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

USA, June 8- 18, 2000

Stage 9 - June 16: Mountain Home Air Force Base Road Race, 71.5 mi/114.4 km

Anna Wilson's report

Today finally the winds dropped and the course was pretty flat and it was actually pleasant sitting in the bunch for a change. In fact, it was a little too easy in the bunch and so despite many attacks, the bunch remained intact to the finish line. Petra did her best to help me in the sprint but the legs weren't too zippy today! Ina easily took the victory from Ziliute and then me.

So GC basically unchanged. Tomorrow we race a 50km criterium and in the past it has caused some big upsets on GC so we are hoping for a miracle! I only need to take a lap on Ziliute...

Karen Kurreck's report

Mother nature finally had some mercy and the wind died down today. We did a 65 mile loop starting and ending in the town of Mountain Home and then finished with 6 laps of a small circuit on the air force base there. It was by no means an easy day though. Timex was aggressive from the gun and Sanna and Odessa attacked relentlessly all day long. Autotrader was also aggressive and so were many other teams. I tried attacking myself a few times and covered everything I could and was in a number of short lived breaks.

There were 2 climbs, but they were wide open and fairly shallow so they didn't split the field at all. It seemed like the line would break sometime and something would get away, but I think the pace was just so high the whole time and we had a tailwind the last 30km or so and so nothing stuck.

Entering the base, there was a group with a slight gap and as they got caught, someone countered, I followed and we suddenly had a break. It was a group with some serious horsepower: Ina, Dede, Diana, Anna, Sanna and myself. Ina was really driving and took some incredibly strong pulls and sometimes it was all I could do to hold her wheel. With 2 laps to go, we had 30 sec. on the chasing field and I thought we could make it. It was windy and everyone was working. It wasn't to be, however. 1 lap later, the field was together again and Ina still had the strength to win the field sprint over Diana and Anna.

GC didn't change, but Sarah Ulmer took over the sprint jersey from Nicole Freedman.

Andrea Ratkovic's report

Today was nicer than usual in that the wind had died down considerably from the previous days. I was still feeling puny from some stomach virus I've had since two nights ago and also those darn monthly woman cramps! Yesterday was horrid for me, but somehow by the grace of God I stayed in the winning break up until about 10K to go, and I finished about a minute back in 12th.

Today I didn't do any attacking much to my despair because I LOVE attacking, but instead my teammates and I hopped on attacks by the ever active Timex, 800.com, and P&G teams. Pam and Julie attacked numerous times, and it looked as though their breaks might have stayed away, but people from various teams were chasing everything down. In fact, one time Pam and I were in a break together as we were yesterday, but unfortunately it didn't stick. Tina made a good attack and was off for awhile, and Kimberly made an attack in an attempt to bridge to Cheryl Binney of P&G. Eventually, the pack just caught up - again.

AutoTrader.com and Timex were by far the most aggressive teams of the day, and Andrea Foster of 800.com was also very aggressive. P&G did their part as well. Elita tried to get some things going as well but mainly were opportunists. They are very strong and certainly weren't afraid of a field sprint with Sarah Ulmer and Erin Carter in there.

There were 2 very serious crashes. One occured over a cattle guard, and Jen Dial was the most severely injured. As of now I don't know if her jaw is broken, but I do know that her front teeth went through her front lip, and her bike was in half! Seven people went down then, but I don't know who the other 6 were. Later on when Pam and I were in that break I heard a crash behind Petra who was right behind me, and it turned out that Kori Kelly from P&G and Erin Carter of Elita went down. I'm not sure why, but Erin ended up catching on to the pack later only to pass out after the race, and she was taken to the base hospital. Kori finished back and looked okay when I saw her later. Poor Daphne Wilhelm of P&G finished WAY back due to a SLOW wheel change after she got a flat, so she didn't make the time cut which sucks because she's a really strong rider.

DeDe Demet was on fire today as we entered the base for our final 4 small (approx. 1.5 miles each) circuits. DeDe had fired off some attacks earlier in the race as is customary of her style, but she really let it rip on the base. She was in a break with Anna Wilson and Karen Kurreck and some others, and she was just motoring! Lara Ruthven of the National Team got to the front and started pulling them back, and then I pulled our sprinter, Tina, up to the break. Well, there went DeDe on the attack again, and Karen followed, but I couldn't respond after my effort and Tina didn't either, and eventually it all came together.

The last thing I saw was Tracey Gaudry taking a flier which was on the last lap I believe, and Julie was trying to keep Tina towards the front, but things were really sketchy, so it was tough for Tina to mauever. Then Jeanne Longo motored up around the pack, and I jumped on her wheel which took everything I had. That woman is SO STRONG. She took me to about 10th place with about 600 meters to go, but it was in a headwind, and I faded as Diana Ziliute blew by and then Elizabeth Emery and Nicole Freedman (who got 5th - yeah Nicole!), and I think Sarah Ulmer was in there as well and Anna Wilson, and all I saw was Ina throwing up her hands in victory. I finished 24th. Jeez, so that means a buttload of people went by!

Well, my stomach was taking up a lot of mind space, so I don't recall everything. Hopefully I'll get to feeling better. This virus has been annoying for me as it has severely cut into my playing time! My team is doing well, though, and we are jacked to get a stage win. We think this will be the only way for Mike to keep his hair.

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