17th Hewlett Packard LaserJet International Women's Challenge - 2.9.1

USA, June 8- 18, 2000

Stage 4 - June 11: Rupert - Pomerelle Road Race, 56.4 mi/90.2 km

Anna Wilson's report

Today was a big day - only 90km stage but finishing with a 20 km climb to 2000 metres. We expected Jeannie Longo to make an all out effort today to take over the lead of the tour but she had to make up over 3 minutes on Ziliute to do that. I expected to lose time to both Longo and Ziliute but I hoped to minimise the loss as much as possible.

The day started pretty slowly with everyone tired from the previous days of racing and waiting for the climb. Then, at the 30 km mark there was a massive crash. It took down the race leader Diana Ziliute and it also took down two of our Saturn riders - Lyne Bessette and Susy Pryde. Petra Rossner immediately went back to help our two riders to get back to the bunch while Dede Clara and I remained in the front group, hoping to keep the pace controlled. For a little while everyone rode slowly to allow the unfortunate crash victims to return to the pack but then there was an intermediate sprint and the pace picked right up. In my radio I could hear Petra talking to Lyne and Susy and to our team director and it sounded like it was incredibly difficult to get back on. With a bit of assistance from the car, they finally made it back to the bunch. We found out later that Susy had a broken rib but at the time she was full of adrenaline and only noticed a dull pain in her side.

Soon enough we hit the climb and luckily for me it was a block headwind at the start of the climb so it was pretty easy sitting on and really tough at the front. So I made it to the 10 km to go mark without any problems. Then we turned left and had shelter from the wind and Jeannie Longo attacked twice and that was enough to totally split the bunch. Longo set off on a solo pilgrimage to the top. I think Jolanta Polikevicuite could have climbed with her but Diana Ziliute wasn't able to and so Jolanta came back to help Diana get to the top as fast as possible. I was in the next group on the road, struggling to close the gap to the lead group when Lyne came past me. The road flattened out just for a moment and Lyne was able to get me back to the front group on the flatter part. Jolanta was setting tempo for Ziliute on the front, trying to minimise the loss to Longo and I was doing my best to hang on the back.

Our group contained 9 riders - Jolanta and Diana from Lithuania, Judith Arndt, Trixi Worrack and one other German rider, Mari Holden and Kim Smith for Timex, Lyne and myself for Saturn and Juanita Feldhahn for Australia. I was counting down the kilometres, wondering how long I could keep up the tempo. I survived until 2 km to go and then surges from the German team were too much for me and I started losing touch. Juanita also went off the back at that point. Lyne came back to help me out and she paced me until 1 km to go and then I went as hard as I could to the line.

Jeannie Longo ended up winning by 2 and a half minutes from a group of five riders containing Ziliute. I finished a further 30 seconds back. So Ziliute held on to her leaders jersey but Longo is now in second place only 23 seconds behind. Kim Smith is in 3rd place, 1 min 16 back and I am in 4th place, 1 min 32 seconds back.

Tomorrow is a 26 km time trial so I am hoping for a good one to ride myself back into the top 3.

Tracey Gaudry's report

After a very late dinner, and a restless night up in the loft of our condo, I still felt ok this morning as we drove the two hours to the start of the stage. The distance was somewhat shorter than last year, around 90km, but the finish would still decided the race. An 11km climb at 7-8 percent grade the whole way. This stage was marred by severe and unnecessary crashes in last year's crosswinds so there was no doubt about where we would place ourselves in the peleton. Even up the front things were sketchy, with riders cutting across the front of the bunch instead of riding past the front and moving across. Usually these are the ones that stay upright while the field crashes behind them! This happened once or twice, and so most of Timex revolved up the front to keep the pace high and out of trouble.

About 30km into the race, the inevitable happened - a huge crash in the middle of the field, bringing down around 25 riders and stopping everyone behind them! Luckily only Sanna was caught behind the pileup, with none of our team injured. There were broken collarbones, broken ribs, concussion, plus every type of wound, cuts, bruises, contusions possible. The field professionally rode tempo at 40km/h because so many teams had 'damaged' riders and after 15km, most had rejoined the race. We reached the first QOM as a bunch, and then the 'race real' began. I remembered that left hand turn onto the main climb only too well from last year. Again the hammer went down right from the start. For most of us, the way to the top was purely a matter of survival and pacing oneself the best you could. While I piano-ed up the climb, losing about nine minutes, Longo attacked the whole group right at the start. She rode solo for the whole 11km up to the finish, flogging the rest of the best climbers by more than two and a half minutes. She is now only a few seconds behind Ziliute in the quest for overall GC.

Kim had a stellar climb to come in with Ziliute, Jolanta Polikeviciute and a few others, finishing 4th in the stage and moving up to 3rd overall. Mari was only a few seconds behind in another small bunch, Anna Wilson and Juanita Feldhahn up there also. Tomorrow's time trial is going to be very important for many riders.

Autotrader.com report

The AutoTrader.com team started out really well today and positioned ourselves towards the front so that we'd be able to cover any attacks. Since Pam was sitting in 4th we certainly didn't want anything getting away especially since there was a 10K climb at the end of the 58-mile race. Andrea made the first attack into the wind with Odessa Gunn of Timex. The break was short-lived, though, as Sarah Ulmer of Elita and others pulled the break back. Last year Andrea attacked early and stayed away almost the entire race, but there was none of that to be had this time - she is no longer an unknown!

The race was relatively flat and windy until the climb, and during one section the road was pretty torn up. Julie had just covered some very dangerous attacks, so Pam called for the team to come to the front and make their presence known. So, we did. Shortly thereafter there was a huge and devastating crash in which both Tina and Pam were casualties. Laura dropped back and helped to bring them back up to the pack, and Mike instructed them in the caravan. Kimberly, Julie, and Andrea went to the front of the pack in an attempt to slow the tempo down. Saturn helped in this effort as most of their riders were also caught in or behind the crash that took out or slowed down many. Pam's elbow was really bloody, and Tina was badly bruised, but they kept on truckin'.

Andrea went to the front at the base of the climb and attempted to ride away with Cybil Diguistini of Elita. Soon, however, came Jeannie Longo and Diana Zilute and a host of other top GC riders. Julie went with those top riders and made an awesome effort to stay in a great group. Andrea hung back with Pam who was having a hard time because of earlier efforts and her crash. Andrea eventually bridged to Julies' group at Mike's request, and Tina and Kimberly stuck by Pam up the climb. Jeannie won the stage by over 2 minutes, and Julie's group finished over 4 minutes back in about 15th place with Andrea about 30 seconds behind that in about 18th. Kimberly, Tina, and Pam came in shortly thereafter. Laura arrived later exhausted from her hard work yesterday in the circuit race and also from her effort today to help bring Tina and Pam back.

We really stuck together today as our team always does, and we were happy with our fighting spirit. It is a LONG race, and we are looking forward to the days left. Anything can happen, and we are hoping the dice will start rolling our way.

Karen Kurreck's report

It is hard to believe we are only on stage 4! There hasn't been an easy day yet and GC is still changing. There were several errors on the results of last nights circuit race regarding who was or wasn't lapped. It was an official's nightmare! The front group passed a large group of lapped riders in the final sprint. Normally, since it was an uphill finish and everyone was separated, there would have been time gaps but because the lapped riders were mixed in with the sprinting riders, there was no way to sort it out and everyone in the front group was given my time.

Today was the main climbing stage of the race with a hilltop finish at the 7800 ft ski resort of Pomerelle. This is my least favorite kind of racing: long climbs at altitude...This was basically the last day for the climbers to make their mark on GC so I knew it would be hard. The first 40 miles were flat and then there was a 4 mile climb to the first mountain sprint and a short flat/slightly downhill section and the final climb was 7 miles of 6-7% grade.

There were 2 hot spot sprints on the flat section and it is amazing how long and fast the windups for these are. There is also a 3 sec. time bonus on all of the hotspot and mountain sprints. 3 sec. isn't much in an 11 day stage race, but they are hotly contested anyway. Nicole Freedman took the first sprint. Between the 2 sprints, there was huge crash that took down prbably 20 riders. I all of a sudden saw bikes and riders piling up in front of me and landed on the top of the pile. The hardest part was finding my bike again and digging it out of the huge mass of bikes, wheels and bodies. Everyone got up except German Tina Liebig who broke her collarbone. I had a few other riders to chase with including Gina who went down also and waited for me. Luckily we made it back to the pack just before it started winding up for the 2nd sprint.

The Germans were setting tempo at the front leading into the climbs. On the first climb, we had a stiff headwind which I was thankful for as it kept the climbers in check. Unfortunately, we turned for the final climb so it was only a cross wind. Longo went right from the bottom and only Jolanta Polikevichuite could follow and she could only follow for a little while. Longo won the stage solo by 2:44 at the top.

For awhile I followed Kim Smith's wheel on the back of 6-7 riders including Lyne Bessette and some others. After a mile or so, they upped the pace just a hair a bit to catch Anna Wilson who was coming off the next group and I couldn't hold on. I recovered a bit and was caught from behind by Julie Young, Sandy Espeseth, Catherine Cardwell, Zita Urbonite and eventually Clara Hughes. I was looking around for Lara to see if she was chasing close behind and needed help, but I never saw her. It turned out that she blew fairly early and Rene caught her and paced her all the way to the finish.

My group rode together for a long time and were caught by a larger group from behind including the Young Rider jersey leader, Ceris Gilifillan, Dede Demet-Barry, Rasa Polikevichuite and others. It was hard, but I felt like I was within myself until about 2km to go when either the pace picked up a tad or the altitude really got to me but in any case, I blew and slowly came off that group. So did some others later though, and I caught them at the finish. I think I was also bonking slightly by the end. I ate 2 PowerGels the first half of the race and drank 2 bottles of carbo mix, but I guess it wasn't enough. 1pm starts are hard - we had breakfast and then just snacked on bars and fruit on the 2 hr drive to the start. I think the real problem though was not eating enough dinner last night. It was a late night especially after the wards ceremony which was delayed due to the complicated results and I didn't have time to go find a restaurant so I just had my teammate Leah bring me back a sandwich when she went to eat. I ate that and snacked on some food I had with me, but I woke up at 5am starving and had to make myself a recovery drink. That is the thing about stage racing - you always have to eat for the next day even when you don't feel like it.

Karen's and Autotrader.com reports courtesy of racereport@vcnet.com