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

USA, June 8- 18, 2000

Stage 8 - June 15: Payette Valley - Firebird Raceway Road Race, 79.4 mi/127 km

Anna Wilson's report

Today was a totally different day. We raced 128kms, firstly 3 laps around a 30km loop and then we headed towards the finish with one climb to tackle with 12 kms to go. The wind was fierce and once over the first hill of the day, all hell broke loose as riders attacked in the cross winds. A group of 13 formed and once they all committed to working, there was no bringing them back. We were really happy with the group as it contained 3 Saturn riders - Dede, Clara and Petra. The best rider on general classification in the group was British rider Ceris Gilfillan, about 8 minutes down. Clara was the second best about 20 seconds behind Ceris.

At first it seemed like a pipe dream to think they could take 8 minutes but as our group stalled in the winds and the front group all started working together, the gap went out to 4 minutes in only about 20 kms. This caused a sudden panic from the Lithuanian team, who has Diana Ziliute in the leader's jersey. They began chasing as hard as they could and they also convinced Jeannie Longo to help them in the chase. So it was Zita Urbonaite, Jolanta Polikevicuite, Diana Ziliute and Jeannie Longo chasing with me sitting on.

I thought I had an easy job until the Lithuanian trio started hammering into the cross winds, leaving no room for me on their leeward side. After struggling in the gutter for about 15 kms I got enough breath to glance behind me and realised that the chase group had totally shattered. Only 4 riders had managed to hang onto the Lithuanian chase. I was there along with Judith Arndt of Germany, Sarah Symington of Great Britain and Marcia Vouets of Switzerland. We hit the last climb of the day and I knew Longo was going to attack. She launched with about 1 km to go to the top of the climb and Ziliute went with her. So over the top I had to chase to hold onto my second place overall. I had a bit of help from Judith and Sarah and we regrouped and finished together.

In the front group, there were attacks from Tracey Gaudry and Dede Demet but Ina Teutenberg was able to hold things together and took out the sprint to win the stage. She was a pretty popular winner because that is the third day she has been in a long long breakaway and finally it has paid off for her. The break took 4 minutes out of the chase group in the end so that has catapulted Clara into 5th place, now only 4 minutes 11 seconds behind the lead. So the tour is closing up as it nears its end - should be an exciting finish! I am still in second place, 1 minute and 36 seconds off the lead. Three days left to try and snatch the lead from Ziliute!

Karen Kurreck's report

We had yet another day of 80 miles in the wind today. At least the first 60 miles or so were laps of a 20 mile circuit so we had some tailwind for the first time. The course was supposedly designed to be similar to the Olympic course in Sydney, but the wind and the fact that we are 8 days into a stage race made it a very different race than an Olympic RR would be, I think.

The first QOM was at mile 6 and as soon as we regrouped after the sprint, the attacks started. Pam Schuster made a strong attack and Dede Demet Barry went after her and I went after Dede. A few others came along and then Lara bridged up with another group. The last 2 to bridge were Petra Rossner and Ina Teutenberg, making a total of 14: Dede, Petra and Clara from Saturn, Lara and I from the national team, Tracey Gaudry from Timex, Zita Urbonite, Ciris Gilliflan, Vera Hohfeld, Pam and Andrea from Autotrader, Ina, Juanita Feldhahn and Sara Ulmer.

Most of the strong teams were represented and we started gaining time pretty fast. Zita, Tracey and Vera started sitting on. Petra was keeping everyone else in order and making sure we were smooth and striking fear in the heart of anyone who tried to skip a pull. It was hard, but because everyone was working really well together, nobody had to kill themselves. By 25 miles or so, our gap had grown to 4:40. After that, it started to slowly come down to about 3:45 where it pretty much hovered for the rest of the race. Apparrantly the pack was completely shattered behind us and our gap was to a group of 7-8 riders, led by Longo and the Lithuanians protecting their leader's jersey. Anna Wilson was also in this group. Zita dropped off our group to help the chase group behind.

After we finished the circuits, we hit a tailwind section and we really worked to bring the gap back up. I heard someone behind me lose their breakfast! With 20km to go, Tracey Gaudry attacked. Nobody went after her as there was still a lot of headwind to go and we were still rotating through together. Tracey's gap hovered between 30 and 40 sec. and drove us to keep the pace up. There was a climb with 10 miles to go and we kept a steady pace up it as well. Pretty much everyone in the group had a lot to gain in GC and as a steady group we knew we could make much more time. Plus there was 10km of stiff headwind after the top of the climb. I actually heard someone wheezing most of the way up the climb and it wasn't me!

Tracey was well within our sights after the climb and we caught her with about 3-4km to go. Lara counterattacked and got a bit of a gap but was caught. I countered her attack and only Dede came with me. We worked together but were caught as we entered the Firebird car raceway where we did 1 lap to the finish. With about 1km to go, Dede attacked and got a gap. Tracey went after her and Ina went after Tracey. I went after Ina but I was about 2 bike lengths off and I just couldn't close the gap. Ina caught and passed Dede and Tracey to take the stage win over Tracey. I ended up 9th.

Our group was almost 4 min. ahead of Longo's group and 7 1/2 min. ahead of the next group. The top 3 GC spots remained intact, but there were lots of changes in the top 15. Lara and I moved up to 8th and 9th. Ceris moved up to 4th and Clara to 5th.

Karen's report courtesy of racereport@vcnet.com