essayer faire de la compétition de vélo pour la première fois, et je suis contente que les organisateurs de la course ont décidé d'offrir cet occasaion aux gens. 

Après avoir fait un ou deux tours sur le circuit de course pour bien connaître le parcours et pour évaluer les meilleurs places pour lancer des attaques, je me suis rechauffée sur mon Kinetic Rock and Roll avant le critérium CUCC à Montréal le 12 mai, 2012.

Grace à un peu de stratégie et de la tenacité, il y a eu du Orange Optum (Optum Pro Cycling presented by Kelly Benefit Strategies) sur la première marche du podium!  Mission accomplie.

Podium Senior F, Critérium CUCC 2012

Prochaine course: Grand Prix Cycliste Gatineau, 21 mai.  Une course UCI, ou les meilleures du monde seront présentes.  À ne pas manquer!  Venez voir l'équipe Optum Pro Cycling presented by Kelly Benefit Strategies!

Sunny King Criterium 2012

Optum's set-up before the Sunny King Criterium

 Optum Pro Cycling raced the NCC Sunny King Criterium in downtown Anniston Alabama, with live coverage from every corner of the course as well as the start-finish line.  Every time I bust it around a corner on my HED wheels, I feel like I've got confidence and control on my side thanks to the way my Champion Tires grip the road surface.  They're the best tires I've ridden in my life, and they make crits like Sunny King that much more fun to race.

After several attacks and counter attacks there was one break that ultimately stayed away.  Jade, Emma and Annie (half of the team) rode the break while Courteney, Anna and I did what we could to manage the peloton.  We scored one prime in the pack and Annie brought one home from the break.

Although the break came dangerously close to being reeled in, the girls in the peloton just couldn't seem to get the job done, which is what we wanted.

Philip Darden 2012

Jade just barely missed the victory but landed on the second step of the podium thanks to some excellent Optum teamwork.  Next race: Foothills Road Race

Presbyterian Hospital Invitational Criterium

Two days after my 25th birthday I got hit with the flu.  It's been going around like wildfire in my part of the country.  I upped my nap quota to 3 or 4 a day, kept my legs spinning only easy, and hoped and wished to get over it as fast as possible. I only have a tenacious chest cold left to kick now, and I'm convinced it's on it's way out.  Flying from Québec, QC to Charlotte, NC I was understandably iritable.  So when a security agent asked me  how old I was, I wasn't going to tell him for nothing.  I asked why he wanted to know.  Completely serious he responded that because if I was under 12 years old, I didn't have to take my shoes off and put them on the belt.

I raced the Presbyterian Hospital Invitational Criterium in Charlotte, NC with 5 teammates.  There are huge cash prizes, great primes, a big, energetic crowd of supporters, and a pretty fun race course with 8 "on-the-tight-side" corners.

I was hacking up phlegm over myself for the race, determined to participate.  And it was definitely good for the morale.  Jade busted off the front solo, she scored some intermediate sprint primes too, Anna chased down an early break with everything she had, Annie and Emma stayed up near the front on guard, Courtney put in some crazy hard efforts.  Jade finished 4th overall.

I like this crit a lot and I want to come back next year in full health.

After the race we watched the United Heathcare men's team control the men's 80km criterium, which was an impressive show.  The Optum Pro Cycling boys were not here because they're racing the Battenkill UCI race.

We're off to Asheville NC, where we'll ride the Blue Ridge Parkway (my favorite road south of the Parc de la Mauricie) for a week or so, before heading to the Sunnyking crit in Alabama.